The old generations whose most of the life is spent with the commune and village

cultural environment (the agricultural) do not want to get rid of the cultural values deeply
impeded in their mind. They are reluctant to lose traditions and eager to preserve the
commune and village culture. The introvert and the resistance to change are so strong that
they sometimes become conservative. Many of them took part in the revolution,
experiencing the border between life and death. Therefore, they are those who hope for
the improvement of the present life the most. However, when facing with the rapid
urbanization trend, affecting not only the cultural space but also the village life, they
develop a feeling of fear inside, encouraging other people to be back to the true values of
traditional culture. They persuade people in their community (their village) to contribute
with the labor to repair and restore the local spiritual worshipping establishments such as
temples and pagodas, to organize festivals and set up music bands and sacrificing groups.
In many families, they play a key role in building and repairing village roads, restoring
worship halls and ancestral temples, writing family annals (record) or teaching younger
generations the cultural characteristics of the village. They also take part in many social
activities, trouble-shooter groups and many socio-political associations such as the
Women’s Associations or The Elder Associations, etc to answer questions and settle
conflicts within the community or village, helping to promote the good relationship
among villagers. All things done by the elder people in the residential community
(village) have no purposes other than trying to preserve the village community cultural
values whereas the younger generations seem to welcome the new culture of urban life.
Young people are those who receive education and have professional expertise, always
pursuing a better and independent life. Furthermore, they are provided with knowledge
on lifestyles and cultures of different countries and territories through various means of
media, triggering their inside desire to integrate into the new urban life so that their
ability can be recognized. The dream for a better life is creating the source of motivation
for them to cultivate knowledge and professional expertise as well as the access to the
new life and urban culture. The village community culture and lifestyle, including the
beautiful values are losing its popularity among young people. Under the current context
of increasing pressure of housing, education issues, etc, young people in the countryside
are encouraged to leave the farming, not to leave their countrytowns behind.
Paradoxically, a majority of young people, once getting a job in big cities, do not want to
come back to their hometown. Urban life clearly bears many differences with the rural
one with worries about employment, accommodation and family restructuring to adapt to
the new environment. Young people can not preserve the village community lifestyle if
they want to effectively integrate into the urban life in big cities. They, especially the
newly-wed couples, have to adapt to the new environment. Consequently, there is an
increasing tendency among them to stray away from the traditional culture. When
regarding the cultural course of human tribes, culture is proved not to be an unchanged
component. During the course of history, any human tribes absorb cultural values of
other tribes in the process of co-existence. This phenomenon should be paid greater
attention otherwise the rapid change can cause the so called “culture broken”.
Urbanization in surrounding areas is exerting influence in the cultural life of
residential communities. But this is a process full of ups and downs with some
components disappearing and some remaining or changing to adapt to the new
environment. In Vietnam, the formation of cities took place a long time ago but the role
of these cities in community life was so limited in terms of number and scale.
Urbanization process in Vietnam only took its full meaning during recent decades,
especially after 1975 till now. When urbanization is an inevitable trend in the socio-
economic and cultural development of any region and any nation, the scale of urban areas
must not be as limited as they used to be and the narrow space of city centers is no longer
suitable. Urbanization poses the need to expand urban space to better serve its functions
in the integration trend and economic development. Therefore, suburb areas, used to be
deployed for agricultural production, is not excluded in the common trend. The most
noticeable effect of urbanization on these areas can be seen in the ecological landscape.
