The conference was co-chaired by Prof., Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Permanent Vice Chairman of the National Steering Board for compilation of the Vietnamese encyclopedic dictionary, Head of the Project on the encyclopedia, President of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics; Prof., Dr. Nguyen Quang Thuan,Vice Chairman of the National Steering Board, President of VASS; and Prof., Dr. Chau Van Minh, President of Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. The conference participants were scientists – members of the National Steering Board, the Board Chairman of the Project, Secretariat, Office of the Project on compilation of the Vietnam encyclopedia, representatives of 36 compiler groups (including team leaders and secretaries); delegates from central organisations and authorities.
Delivering his welcome and introductory speech to the conference, Prof., Dr Nguyen Xuan Thang stated that the compiler groups of the Project were established and began their operations. He said, the National Steering Board and the Board Chairman promulgated statutes for organisation and operation of the bodies implementing the Project, including the statute for organisation and operation of the compiler groups. These statutes, which have clear regulations on functions, missions and authorities assigned to the bodies, are subject to further amendments during the implementation of the Project in the coming time.
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The Board Chairman of the Project has issued guidelines and conducted missions in order to complete a “Handbook for compilers of the Vietnam encyclopedia’’ which is useful for compilation. This covers general issues, consistency principles for compilation of volumes of the encyclopedia. For example, the handbook sets out regulations on the structures of volumes – macrostructure and microstructure, types of words at various length (short, medium, long and very long), gathering lists of typical words; rules for Vietnamese dictation; rules for phonetic pronunciation in translating foreign languages into Vietnamese; rules for phonetics in translating minority languages into standardized Vietnamese, and so on. This handbook will be soon published and sent to all the scientists who have contributions to compilation of the Vietnam encyclopedia. Therefore, it can be said that the ‘legal framework’ was firmly shaped, enabling the concerned parties to undertake the project in the coming years.
The National Steering Board will grasp thoroughly worldviews of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thoughts in compiling the encyclopedia; stick to dialectical materialism and historical materialism in collecting, selecting, assessing events and documents; respect the democratic principle in scientific research; maintain the objective attitudes when introducing knowledge about culture and sciences. For controversial academic issues, it has been agreed that the compilers should reflect different theories fully and objectively. The Vietnam encyclopedia should feature Vietnamese characteristics and identity, placing emphasis on the introduction of historical and cultural heritages, scientific, technical and technological achievements, as well as all political, economic aspects of the country.
Until now, many compiler groups have completed their initial assignments by submitting the brief report on the planning of compilation to achieve desired goals, titled ‘Research for developing the outline of professional volumes’. 30 out of 37 compiler groups submitted to the Board Chairman of the Project their brief report on the planning of compilation, budget estimate and the list of scientists who are expected to be involved in reviewing and approval of the report.
Each compiler group will be assigned the task of compiling a volume containing professional contents in a particular area. The Vietnam encyclopedia composes of 37 volumes, each of which has an equal number of pages (about 1,500-2,000 pages), divided into 2,000-2,500 words categorized by topic (possibly resulting in 6,000 draft pages in A4 size). Lessons and experience from countries, which have a long and well-known tradition of producing world-class encyclopedias, such as France, the UK, USA, Russia, China, and others, will be drawn and taken into account in the process of compiling the Vietnam encyclopedia. On the basis of inheriting vast knowledge enshrined in famous encyclopedias of the world, in terms of both universal knowledge and national knowledge, Vietnamese compilers will add and complete the knowledge about Vietnam. Accordingly, encyclopedic knowledge about Vietnam will account for 70 percent of the encyclopedia while the remaining 30 percentage of it will be designed for knowledge about the world. It is noteworthy that the percentage may vary depending on the originality of disciplines. The compilation of the Vietnam encyclopedia must be undertaken on the basis of thoroughly ensuring the qualities of science, popularity, national identity, and modernity, as set out in the goals of the Project. The compilers must learn foreign experience in gathering each type of words categorized by subject relating to names (authors, characters). The compilers must also be objective, scientifically oriented, honest and above all, they have to have sufficient time in reviewing, judging various contents of the encyclopedia (for instance, choosing the right authors and characters who are popular, long recognised and appreciated by public opinion without controversial debates).
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Scientists had heated discussions about the most important issues regarding compilation of the Vietnam encyclopedia. These included issues concerning the structures of all volumes – macrostructure and microstructure, construction of index tables, types of words at various length (short, medium, long and very long), grouping lists of key words, illustrations for words by subject, and so on. Furthermore, general principles for compilation of the Vietnam encyclopedia were established in order to guarantee the consistency in compiling all the lists of words, ensuring the succession and further development of world knowledge, ascertaining that the encyclopedia will be a treasure of knowledge imbued with the Vietnamese identity, which covers all the fields of life, from social sciences, humanities, arts, natural science and technology, to security and national defense. At the same time, scientists also acknowledged potential advantages and difficulties arising from the process of compilation of the encyclopedia, thereby affirmed their determination to implement this important project.
The Vietnam encyclopedia is a kind of very large-sized encyclopedic dictionary, which stretches all the areas like social sciences, humanities, arts and cultures, natural science and technology, security and national defense. The compilation and publication of the encyclopedia will contribute, on the one hand, to improving educational levels of the Vietnamese people, broadening and enriching their cultural and scientific knowledge, and on the other, to enhancing cultural exchanges between Vietnam and the rest of the world in service of the country’s industrialisation, modernisation, and international integration./.
Nguyen Thu Ha
