Vietnamese nationalism

Before Chinese rule, semi-mythical figures such as the Hùng kings played a role in shaping Vietnam as a separate nation that existed previously situated in southern China and northern Vietnam from 2879 BC – 258 BC. Such origin myths helped shape Vietnam's independence and sovereignty as a nation. [5]

Additionally, the Đông Sơn culture, situated on the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam from 1000 BC until 100 AD were seen as the direct ancestors of the Vietnamese people. [6]

A Đồng Khánh period text regarding the demographics of the Hưng Hóa Province referring to the ethic groups as "Hán (Vietnamese)" (漢), "Thanh" (清), and "Thổ" (土). This indicates that during the beginning of the period of French domination the Vietnamese still maintained the "Hoa-Di distinction" while the indigenous peoples and the subjects of the Manchu Qing (Thanh) dynasty were viewed as "less civilised".

"The historiography of Vietnam under Chinese rule has had substantial influence from French colonial scholarship and Vietnamese postcolonial national history writing. During the 19th century, the French promoted the view that Vietnam had little of its own culture and borrowed it almost entirely from China, which was mostly wrong as Vietnamese culture emerged initially Austroasiatic. They did this to try to justify European colonial rule in Vietnam. By portraying the Vietnamese as merely borrowers of civilization, the French colonisers situated themselves in a historical paradigm of "bringing civilization" to a "backwards region" of the world. French scholar Leonard Aurousseau argued that not only did Vietnam borrow culturally and politically from China, the population of Vietnam was also directly the result of migration from the state of Yue in China. This line of thought was followed by Joseph Buttinger, who authored the first English language history book on Vietnamese history. He believed that to fight off the Chinese, the Vietnamese had to become like the Chinese.[7]

However, according to linguist John Phan and others, he suggests Vietnamese instead as a creole-like language between Austroasiatic and an independent "Annamese" Middle Chinese, creating the Vietnamese language as well as the origins of Hán-Việt, rather than Vietnamese being of "Yue Chinese origin" or Vietnamese "borrowing" from Chinese culture. [8][9][10]

The national school of Vietnamese history, portrays the period in "a militant, nationalistic, and very contemporary vision through which emerged a hypothetical substratum of an original Vietnam that was miraculously preserved throughout a millennium of the Chinese presence."[7] The national Vietnamese narrative depicts the Chinese as a corrupt and profit-driven people and merely the first of the foreign colonizing empires that were eventually driven from Vietnam. According to Catherine Churchman, this is not an entirely new historical tradition but a rewriting or updating of it, and has roots in Dai Viet, which portrayed itself as the Southern Empire equal to the Northern Empire (China). Dai Viet literati of the Trần and Lê dynasties sought an ancient origin for their autonomy prior to Chinese rule and traced their genealogy to Triệu Đà or the semi-legendary Hồng Bàng dynasty. They recorded that the Northern Empire suffered defeat for not respecting these views. However, scholars such as Nhi Hoang Thuc Nguyen argue that "the trope of a small country consistently repelling the China’s cultural force is a recent, postcolonial, mid-20th-century construction".[11][12] Works by Japanese scholars in the 1970s as well as in the English language in the 1980s have taken on elements of the national school. Katakura Minoru's Chūgoku shihaika no betonamu emphasizes the innate characteristics of the Vietnamese people. Keith Taylor's The Birth of Vietnam (1983) asserts a strong continuity from the semi-legendary kingdoms of the Red River Plain to the founding of Dai Viet, which was the result of a thousand-year struggle against the Chinese that culminated in the restoration of Vietnamese sovereignty. Jennifer Holmgren's The Chinese Colonisation of Northern Vietnam uses Sinicization and Vietnamization as terms to refer to political and cultural change in different directions. Works following the national school of Vietnamese history retroactively assign Vietnamese group consciousness to past periods (Han-Tang era) based on evidence in later eras. The national school of Vietnamese history has remained practically unchanged since the 1980s and has become the national orthodoxy.[13]

