📋 Article outline
Introduction: Why do we need to redefine "Cultural Industry"?
At Linh Nam, we believe that culture is not only a heritage to preserve, but also a resource to create. However, during many years of observing and working directly with businesses, creators, professional organizations, and management agencies, we have noticed a reality worth pondering: the concept of "cultural industry" in Vietnam is still understood very broadly, and sometimes very vaguely.
When hearing this phrase, many people - including those in the industry - immediately think of a traditional festival, an art performance, a heritage exhibition, a community festival, or an arts exchange program. All of those things are precious. All arecultural activities. But according to Linh Nam's understanding, and also according to UNESCO's official understanding, thatIt is not yet a cultural industry.
This distinction is not an academic debate. It is a strategic issue. Because if we don't define it correctly, we won't invest correctly. And without proper investment, Vietnamese culture - no matter how rich - will find it difficult to become a truly competitive economic sector in the region and globally.
I. UNESCO's definition of classics – and four keywords that change the way of thinking
One of UNESCO's most cited definitions dates from the late 1980s, and has since become the basis for most cultural policy documents around the world:
"Cultural industries are those industries that combine the creation, production and commercialization of contents which are intangible and cultural in nature. These contents are typically protected by copyright and may take the form of goods or services."
Roughly translated:Cultural industries are industries that combine the creation, production and commercialization of content of a cultural and intangible nature; Such content is often protected by copyright, and may exist in the form of goods or services.
In just this one short definition sentence, UNESCO has set out four foundational keywords, and each keyword has profound strategic meaning.
1. CREATION – Creativity
This is the starting point of the entire value chain. Cultural industryDoesn't start from the factory, doesn't start from capital, doesn't start from machinery– which starts from ideas, from cultural expressions, from human creativity.
This is also the basic difference between cultural industries and traditional industries. A steel factory can operate without a story. But a movie, a character, a song, a fashion design, or a cultural tourism product – everything isstarting from a creative expression with cultural roots. No roots, no industry.
2. PRODUCTION – Production
Creativity, by itself,not enough. This is a truth that creative people often do not want to admit. A good idea doesn't automatically become an industry. A good song does not by itself become music with market value. An attractive literary character does not become a global brand on its own.
An idea only truly enters industrial logic when itcan be organized, developed into products, standardized, reproduced, and marketed.. This is why Hollywood is not just "the Hollywood of good screenwriters", but the Hollywood ofproduction – release – re-exploitation system. Just as K-pop is not just the Korea of talented artists, but the Korea ofArtist management companies operate according to industrial logic.
3. COMMERCIALIZATION – Commercialization
This is a very important point, and also the most controversial point in Vietnam. By UNESCO, a leading cultural organization in the world,Don't look at culture just as a spiritual activity or a field of conservation. UNESCO clearly acknowledges that: culture is completely possible, andmust, enter the market if you want to create sustainable value.
At Linh Nam, we clearly share this view. Culture that cannot be commercialized is very difficult to reinvest. If you can't reinvest, it's very difficult to develop. If you cannot develop, it will be difficult to compete. If you cannot compete, you will eventually disappear – even the most beautiful heritage.
4. COPYRIGHT – Copyright
In the logic of UNESCO, cultural industryIntellectual property cannot be separated. A work, a character, a design, a content, a symbol, or a cultural story only really has a long-term economic life when it is created.protected and can be exploited as an asset.
This is a major weakness of the current Vietnamese cultural ecosystem. We have many symbols of international value - from ao dai, conical hats, to traditional patterns, from folk characters to intangible heritages of families and peoples. But most of those valueshas not been organized into intellectual property with a clear subject, capable of being systematically exploited. When intellectual property is not established, economic value has no place to cling.
II. Why aren't all cultural activities cultural industries?
This is probably the point that Linh Nam wants to emphasize the most in this analysis.
Confusion betweencultural activitiesandcultural industrynot just appearing in public. To be honest, it sometimes appears even in the professional world, in some localities, some professional organizations, and even in policy discussions.
When mentioning "cultural industry", many people immediately think of:
- An art performance.
- A traditional festival.
- An exhibition.
- A talent contest.
- An arts exchange program.
- A book fair.
- A music festival.
- A community program.
- A heritage conservation project.
