What Are The Main Characteristics - of Vietnamese History Culture?

1. What are the main characteristics - of Vietnamese History Culture?
Firstly, Vietnam has a long history filled with a lot of wars, especially resistant wars against
foreign invaders. During the Van Lang - Au Lac civilization, Chao To conquered Au Lac in
179BC and then established Nan Yue Kingdom until 111BC when Han Dynasty replaced,
starting 10. centuries of Chinese domination. During this period, there were a lot of
Vietnamese people's uprisings against Chinese ruler such as uprising 2 sister Trung, Ms
Trieu, Phung Hung Ly Bi: Trien Quang Phuc, Finally, in 938AD, Ngo Quyen defeated
Southern Han troops on Bach Dang River, beginning an independent era of our country.
After that, there was a civil war between 12 warlords until Dinh Bo Linh unified the country.
In the Earlier Le Dynasty, Le Hoan defeated Sung troops from China. After that, our army
won against 0.5 million Mongolian – Yuan troops when they attacked our country 3 times
during the Tran Dynasty. Later, Le Loi swept out Ming troops, established the Later Le
Dynasty in 1427-1428. However, in the next period, Vietnam faced a national division into
Northern Court, ruled by the Mac, and Southern Court, ruled by the Le. When Mac collapsed
in 1592, civil wars and peasant wars took place, the most significant one is Trinh - Nguyen
War, which finally ended in the 18th century when 3 Tay Son brothers stood up. In 1788 –
1789, Nguyen Hue defeated 290,000 Tsing troops, only 5,000 survived, starting Tay Son
Dynasty. In. 1858, Vietnam was attacked by French colonials. While fighting against the
French, our army also had to face 200,000 Tuong Gioi Thach troops from China. From 1846
to 1954, there was the Indochina War which was a resistant war against French imperialism.
Soon after we defeated the French, we immediately faced The Vietnam War which was a
resistant war against American for national salvation. The final general offensive and
uprising in 1975 totally defeated the Neo-colonialism and unified our country. After seizing
independence, Vietnam armies faced Southwest Border War and fought against 600,000
Chinese troops in 1979. Up until now, we still have to fight overseas territory against China.
Secondly, Vietnam has a special culture that has acculturation, or, cultural exchanges. The
most important exchanges are Sinicization and DeSinicization the process whereby non-Han
Chinese societies come under the influences of the dominant Han Chinese state and society
and conversely, the elimination of Chinese influences. Sinicization includes and compulsory
exchanges - which were the result of Chinese assimilation during 1000 years of Chinese
domination. However, Vietnam also went Desinicized, which means choosing the best to
improve. For example, Vietnamese people did not completely use Han scripts but changing
to Nom scripts, which was based on Chinese but included-newly- invented characters meant
to represent-native Vietnamese words... Moreover, we even pronounced in Han -
Vietnamese, Another acculturation is Westernization and Dewesternization, which started
from the 16th century until now. Like Sinicization, Westernization also had normal and
compulsory exchanges, including the adoption of the Latin alphabet and the spread of
Catholicism and Protestantism – which soon became a new religion in Vietnam. Meanwhile,
Dewesternization was shown through the process of how Vietnamese people build the
structure of the university and the education system. We learned to apply Western
technology: Art and music were also affected. Some foreign words that we borrowed from
Western languages were Vietnamized in pronunciation: Marxism was approved and adapted
through Ho Chi Minh ideology. Currently, Vietnam is in the process of Dewesternization to
build up modern Vietnamese culture with Vietnamese identity. On the other hand,
Vietnamese culture also acquired Hinduisation, for example, My Son Holy Land in central
Vietnam.
Thirdly, Vietnamese history & culture has 2 cycles of civilization. The is one is Red River
civilization or Van Lang - Au Lac civilization, a civilization is full of cultural achievements. Van
Lang and Au Lac were the 2 first states of Vietnamese people. The reunion of tribes showed
that we already had enough differentiation of classes and enough strength to control and
build up cannel along the Red River. If there had been no Van Lang - Au Lac civilization,
there would be no Vietnam today. This civilization formed and built up the fundamental
foundation of the Vietnamese identity of Vietnamese culture. After it collapsed, the country
experienced 10 centuries of Chinese domination. However, with the winning of Ngo Quyen
in 938 against Southern Han on Bach Dang River, the 2nd era of Vietnamese civilization
started as Great Viet/ Dai Viet civilization during Ly - Tran - Later Le Dynasty. This
civilization created a lot of new things. Without Dai Viet civilization, there would be no
Vietnam today too. Its collapse in the 16th century resulted in division, civil wars, and
peasant wars. After that, Vietnam was put under colonization, bringing about the
impoverishing living standard. After the Doi Moi Policy in 1986, Vietnamese people hope to
return to civilization with the new establishment of Vietnamese Socialist.
Finally, another main character is that Vietnamese history & culture has special development
of socio-economic formation. For instance, compared with the European world which went
through primitive communist, slave-owning mode of production, federalism, and capitalism,
the Vietnamese world also started with primitive communists, but then continued with the
Asiatic mode of production, federalism, and then semi-feudal colonial society along with
colonial capitalism. European culture had seeds of a new society in the old society, while the
remains of old society still existed in a new society, but they only lasted for a short time then
stopped completely. Meanwhile, Vietnamese socio-economic formation did not stop at any
particular time. All modes of production continuously existed throughout the history of the
country up until 1945. For example, primitive society was still in some mountainous areas.
There were no landlords, just rich and poor people. I other words, the Vietnamese world
experienced a multi-mode of production.
2. WHAT WAS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RED-RIVER CIVILIZATION AND THE

