Bac Giang (VNA) -﷽ The northern province of Bac Giang is set to further step up its movement serving the building of healthy cultural environments in all fields, said Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Mai Son.

This year, the province has set a goal to have 88.6%, 81.5%, and 75% of its total numbers of households, village-residential areas, and public agency-business meeting standards for cultural units, respectively. Toward the targets, Bac Giang is stepping up the building of cultural life as part of its programmes for new-style rural development and public security and order protection. Increasing communications are also being conducted with regard to environmental sanitation, positive work culture, social vices prevention and control, and child protection, among others. Attention is also being paid to investment in the building of cultural infrastructure, particularly culture-sport facilities and entertainment sites serving children and the elderly. The local authorities also pay attention to the organisation of music and sport competitions for the mass and preservation of outstanding local traditional cultural values. According to Son, in 2023, Bac Giang is set to run communications campaigns raising awareness of officials, Party members, and locals on the role of culture; place cultural targets and tasks on par with those in politics and economy. In 2022, the province had over 426,000 households and over 1,800 villages and residential units recognised as cultural ones, while more than 1,000 residential areas were accredited as bright - green - clean - beautiful - safe cultural residential areas. Bac Giang has so far developed 545 models to build cultural life in society. The province is a mountainous province located in the Northeast region, with a terrain combining mountains, midlands and plains. In addition to the Kinh people, Bac Giang is also home to 45 ethnic groups including six main ones namely Nung, Tay, San Diu, Hoa, San Chay and Dao. There are 257,258 ethnic minorities in the locality, which make up 14.26% of its population. Four districts with a large number of ethnic minorities are Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam, and Yen The. The province is a land of long history and culture with nearly 800 local festivals, including nine listed as national intangible cultural heritage. In mountainous districts, the cultural identities of local ethnic minority groups are still preserved through various types of traditional folk arts such as the ‘Sinh ca’ singing of Cao Lan ethnic group, ‘Cnang coo’ singing of San Chi ethnic group, ‘Soonghao’ singing of Nung ethnic group, and ‘Soong Co’ singing of San Diu ethnic tribe, of which ‘Sinh ca’ and ‘Cnang coo” have been recognised as national intangible cultural heritage./.