All of those things arecultural activities. This is not controversial. But from Linh Nam's point of view,Just because there are cultural elements does not automatically become a cultural industry. These are two very closely related concepts, butnot uniform.
Simply put:
Cultural activities create value. Cultural industries create value that can be replicated, commercialized, accumulated and reinvested.
That is the core difference.
An art performance can be very moving. A festival can be very crowded. A community program can have great social significance. An exhibition can create very good communication effects. But ifevery value ends immediately after the event ends, if there is no creation of assets that can continue to be exploited, if there is no revenue model, if there is no market, if there is no ability to replicate, if there is no distribution system, if there is no ability to accumulate intellectual property or develop into a long-term value chain - then it is very difficult to call it industry.
A cultural event can create emotions. But the cultural industry must create value streams.
This is such an important point that Linh Nam wants to repeat it again:value stream, not a valuable moment. The moment ended very quickly. The value stream can flow through many generations.
III. Two opposing pictures: Local festivals and the Disney model – HYBE
To make the concept clearer, Linh Nam would like to present two opposing pictures - a picture familiar to us in Vietnam, and a picture representing the global cultural industry standard.
Picture one: The local festival was a success in terms of events
Try to imagine a very successful local festival in terms of organization. Tens of thousands of people participated. The media reported the news for days in a row. The atmosphere is very vibrant. Enthusiastic performing artists. The local community is excited. The image was widely shared on social networks.
It was clearly a remarkable success.
But next season, if we look closely, we will see a picture worth pondering: the organizers are reorganizingstarting almost from zero. No audience data is kept. There isn't a community of loyal fans nurtured year-round. There are no accompanying cultural products to exploit between the two festival seasons. There is no obvious accumulated brand equity. There is no content copyright strong enough to transfer or license. There is no long-term funding system with multi-year commitments. Does not generate stable revenue for local businesses. Does not sustainably involve tourism, retail, resort, culinary, or supporting industries.
From Linh Nam's point of view, that isremains primarily a cultural activity. A very respectable cultural activity - but not really a cultural industry.
The second picture: When creative value becomes a multi-layer mining asset
On the contrary, an operation whose scale is not too large, but knownturn creative value into assets that can be exploited many times, in many markets, through many different value layers, then it may very well be entering the logic of the cultural industry.
Let's take two classic examples from the world.
The Walt Disney Company:A Disney moviedoes not end when the audience leaves the theater. It continues to live on through streaming on Disney+, through television broadcasts, through toys, through video games, through licensed characters, through Disneyland and Disney World theme parks, through fashion collections, through experiential tours, through airport merchandise, through children's books, through shows on Disney Cruise ships, and through dozens of other layers of value.A single story – can feed an entire ecosystem for decades.
HYBE Corporation (Korea):A music group belonging to HYBE – for example BTS –not only generating revenue from music. They create a huge ecosystem: from clearly structured fandom (ARMY), from global concerts, from digital content on Weverse, from loyalty membership programs, from genuine product commerce, from character IPs (like TinyTAN), from documentaries, from webtoons, from cross-border experiences, and even from layers of financial value when HYBE is listed on the stock exchange.
It's no longer "activity". That isindustrial.
Lessons learned for Vietnam
This is one of the most common misunderstandings in Vietnam today. We organizeso manycultural activities. Many localities have their own festivals. Many units have shows, cultural weeks, events, and community projects. That's very good - and Linh Nam always supports it.
ButIt is not necessarily true that organizing many cultural activities is developing the cultural industry.
Industrialnot measured by number of events. Industry is measured by:
- The ability to createasset(both physical and intellectual).
- The ability to createrevenueStable, predictable.
- The ability to createjobHigh quality for creative people.
- The ability to createvalue chainspread to other industries.
- The ability to createcompetitive abilityat national and international levels.
- And most importantly: abilitySustainable development without completely depending on budget or sponsorship.
Cultural activities and cultural products are factorsvery importantto develop cultural values. This is an indispensable foundation. But if there is no market, no established intellectual property, no clear business model, no accumulated data, no sustainable investment flow, it is very difficult for those cultural values toreally grow upbecome an economic sector.
That's itThe most important boundarybetween cultural activities and cultural industry.