Before the urbanization process taking place during the post-national independence years
of the 1990s of the 20th century, districts like Binh Thanh, Go Vap, Tan Binh… “were
agricultural areas, playing an important role in all socio-economic activities of the people
although the plantation areas tended to be contracted”. At that time, “besides rice
cultivating, people in the suburbs also raised some food crops like maize, manioc,
vegetables and beans… Some families combined agricultural production with small
handicraft and service activities. Animal breeding activities saw some certain
developments. Go Vap district, with its favorably blessed conditions, was much
successful with breeding activities in comparision with 3 other districts including Binh
Thanh, Tan Binh and district Number 8”2. The area for vegetables plantation in the
suburbs has been considerably reduced some years later due to rapid urbanization and
farming land contraction. In 1986, the vegetables plantation area of Go Vap was 2.184
acres, Tan Binh 1.686 acres, Binh Thanh 132 acres. In 1996, the respective number was
1.424 acres, 351 acres and 2 acres

1
Le Hong Liem, Socio-economic development in some Ho Chi Minh City’s surrounding districts from
1975 to 1993- Viewed from Go Vap district, Thesis of Philosophy Doctorate of History, defended 1995,
p.58
2
Le Hong Liem, cited by the book, p.59

The ecological landscape has been changed not only by farming land contraction
but also by the appearance of new factories, new high-rise buildings and more residential
areas. The speed of change is further boosted by the rapidly increasing urbanization over
the past few years. Changes in the images of districts No 2, No7, No 9, Go Vap, Binh
Thanh, Tan Binh, Binh Tan gives us an overview of the city. Changes in landscape are
accompanied by other changes such as the new appearance of more residential areas, new
population structure and population components different from the past’s. People living
in the areas include the indigenous citizens and immigrants coming from the surrounding
areas. Along with ecological changes, differences can also be seen in the cultural life of
the people. Research results by Le Hong Liem on the socio-economic developments of
Ho Chi Minh city’s suburb districts from 1975 to 1993 and by Nguyen Thi Thuy on Ho
Chi Minh city’s urbanization from 1975 to 1996 ( with regard to district No
8, Binh Thanh district, Tan Binh district, Go Vap district) have provided a clear picture of
changes in surrounding districts during the process of urbanization4. Changes in the
material life such as accommodation, food, clothes, etc are easy to recognized. In terms
of accommodation, in addition to the increasingly number of many newly-built private
houses at larger scale and bigger use area, new apartment building like Mieu Noi, the
Youth’s urban area, Dinh Bo Linh residential area (Binh Thanh district), An Phu and An
Khanh urban complexes (district No 2), Phu Mi Hung urban complex (district No 7), all
are well furnished, not only help to solve the accommodation issue but also create a new
image for the city. Many low-roofed houses of the past have been replaced by many high-
rise buildings. Over the past few years, there has been a great improvement in all districts
of the city especially in the surrounding ones with more and more carefully-planed
residential areas serving separate functions, enhancing the city’s beauty. Differences will
be bigger and bigger when the main agricultural produce supplying markets are removed
from the city’s center and the proposal to place all universities, research institutes,
hospitals in the suburb areas comes into effect. However, some shortcomings during the
urbanization process are also revealed besides the above achievements. For example, due
to the increasing inflow of immigrants into the city’s center creating pressure on social
security issues, many low-quality and over-crowded areas (8 people per square kilometer
as reported by the media) are beginning to emerge, resulting in environmental pollution
and spoiling the urban civilization. Urbanization also affects the way people eat, or the
culinary and the way people wear. The traditional dishes, featuring the lifestyle of people
living in the city’s surrounding areas have been changed over time. They used to be
farmers, creating incomes primarily from agricultural production and spending most of
their life in the fields. The economy in the area was the self-sufficient one like that in
every countryside across Vietnam. The products were locally-made, catering the local
demand of their families or the community. Things have changed nowadays when these
farmers no longer raised animals, bred fish or grew vegetables by themselves due farming
land contraction. All the daily commodities are supplied by the market. Convenient kinds
of food like the processed ones which consume less time to prepare are heard more and
more. The traditional important events in the family such as birthday parties, birthday of
a year-old baby parties or the death anniversaries are now celebrated in restaurants with
unfamiliar Western dishes. The way people wear suffers even greater changes with the
fading popularity of traditional clothes among the community especially among the
young generations. The image of the old man in the traditional clothes in festivals or
wedding anniversaries almost vanishes. There is a wide selection of clothes nowadays
with various colors and styles which are designed to suit all ages, genders, professions or
educational standards. Just a glance at one wedding anniversary can give us the over view
of this mixture. Guests at the wedding clothes of varying styles and colors. Foods or
drinks no longer bear traditional characteristics when there is s shared wedding menu
held in restaurants and the way guests are served also different from the past. A mixture
of various cultural layers in a wedding has revealed changes in the lifestyle of people in
the surrounding areas under the effects of urbanization among which is the emerging
inevitable trend of people living in nuclear families or the two-generation family instead
of the traditional extended families characterizing the past.
Urbanization has reduced the number of farming households when part of
agricultural land is put into the industrial use. Research results during the period from
1986 to 1996 show a significant drop in farming households with the recorded rate of 1,7
times and 4,7 times for Binh Thanh and Tan Binh districts respectively. In addition to
that, labor working in agricultural sector in the surrounding districts also sees a deep
decrease of 1,52 times 5 over the 1986-1996 period. When agriculture no longer plays the
vital role in the area’s economy and the demand for labor is contracted, family structure
will also change consequently. The unsuitable extended families are taken place by the
popularizing nuclear ones, creating an inevitable trend during urbanization process which
is loosening traditional family bonds. Each nuclear family becomes more and more
independent economically and socially. The traditional family relationship, nevertheless,
is not lost forever. The community spirits and the mutual thoughts among people still
remain and find their living space in the new environment. Family members are still
responsible for one another, helping others in the events of difficulties or sharing
happiness in Tet holiday or sorrow in death anniversary.
