Who are the Vietnamese?
Although Vietnam is not a multi-racial country, it is multi-ethnic. The ‘Kinh’ group is by far the largest and is usually referred to as ‘the Vietnamese’. The remainder are members of 53 different ethnic groups’ many of which have migrated into Vietnam over recent centuries.

The Kinh can be traced back to the Lac Viet people, thought to be of Mongolian origin, who migrated from the north in the Bronze Age. Since then, parts of several civilisations that extended into what is today Vietnam – the Funanese, the Cham, and the Khmer being notable examples – and have been almost completely absorbed into Kinh majority. Even the remnants of the Cham and K’hmers that remain as ethnic groups are almost indistinguishable from the mainstream Kinh people. The process of steady attrition, absorption and assimilation has only recently been partially reversed as the tourism benefits to be gained from ethnic diversity have become apparent.

The strong culture smothers the weak
Vietnam is far from unique in absorbing other races. However, the process of cultural assimilation is somewhat different. Elsewhere, when a nation has invaded another, been invaded, or has been powerfully influenced by neighbouring country with a different culture, the conflicting beliefs, ideologies, and particularly religions jostle for hegemony until one dominates and the others fade into obscurity – the spread of Christianity into northern Europe, and later into parts of Africa, for example.

Cultural co-existence
Over the centuries, Vietnam has also been exposed to an exceptional range of cultural influences from outside, but unlike most countries, has not regarded them as conflicting with the existing dominant ideology or religion. Instead, differing beliefs are not regarded as antipathetic, but as complementary. Novel concepts and ideas appear to be taken at face value, absorbed and added to the existing framework.

Thus, a ‘socialist market economy’ is not an oxymoron in Vietnam. The great majority of ordinary Vietnamese people follow Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, ancestor worship and animism simultaneously, apparently without any cognitive dissonance. Even some staunch Catholics maintain a small altar to the ancestors in their houses.

What makes Vietnam different?
Why this should be so is difficult to determine. The potent strength of the extended family seems to be a major factor – the heavy Confucian emphasis upon the avoidance of conflict by excessive politeness, even dissembling, would not allow criticism of another’s point of view. Another influence might be the impact of Taoism with its imperative to maintain the balance of yin and yang to provide direction and avoid tragedy.

The effect is to produce an apparently quiescent society. There is little evidence of a general desire to engage in debate, to challenge the status quo or to adopt Western style confrontational politics. From an outsider’s viewpoint, this seeming failure to engage in today’s ‘big issues’ apart from those that directly affect Vietnam appears to be either apathy or complacency. For the Vietnamese, it is ‘bin thuong’ – ‘normal’ – a cultural trait that serves the country well at a time of globalisation and political turmoil.