FORMATION OF VIETNAMESE IDENTITY?
Some definitions of Culture, cultural identity
•Culture: the intellectual foundation of society (Economy: material foundation)
•Identity (distinguished factors, characteristics, etc.); bản (constant, unchangeable,
invariable), sắc (variable). Differences between identity and Soul, spirit, mind, tradition, etc.
•Cultural identity, cultural identities?
•Something about The Van Lang-Au Lạc civilization (the Red-river civilization): two first
states (strong reunion of Viet tribes), wet rice civil., bronze-iron Ages, ethnic groups with the
strongest national orientation (“nation”), formation of cultural identity, etc.
Vietnamese identity today?
1.Deep, strong nationalism/ patriotism
-Historical cultural evidence for this: full of wars in history, struggle against many powers and
superpowers in history: China, Mongols- Yuen, France, Japan, USA, etc.
-Differences between Asiatic commune (Asian mode of production: no private ownership of
land, only communal Land) and Ancient commune, German commune leading to the
stronger mind of the community
-The historical needs to make solidarity of Viet tribes: Besides deep differentiation of
classes, the decisive importance of community mind in struggling against floods and
droughts in the Red-river delta and against foreign invaders leading to the earlier
appearance of two first states Van Lang- Au Lac.)
2.Flexibility, open-mindedness, tolerance, no segregation, no xenophobia, etc.
-Language: áo ấm + áo lạnh (sweater), đánh thắng = đánh bại (win, defeat), etc.; the
grammar of Vietnamese language (basic patterns of sentences, flexible order of words)
-Viet people, Viet culture as long-term diverse results of endogenous-exogenous
combinations:
oFrom Melanesian + Mongoloid = Indonesian (10,000 years ago); After that Indonesian
leading to Austronesian and Austroasiatic (5,000 years ago).
oMon-Khmer, Viet-Muong, Tai- Thai, Tibet-Burman, etc. come from the Austroasiatic.
-Diversity of resources in Vietnamese culture come from processes of complicated diverse
cultural acculturations such as Sinicization – De-Sinicization; Westernization -
DeWesternization; Hinduization - De-Hinduization, etc. These have led to tolerance, open-
mindedness in Vietnamese culture.
3.Sentimentalism
-Rationalism, materialism, idealism, spiritualism, voluntarism, pragmatism, sentimentalism,
etc.?
-Evidence from expressions of wartime patriotism, relations between the individual and
Home - Village- Country, etc. The Vietnamese patriotism as one of the most important
reasons for Vietnamese Victories against many enemies in the history of uprisings,
insurgency wars, resistant wars.
-Nomadic, hunting-gathering tribes: respecting action, rationalism. Agricultural tribes:
respecting quiescent, female; sentimentalism. The Red-river civilization was the typical
expression of wet rice agriculture.
-“Agricultural people are fond of organizing according to the affection-inclined principle.
Neighbors living permanently with each other for a long time must create a harmonious life
on the basis of taking affection into consideration first: Một bồ cái lý không bằng một tí cái
tình (“a basket of reasons is less than a handful of affection”).
The affection-inclined way of living surely leans toward virtue, literature, and women”
4.Respect for female
-Respecting for female, the cult of Mother
-Segregation of gender (Confucianism, Islamic, etc.).
-Vietnamese: no segregation, no xenophobia. Ex, marriages with foreigners
-Idioms & proverbs
“Nhất vợ nhì trời”
(“Wife ranks first, God comes second”);
“Lệnh ông không bằng cồng bà”
(Husband’s command is second to that of wife’);
“Ruộng sâu trâu nái không bằng con gái đầu lòng” (Deep field and pregnant cow are not as
lucky as having a first-born daughter).
-Vietnamese women are responsible for the economic and financial management in the
family.
-The broad masses of the people call them “holders of the safe key”.
-Vietnamese women are considered to have a decisive role in educating children:
Phúc đức tại mẫu (virtues are from moms),
Con hư tại mẹ, cháu hư tại bà (‘a spoiled kid is because of mom and grandma’),
Con dại cái mang (‘a child’s mistake is carried by mom’).
-In the Vietnamese language the word cái which in its origin means “mother” has changed
to mean something “big, important, or main”:
sông cái - river discharging into the sea, as opposed to a tributary
đường cái – “highway”
đũa cái – “big-serving chopstick”
ngón tay cái “thumb”. vs. “fingers”, etc.)”
-“In the Vietnamese tradition, the sedentary agricultural people’s spirit attaches much
importance to the house, which attaches much importance to the kitchen, which attaches
much importance to the woman”.

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1. What are the main characteristics - of Vietnamese History Culture?

2. WHAT WAS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RED-RIVER CIVILIZATION AND THE

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