Culture & People of Vietnam

Culture of Vietnam
Vietnam is a multi-nationality country with 54 ethnic groups. The Viet (Kinh) people account for 87% of the country's population and mainly inhabit the Red River delta, the central coastal delta, the Mekong delta and major cities. The other 53 ethnic minority groups, totalling over 8 million people, are scattered over mountain areas (covering two-thirds of the country's territory) spreading from the North to the South.

Among ethnic minorities, the most populated are Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, Nung... with a population of around 1 million each, while the least populated are Brau, Roman, Odu with several hundred people each.

The Viet people succeeded in establishing a centralized monarchy right in the 10th century. The Cham people once boasted a flourishing culture early in the history. The Tay, Nung, and Khmer peoples had reached high levels of development with the presence of various social strata. The Muong, H'mong, Dao, Thai peoples... gathered under the rule of local tribal heads. Many ethnic groups divided their population into social echelons, especially those who lived in mountainous areas.

A number of ethnic minorities had mastered some farming techniques. They grew rice plants in swamped paddy fields and carried out irrigation. Others went hunting, fishing, collecting and lived a semi-nomadic life. Each group has its own culture, diverse and special. Beliefs and religions of the Vietnamese ethnic minority groups were also disparate from each other.

However, a fundamental solidarity among ethnic groups has been established on top of this difference as a result of a centuries long cooperation on the soil of Vietnam. Right in the first century of the history, a mutual supplement in economic relationship between lowland people and mountainous people was formed. This solidarity had been unceasingly strengthened during wars of resistance for defending the country. Through the shared struggle for defending and building of the country and the mutual assistance for co-existence and development, a common community between the Viet people and other ethnic minority peoples had been established and continuously consolidated and developed.

Nonetheless, an evident gap in the material and moral life has indeed still existed between peoples living in the deltas and those living in mountain areas as well as among ethnic minorities themselves. The Vietnamese government has worked out specific policies and special treatments in order to help mountainous people catching up with lowland people, and made great efforts to develop and preserve traditional cultural identities of each ethnic minority group. At present, the programs of providing iodized salt for remote villages, equipping village's health care and hygienic station, fighting malaria, building free schools for ethnic minority children, settled agriculture and fixed residence, and projects of creating new writing scripts for minority peoples and studying and developing traditional culture of each ethnic minority group... have obtained sactifactory results.


The country
Vietnam's 2006 population was 84,402,966 and it has a population density (2003) of 987 persons per km² (665 per sq mi). Most people live in or near the densely populated Red or Mekong deltas.

Society      

* Rural About 74% (i.e. some 62 million) of Vietnamese currently live in rural areas, and although many are being influenced by the process of Westernization, traditional rural customs and traditions still play a vital role in shaping the culture of Vietnam.

 * Organization In terms of societal levels of organization, the two most important units are làng (village) and nước (country). Vietnamese people usually say that "làng goes hand in hand with nước". Intermediate organizational units like the huyện (district) and tỉnh (province) are not as important.


In the past

Kinship

In rural Vietnam, kinship plays an important role. If it can be said that Western cultures value individualism, then it can also be said that Eastern cultures value the roles of family and clan. Comparing with Eastern cultures, Chinese culture values family over clan while Vietnamese culture values clan over family. Each clan has a patriarch, clan altar, and death commemorations attended by the whole clan.

Most inhabitants are related by blood. That fact is still seen in village names such as Đặng Xá (place for the Đặng clan), Châu Xá, Lê Xá, etc. In the Western highlands the tradition of many families in a clan residing in a longhouse is still popular. In the majority of rural Vietnam today one can still see 3 or 4 generations living under one roof.

Because kinship has an important role in society, there is a complex hierarchy of relationships. In Vietnamese society there are 9 distinct generations.

Virtually all commemorations and celebrations within a clan follow the principles of these nine generations. Young persons might have a higher position in the hierarchy than an older person and still must be respected as an elder.
   
   * Geographical
   * Occupational
   * Patriarchal
   * Administrative


In modern times
Vietnamese cuisine is based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Its characteristic flavor is sweet (sugar), spicy (Serrano peppers), and flavored by a variety of mints.

Vietnam also has a variety of noodles. Different regions invented different types of noodles, varying in shapes, tastes, colours, etc. One of the nation's most famous type of noodles is phở (pronounced phuh), which consists of rice noodles and beef soup (sometimes chicken soup). This cuisine originated from North Vietnam.

Vietnam's middle region is also famous with many delicious cuisines which possess very distinct tastes.

Clothing
Vietnamese clothing is very diverse. Every ethnic group in Vietnam has its own style of clothing. Festivals are the occasion for all to wear their favorite clothes.

Among the ethnic Vietnamese majority, there are several traditional costumes. A few include:

The Ao Tu Than (Áo Tứ Thân) or "Four-flapped dress" worn by northern women. It is a predecessor to the Áo Dài and is a four part flowing tunic, worn with a long skirt and an Ao Yem (Áo Yếm) underneath. Áo Yếm is the Vietnamese adaptation of the ancient Chinese Dudou.

Northern peasants also traditionally wore silk shirts and trousers. This pajama-like costume is called Ao Ba Ba (Áo Ba Ba). In contrast, in the South some peasants tend to wear all black Ao Ba Ba. For festive occasions some Vietnamese will wear this costume with a Mandarin collar.

The headgear of peasants is a plain piece of cloth wrapped around the head (generally called Khan Dong) and their footwear is just a pair of sandals.

The most popular and recognized Vietnamese national costume is the Áo Dài, which is nowadays usually worn mostly by women. Men do wear Áo Dài on special occasions such as weddings, funerals, etc. Ao Dai is similar to the Chinese Cheongsam (Qipao), consisting of a long gown with a slit on both sides, worn over silk pants. It is elegant in style and comfortable to wear.This national dress is made compulsory in many senior high schools in Vietnam, and some colleges. Some female office workers (e.g. receptionists, secretaries, tour guides) are also required to wear Ao Dai. Owing to its popularity, the dress has become a national symbol, representing cultural values of Vietnam.

In feudal times, there were strict dress codes. Ordinary people were not allowed to wear clothes with dyes other than black, brown or white. Monarchs had the exclusive right to wear the colour gold, nobles wore red or purple.

There are also strict rules concerning the diverse types of clothing worn by royalty and aristocracy, which could change dynasty by dynasty.In daily life, the traditional Vietnamese styles are now replaced by Western styles. Traditional clothing or costume is worn instead on special occasions, with the exception of the Ao Dai for females.

Religion
he principal religion in Vietnam is the so-called Tam Giáo ("triple religion"), characterizing the East Asian intricate mixture between Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Despite that, Buddhism in Vietnam has gone through many changes throughout history. The Hoa Hao community appears to operate as a significantly smaller and independent, marginal sect of Vietnamese Buddhism; and Cao Dai, which was once a syncretist cult, is now a full-fledged religion with a complex hierarchical system of fellowship.

Significant Christian minorities of about 8% consists mainly of Roman Catholics, but with a noticeable minority of new Protestant groups. The likely largest Protestant churches are the Evangelical Church of Vietnam and the Montagnard Evangelical Church.

A syncretic blend of Sunni Islam and the localized Bashi Islam is practiced mainly by the ethnic Cham minority, but there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherants to Islam in the southwest.