The argument for an intrinsic, intractable, and distinctly Southeast Asian Vietnamese identity in the Red River Plain throughout history has been categorized by Catherine Churchman as context, cultural continuity, and resistance.[14] Context refers to the downplaying of similarities between Vietnam and China while emphasizing Vietnam's Southeast Asian identity in the postcolonial period. Cultural continuity refers to an intrinsic Vietnamese "cultural core" that has always existed in the Red River Plain since time immemorial . Resistance refers to the national struggle of the Vietnamese people against foreign aggressors. Proponents of this historical narrative, such as Nguyen Khac Vien, characterize the history of Vietnam under Chinese rule as a "steadfast popular resistance marked by armed insurrections against foreign domination", while opponents such as Churchman note the lack of evidence, anachronisms, linguistic problems, adherence to Chinese political and cultural norms, and similarities as well as differences with other peoples under Chinese rule.[15]

The Vietnamese national narrative has introduced anachronisms in order to prove a unified Vietnamese national consciousness. The word Viet/Yue is often used to refer to an ethnic group when it had various meanings throughout history. There was no terminology to describe a Chinese-Vietnamese dichotomy during the Han-Tang period nor was there a term to describe a cohesive group inhabiting the area between the Pearl River and the Red River.[16] During the Tang period, the indigenous people of Annan or Jinghai Circuit were referred to as the Wild Man (Wild Barbarians), the Li, or the Annamese (Annan people).[17][18] In addition, the national history tends to have a narrow view limited to modern national boundaries, leading to conclusions of exceptionalism. Although it is true that the political situation in the Red River Plain was less stable than in Guangzhou to the north, such circumstances were not restricted to the area. The Vietnamese national narrative retroactively assigns any local rebellions, the rise of local dynasties, and their local autonomy with the motive of seeking national independence.[19] Language has also been used as evidence for a distinct Vietnamese identity in the Han-Tang period. However, some research points to the formation of a Vietnamese language only afterward as the result of a creolization and language shift involving Middle Chinese.[14]

In the south, the Nguyễn lords favoured the Chinese, allowing many Chinese to settle in new conquered land from the Khmer Kingdom. The immigrated Chinese scholars even became Nguyễn Lord officials.[20] However in the modern era, after Communist rule took over Vietnam, many of the bourgeoise were expelled, including many of the Chinese. Hostilities from the Sino-Vietnamese War as well as territorial disputes in the South China Sea also increases hostilities against China, with politicians having to keep the peace out of necessity.

After defeating the Tay Son, the Nguyễn lord formed the Nguyen dynasty. The Nguyen dynasty completed the Vietnamese "March to the South" or Nam tiến. Over the span of 700 years, starting from the Lý dynasty, the dynasty gradually the entire state of Champa and parts of the Khmer Empire. Under the Nguyễn dynasty (the dynasty most sinicised and influenced by the teachings of Confucius), they attempted to assimilate all of the ethnic minorities in the territories that they had captured by forcing them to adopt sinicised Vietnamese customs. Copying the Chinese idea of Central Plain, the Nguyễn dynasty saw themselves as belonging to a superior culture, unlike the Indianised states of Champa and the Khmer Empire. They saw themselves as carrying out a civilising mission against the minorities who were seen as barbarians.[21] Considering themselves as superior due to being sinicised, members of the Vietnamese royalty looked down upon those that were non-Vietnamese as inferior.[22]

Later on, after the Nguyễn dynasty began ruling Vietnam, the dynasty had been using the Vietnamisation concepts on the non-Vietnamese people. During the Nam tiến period of the Nguyễn dynasty, Emperor Gia Long stated that "Hán di hữu hạn" (漢夷有限, "the Vietnamese and the barbarians must have clear borders") when differentiating between Khmer and the Vietnamese.[23] Emperor Minh Mạng, the son of Gia Long, stated with regards to the Vietnamese forcing the ethnic minorities to follow Sino-Vietnamese customs that "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Hán [Civilised] customs."[24] The Nguyễn dynasty under that influence once saw themselves as "Hán nhân" (Civilised people).[25][20]