IV. Five criteria Linh Nam uses to distinguish "cultural activities" and "cultural industries"
To help the business community, creatives, and policymakers have a realistic set of criteria, Linh Nam proposes five questions that any project claiming to be a "cultural industry" should be able to answer:
1. Is there clear and protectable intellectual property?(Does a story, a character, a design, a brand, a cultural identity... belong to a specific subject, can it be registered for copyright, industrial property rights, or not?)
2. Is there a production model that can be replicated and expanded?(Can the product be reproduced on a large scale? Can the process be standardized? Can it be replicated in many markets?)
3. Is there a clear revenue model and market?(Who pays? What to pay? What is the distribution channel? Who is the target customer? Is there audience data accumulated?)
4. Is it likely to accumulate value over time?(Is the product still exploited after 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? Or can it only "run" during one season, one event?)
5. Is it possible to reinvest in the same value chain?(Does the revenue earned come back to feed the next creation? Or do we have to start from scratch with each project, each festival season?)
If a project answers "yes" to all five of these questions, it is a projecttrue cultural industry. If you can only answer two or three, that's still onevaluable cultural activities– worthy of respect, worth investing in, worth supporting – but not really an industry.
It needs to be clear: cultural activities are not something "lower" than the cultural industry. Cultural activities arefoundation. Without rich cultural activities, there will never be a strong cultural industry. ButThe foundation is not the building. To build a building, we need more intellectual property, standardized production, markets, cash flow, and reinvestment capacity.
V. Linh Nam's vision: From heritage to value stream
At Lingnan, we approach the cultural industry not as an entertainment sector, but asa strategic pillar of the Knowledge Economy– one of the three foundational pillars in the Group's vision of building a "Green - Smart - Sustainable" economic ecosystem.
Specifically, we see four layers of opportunity:
Grade 1 – Heritage:Vietnam has a treasure trove of tangible and intangible cultural heritage that is among the richest in Southeast Asia. Especially family heritage - an "underground cultural circuit" that has connected millions of Vietnamese families for thousands of years. Here are the ingredientssourceof the entire value chain.
Grade 2 – Creativity:Vietnam has a generation of young creatives – designers, musicians, directors, writers, architects, game developers, digital artisans – who are eager to transform heritage values into a contemporary language capable of competing internationally. This isexpressive capacity.
Grade 3 – Production and Commercialization:This is the class in which Vietnam is weakest - and also the class in which Linh Nam focuses its investment. We believe that businesses need to play a role"strategic integrator"(master integrator), connecting heritage with creative capacity, bringing cultural products into a large-scale production - distribution - exploitation system, following the logic that Disney or HYBE have proven to be feasible.
Layer 4 – Intellectual Property and Reinvestment:This is the layer that determines sustainability. A cultural industry is only truly mature when intellectual property is established, protected, valued, and can becomefinancial assets– Can mobilize capital, can trade, can reinvest.
Our operating philosophy remains the sameSix Winged Doctrine(Six Wings Model) – ensuring simultaneous benefits for six sides: Customers, Partners, Teams, Shareholders, Society, and Environment. When applied to the cultural industry, this means: we develop the industry not by wayExhausting heritage exploitation, but bykeep the legacy alivein new forms, with economic value, and at the same time reinvested back into the community that preserves it.
VI. Conclusion: When culture becomes an economic sector
Linh Nam believes that Vietnam is facing a very special moment. We have heritage. We have a creative generation. We have an increasingly open legal framework. We have a domestic market of 100 million people and a global Vietnamese community that is very connected to its identity.
What we lack is not talent, not inspiration, not heritage – butan industrial way of thinking about culture.
A way of thinking that differentiates:
- Betweenworkandbranch.
- Betweenemotional momentandlong-term value stream.
- Betweeneventandintellectual property.
- Betweennumber of festivalsandvalue chain depth.
- Betweenpassive conservationandsystematic exploitation.
- BetweenCulture as a costandCulture as an investment.
This is the mindset shift that Linh Nam wishes to accompany with the Vietnamese business community, with creators, with policy makers, and with the heritage preservation community itself - to together transform Vietnamese culture froma pridewalla real economic sector.
Because a culture can only truly live when it is capablefeed yourself. And a nation can only truly retain its identity when that identity creates value - not only spiritual, but also material - for the next generation.
Linh Nam Group – Creating a Green, Smart, Sustainable Economic Ecosystem. The article represents the Group's strategic viewpoint on the development orientation of Vietnam's Cultural Industry.