When people have the chance, they often pay cordial visits to family relatives to
cultivate the close relationship. The voice of elder people or people of high social status
is still respected.
However, some village’s traditional rules are losing its power and the opinions of
the elder are no longer as important as they used to be with regard to many social aspects.
Many new relationships are emerging in the urban life such as relationships in offices,
schools, factories or companies, gradually replacing the old ones (like the community
bonds) used to be considered important in the community life. Although the relationship
among people in the community is no longer as the same as it was in the past, many
campaigns to build up “helpful residential areas” in the city and many social charity
activities to share the burden of the poor, the disadvantaged in the disaster-hit regions and
effort to build houses of gratitude are cultivating many new relationships.
Elder people, especially the retired military workers or veterans play an active
role in settling conflicts among people, creating the peaceful and friendly atmosphere for
the community. Urbanization in the city’s surrounding areas also helps to change the
community’s traditional customs and rituals. A recently- released research on the folk
superstitions in Ho Chi Minh city provides an overview of such changes6. Under the
current context, urbanization has contributed to simplify the traditional rituals, “the folk
superstitions and beliefs, however, remain popular, deepening and living in people of all
genders, ages, professions and human groups”7. In Ho Chi Minh city, especially in the
surrounding districts, worship places, pagodas, temples are paid greater attention in terms
of repair and restoration. The increasing number of worshippers and pilgrims to those
holy places are the proof showing that urbanization does not result in the so-called
“religion fading” or “religion losing”. By contrast, the spiritual demand of the majority
has been met better and better. The State’s approval of recognizing the legal entity of
some religions has helped to make people’s religious life more beautiful over the past few
years.

3
Nguyen Thi Thuy, cited by the book, p.78
4
Le Hong Liem, cited by the book, p.42-64; Nguyen Thi Thuy , cited by the book, cited by the book, p.120-
146
5
Nguyen Thi Thuy , cited by the book, cited by the book, p. 117
6
Dotorate Vo Thanh Bang (main editor), Ho Chi Minh City’s Folk Superstitions and Beliefs, Ho Chi Minh
City National University Publishing House, 2008
7
Dotorate Vo Thanh Bang, cited by the book, p.30
Urbanization has been exerting a considerable effect on the lifestyle and the
culture of the surrounding areas’ citizens. Lifestyles and cultures, as other cultural
components, are decided by the synchronic and diachronic factors. Under the current
context, globalization and international integration should be treated as synchronic
factors besides other factors like economic development and population structure. Due to
the limited scope of the report, details on those factors’ effects on urbanization as well as
on the lifestyle and culture of urban citizens can not be provided.
 Urbanization is a historical phenomenon taking place in almost all human tribes,
countries, peoples all over the world. However, under the influences of economic, social
and cultural factors, the urbanization process varies considerably from place to place or
from part to part of the same human groups. Urbanization is the criterion for economic
development and an inevitable trend on the way towards advanced and modern
civilization. However, if economic, social and cultural developments can not keep pace
with the rapid and large-scale urbanization, a lot of issues will arise. Solutions to those
issues should be worked out as soon as possible, promoting urbanization in line with
level of economic, social and cultural development of every country or human group. A
lot of scientific research has been done on the urbanization’s significant impacts on all
facets of population life in their exchange relationship. Within the scope of this paper,
presented at the scientific workshop, we only talk about two among various effects posed
by urbanization on the surrounding areas: food security and changes in the village
community culture of the suburbs areas under the urbanization process. Food security, the
vital factor for stability and development, is a big global issue which requires greater
attention from all countries. Social stability for development can not be ensured without
the guarantee of food security. Food security can be achieved through the development of
agricultural sector and the human resource employed in the sector. The two most
important tools are farming land and farmers- the main labor force of food production.
Changes in the village community culture in the surrounding are the accompanied results
of urbanization. The village community culture has a long tradition, impeding in the vein
of every citizen. Urbanization has changing all ways of cultural life. This process should
be viewed scientifically and objectively so that appropriate solutions can be worked out
to preserve and develop the traditional culture’s values and to absorb the new cultural
components with careful consideration in the context of urbanization and international
integration. Any conservative or extreme behavior would bear nothing suitable.
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