"Nam tiến" is a complex historical process with both positive and negative consequences, and it continues to be a topic of historical research and discussion of Vietnam and the broader Southeast Asian region.[26] Champa and Dai Viet had fought wars which lead to the annexation of Champa. Additionally, relations between Cambodia and Vietnam date back to when Chey Chettha II, in order to balance the influence of the Siamese forces, which had devastated the previous capital at Longvek during the reign of his father, had struck an alliance with Vietnam and married Princess Nguyễn Phúc Ngọc Vạn, a daughter of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, in 1618.[27][28] In return, the king had granted the Vietnamese the right to establish settlements in Mô Xoài (now Bà Rịa), in the region of Prey Nokor—which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn, and which later became Ho Chi Minh City.[29][30] Vietnamese settlers first entered the Mekong and the Prey Nokor area (later Saigon) from the 1620s onwards. The region then as now is known to the Cambodians as Kampuchea Krom but by cession and conquest (Vietnamese expansion to the South, dubbed Nam Tiến), the area came under Vietnamese control. Under the reign of Chey Chettha II, Cambodia formally ceded the eastern portion to the Nguyễn lords.[31] Difficulties remain however in regards to the human rights issues of Cham people and Khmer Krom.[32][33]

Hồ Chí Minh also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc was a Vietnamese nationalist, communist, revolutionary, politician, and the father of current modern Vietnam.

After French started to rule Vietnam (French Indochina), Vietnamese nationalism became driven by a sense of anticolonialism as evidence of French atrocities in Vietnam emerged.[34] The French sought to introduce Christianity to Vietnam, but the religion was viewed with suspicion from the rulers and French missionaries were executed, leading to war between France and Vietnam and eventual conquest of Vietnam under France. [35] Initially, there were attempts to "modernise" Vietnam with Western ways of thinking via France.[36] However, the oppressive colonial rule created a divide between the bourgeoises and the oppressed peasant class of Vietnam, causing leaders such as Ho Chi Minh to oppose French colonial rule, and found communism enticing during his time abroad, believing that it could be used to liberate the Vietnamese people.[37] Although Ho Chi Minh remains revered and controversial to this day, there were arguments that Ho Chi Minh was fundamentally a Vietnamese nationalist turned to communism.[38][39][40][41][42] A combination of French colonialism, followed by temporary Japanese occupation, and attempted French colonialism again further spurred Vietnamese nationalism and finally independence from foreign powers. [43]

Flag of South Vietnam, still used by some overseas Vietnamese communities.

During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese nationalism was split between Chinese and Soviet-allied North Vietnam and US and Western-backed South Vietnam.[44] Controversies continue to this day where communist symbols or the current Vietnam flag raised controversies within the South Vietnamese overseas diaspora, whilst the South Vietnam flag is disparaged in Communist-controlled Vietnam.[45] [46]

There has been a growing movement among Vietnamese by boycotting Chinese products, using Vietnamese-made products instead, or tending to prefer Japanese or Western-made products over Chinese products. "Made in China" can be seen as mass-produced cheap products but sometimes also of inferior quality.[47] The China-United States trade war since 2018 has also made other countries a beneficiary of the trade war.[48] [49][50]

Despite being part of Sinosphere cultural influence and sharing many cultural aspects such as Confucianism, and having chữ Nôm and chữ Hán as its former writing script, Vietnamese nationalists mostly refuse to accept Chinese influence on Vietnam.[1] They have a belief that the Vietnamese already had a profound culture before Chinese influence i.e Đông Sơn, rice cultivating, dominated by Austroasiatic peoples. Adding with the interactions and later conquests of Indianized Kingdom of Champa, some Vietnamese nationalists believe it is a major cross-road of two civilizations rather than one, being at crossroads between Indic and Sinic.

