Vietnam Culture Overview

The Culture of Vietnam which is the agricultural civilization based on the wet rice cultivating is one of the oldest of such in the Asia Pacific region. In terms of prehistory, most Vietnamese historians consider the ancient Dong Son culture to be one of the defining aspects of early  Vietnamese civilization. There are some other characteristics that comprise Vietnamese culture: betel- areca nut chewing, teeth darkening, đạo Mẫu, bamboo, respect for community and family value, hardworking and devotion to study.  Long periods of domination and interaction with its northern neighbor, China, has resulted in Vietnam's historic inclusion as part of the East Asian Cultural Sphere, known widely as Chinese Cultural Sphere with the accepting Confucianism as the philosophy of Mandarin class. However, the major stimulation of Vietnamese culture's development comes from indigenous factors. That is, Vietnamese culture with village culture as its representation is foundation that belongs to Austro-Asiatic culture and Chinese influence and Indianization have just only been enrichment.

Following independence from China in the 10th century AD, Vietnam began a southward expansion that saw the annexation of territories formerly belonging to the Champa civilization (now Central Vietnam) and parts of the Khmer empire (today southern Vietnam) which resulted in minor regional variances in Vietnam's culture due to exposure to these different groups.

During French colonial period, Vietnamese culture received merchant influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of Latin alphabet—to this day, Vietnam is the only non-island nation of Indochina which uses the Latin alphabet to write the national language.

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs. For many decades, foreign cultural influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others. Since the 1990s, Vietnam has seen a greater re-exposure to Asian, European and American culture and media.