Vietnamese Cultural Overview

The Vietnamese are the people of Vietnam, a nation of East Asia.

Geography

Vietnam is a long, narrow nation running north-south along the Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea, and Gulf of Thailand. It shares borders with Laos, Cambodia, and China. It can be roughly divided into three sections: the Red river delta to the north, the central Annam Highlands, and the Mekong river delta in the south. Of these, the two low-lying river deltas are most populous. Moving west, fertile plains transition into mountains and their foothills. Much of the country experiences a typhoon season each year between may and September.

• Climate: Tropical and temperate

• Capital: Hanoi

• Total Population: 97,040,334 (2018 est.)

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History

Vietnam possesses a long history of dynastic expansion, conquest, and independence movements in East Asia. It originally developed as a satellite state of China; according to tradition, the inhabitants of the Red River Delta first united around 2789 BCE. By 1000 BCE, they had progressed into Iron-Age societies of rice farmers, merchants, fishermen, and craftsmen. In the second century BCE, Han China conquered the region, which would remain more or less under Chinese control until 938 CE. From there, Vietnam grew independently, fending off Mongol invasions and gradually expanding to the south. In 1471, Vietnamese armies successfully pushed the Kingdom of Champa out of the Mekong delta, roughly establishing its modern borders.

European contact in Vietnam came during an era of civil war, with the kingdom divided between two clashing families. The two halves reunited in 1802 under the Nguyen dynasty, but by that time Vietnam had become a target for colonial powers. Through the rest of the century, France would slowly conquer from Saigon to Hanoi, forming the Indochinese Union of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. French colonial rule, however, proved unpopular, spawning a number of resistance movements.

World War II saw a short-lived Japanese occupation and then a return to French authority. The Vietnamese Communist Party, headed by Ho Chi Minh, drove the French government out at last in 1954. This sparked a Cold-War conflict between the United States and communist forces backed by China and the Soviet Union. The Vietnam War devastated much of the countryside and ended with a communist victory. Since that time, Vietnam has made a remarkable recovery both economically and in population.

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Daily Life

Vietnam is blessed with two highly fertile regions around the Red and Mekong river deltas, which have historically supported a large population of farmers. Besides the staple crop of rice, families grew wheat, sugarcane, herbs, and various vegetables. They used meats like beef, pork, seafood, and chicken and rendered fish into plentiful fish sauce. Later, potatoes, cassava, and corn would become important crops as well. Chinese, southeast Asian, and French culinary traditions combined with native cooking to form modern Vietnamese cuisine, which has found global popularity.

Similarly, Vietnamese fashions have drawn from both foreign trends and local tastes. The most well known clothing of Vietnam is the ao dai or ao the, a long tunic worn over trousers. The female version of this outfit resembles a long dress, while the male tunic is shorter. For the most part, however, modern Vietnamese people wear Western-style clothing outside of special occasions. Housing in Vietnam ranges from urban apartments to more traditional farmhouses, sometimes raised on stilts to avoid flooding.

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Society

Prior to the modern era, Vietnamese society organized as a monarchy based on Confucian and Buddhist principles. Confucianism taught the value of family, elders, and an orderly civilization. Buddhism provided a path to personal growth and spiritual harmony. The majority of the population lived and worked as farmers, a respected social class in Confucianism. Merchants and other tradesmen held less prestigious status, despite their personal wealth. Above the commoners, a class of scholars and bureaucrats served the state, their position determined by standardized exams.

In the 20th century, a major civil war broke out over the ideologies that would shape Vietnam’s future. Between 1955 and 1975, the Communist state of North Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union and China, waged a bitter war with South Vietnam, a government backed by the United States and its allies. The war ended with the Communist Party of Vietnam in power. Since that time, the government of Vietnam has focused on rebuilding infrastructure, encouraging education, and balancing the needs of its urban and rural populations.

• Major Languages: Vietnamese, English, Chinese, French, and Khmer languages

• Urban Population: 35.9% (2018 est.)

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Economy

The basic economy of historic Vietnam rested on its farming villages, which were largely self-sufficient. Urban centers such as Hanoi concentrated skilled craftsmen in industries like lacquerware, metalworking, and textiles. This relative independence changed during the colonial era, when French interests built railroads, ports, and factories to extract the resources of Vietnam more efficiently. During this time, valuable goods like rubber, opium, salt, and minerals were exported in bulk. Communism developed in Vietnam largely in response to French colonialism. After a hard-fought victory in the Vietnam War, the nation’s economy and infrastructure were almost leveled. The Communist Party of Vietnam has since transitioned from a centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented one. The nation as a whole has seen strong growth in recent decades, leading to an expanding middle class.

• Major Industries: Food processing, garments, shoes, machine-building; mining, coal, steel; cement, chemical fertilizer, glass, tires, oil, mobile phones

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Beliefs

Vietnam’s major faith for centuries has been Buddhism, but its people have also practiced Taoism, Confucianism, an indigenous faith, and later Christianity. Beneath the ‘Triple Religion’ of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, common people also recognized a complex world of natural spirits demanding respect. More formal worship occurred in Confucian ancestral halls or Buddhist and Taoist shrines, the latter two often sharing space. Christianity arrived with French colonialism; as a result, the majority of the nation’s Christians are Roman Catholic.

After coexisting in relative peace for thousands of years, the many religions of Vietnam became a point of conflict in the 19th and 20th centuries. The division of North and South Vietnam sent thousands of Catholic refugees fleeing from north to south. This, in turn, sparked accusations of favoritism from Buddhist monks in the South. Modern Vietnam is a religiously tolerant state that officially encourages atheism but is home to people of all major faiths.

Religious Demographics:

• None: 81.8%

• Buddhist: 7.9%

• Catholic: 6.6%

• Hoa Hao: 1.7%

• Cao Dai: 0.9%

• Protestant: 0.9%

• Muslim: 0.1% (2009 est.)

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Arts & Music

Vietnam is home to some of the oldest known works of art in the world, pottery thought to have been made around 10,000 years ago. Its more recent art history begins in the 8th century BCE, when artists of the Dong Son culture produced enormous and elaborate bronze drums. Chinese control over the region brought customary arts like silk painting, printing, calligraphy, poetry, and further ceramic refinements. Following its independence from China in the 10th century, dynastic Vietnam retained these art forms while also developing its own. Water puppetry and Chinese opera both grew popular over the subsequent centuries. French colonialism introduced European painting and musical techniques, leading to the unique blend of artistic styles seen in Vietnam today.

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References

Crawford, Ann Caddell. Customs and Culture of Vietnam. Tuttle Publishing. 2012.

Goscha, Christopher. Vietnam: A New History. Basic Books. 2016.

Hoyer, Daniel. Culinary Vietnam. Gibbs Smith. 2009.

McLeod, Mark W and Thi Dieu Nguyen. Culture and Customs of Vietnam. Greenwood Publishing. 2001.

Seah, Audrey and Charissa Nair. Vietnam. Benchmark Books. 1996.

Taylor, K.W. A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge University Press. 2013.

“The World Factbook: Vietnam.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 12 July 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html.

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