Vietnamese textbooks also refer to the influence of China but reject Chinese elements in Vietnamese nation.[1] The current of north Vietnam was part of the land of Bai Yue tribes, so they believe the similarities are because of the Chinese culture was influenced by the culture of Bai Yue tribes (Bách Việt) when their land was conquered by the Han Chinese. One such example was how millet farming originated from the yellow river, whilst rice farming

Within the East Asian cultural sphere, some Vietnamese may also believe that some 'backward' parts of Vietnamese culture, (patriarchal system) was inherited from Confucian or Chinese rule, with some believing that Vietnamese culture being matriarchal before (such as Trưng sisters). [1][51]

The Vietnamese language is also written with the Latinised Vietnamese alphabet but is spoken with native Vietnamese words alongside a literary register descended from Middle Chinese, which has also been the point of immense pride for Vietnamese nationalism, due to the easy learning nature of the Vietnamese language and it's ability to represent Vietnamese core identities from its history of Chinese and European oppression. The rejection of the use of Chinese characters in favour of the Latin alphabet as well as international usage of English helped solidify Vietnam's independence from China, as existing narratives were that

For much of its history being razed by wars, the Vietnam developed its nationalism based on its successful history of warfare. Many Vietnamese generals are seen as nationalistic heroes in Vietnamese society, such as Trần Hưng Đạo, the famous general who stood up to the mighty Mongol Empire by successfully repelling the three Mongol invasions of Vietnam in 1258, 1285, 1287–1288 and Nguyễn Huệ, a revered Emperor and general who defeated the Qing dynasty of China in the Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa, considered to be one of the greatest military victories in Vietnamese history. Both Trần Hưng Đạo and Nguyễn Huệ have several streets named after them and statues erected to honor them, and both are listed as being among the greatest generals in history.

Vietnam also heavily honors its long lists of generals in ancient Vietnamese history that fought against Chinese expansionism, such as the Trưng Sisters and Lady Triệu, who were female generals that led major independent movements against Chinese occupation. Ngô Quyền is well honored for being the first to successfully defeat the Southern Han of China at the Battle of Bạch Đằng in 938 and establishing Vietnamese independence, Lê Hoàn for defeating the Song dynasty at the same river in 981, and Lê Lợi who liberated Vietnam by defeating the Ming dynasty and founding the Lê dynasty.

A sense of pride has also developed in the Vietnamese resistance in the 20th century. Ho Chi Minh is regarded as the founder of modern Vietnam after his victories against the Japanese during World War II and against the French in the First Indochina War, declaring the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Võ Nguyên Giáp is also recognized as one of the most successful generals in current Vietnamese history, emerging victorious in not only the two aforementioned wars, but also in the Vietnam War, that allowed the unification of the country, and the Sino-Vietnamese War against the Chinese due to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.

Vietnamese national pride is heavily promoted in Vietnamese textbooks, especially of its development and its heroism. Many Vietnamese stories are still heavily mentioned in the youth education system and among the older generations which have been regarded as a major factor that keeps Vietnamese nationalism alive.

The contentious South China Sea disputes (called East Sea in Vietnam) can become a flashpoint for nationalism to emerge. [52] The Barbie movie was banned over alleged drawings resembling the 9 dash or 11 dash line. [53]

• Vu, Tuong (2007). "Vietnamese Political Studies and Debates on Vietnamese Nationalism". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 2 (2): 175–230. doi:10.1525/vs.2007.2.2.175.
• Vu, Tuong (2014). "The Party v. the People: Anti-China Nationalism in Contemporary Vietnam". Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 9 (4): 33–66. doi:10.1525/vs.2014.9.4.33.
• Moise, Edwin E. (1988). "Nationalism and Communism in Vietnam". Journal of Third World Studies. University Press of Florida. 5 (2): 6–22. JSTOR 45193059.