Vietnam and China Context

Context

A debate that has been receiving more scholarly attention recently is that of a Vietnamese national identity. There are two primary ways to view the national identity and how to classify the culture of Vietnam. First, a generally accepted idea of identity for the Vietnamese is that there is a special indigenous culture that has combined with elements of rebellion against oppressive forces to create a culture that is distinct from the Sino-Centric Chinese influence directly to the north. Secondly, there is a group of scholars who believe that much of Vietnamese culture was and still to an extent is derived from the influence of China.

The first group of scholars includes most South East Asianists who believe that Vietnam draws much cultural uniqueness from native indigenous people such as the Cham and the Khmer and also from the influences brought about by the close proximity to other South East Asian countries. Scholars that are proponents of this theory of Vietnamese identity include Keith Taylor, John Whitmore, and for the most part Anthony Reid and Nhung Tuyet Tran.

This line of thought in the Vietnamese identity is further backed up by the historical events leading to Vietnamese resistance against a foreign or even an internal power. Historical movements against the Chinese by figures such as the Trung Sisters create a strong backdrop for a historical narrative in which a culturally unique Vietnamese people struggle to maintain their identity. This narrative is further supported by later events in history such as the Tay Son movement, the resistance and wars against French oppression, nationalist movements, and the actions of the communists to reassert a new national identity against the foreign ideals left by the French.

Countering arguments suggest that such ideas of nationalism are created by viewing history through a nationalist lens of the present that is a recent development. Scholars who are of this mindset also tend to believe that much of the Vietnamese identity has been shaped by the Chinese cultural world and governmental systems. Scholars in this camp tend to be more East Asian based or have a strong sense of nationalism as a movement that derived from European industrialization. These scholars include people such as Liam Kelly, Alexander Woodside, and Ernest Gellner.

Because the Chinese had occupied much of what is now northern Vietnam, including what was long considered a cultural heartland in Hanoi, for nearly a thousand years leading up to 938 C.E. it is clear how such institutions could have become so enmeshed into society. Ideas that Vietnam has developed much of its culture are strongly supported by the cultural and governmental elites from 938 C.E. to the middle of the 19^th century. During this time of Vietnamese dynasties the ideas of Confucianism played a major role in the governing and in the culture of the country. The Confucian tradition led to the establishment of national exams for positions in the bureaucracy and this led to an increasing awareness in the importance of tradition Chinese philosophies and literary traditions. This tradition also imparted the ideas of filial piety, a central idea within Chinese culture, which to this day still shapes many aspects of family life and was even more potent during the dynastic age.

With these notions of the Chinese influence in mind Liam Kelly sets out to pursue how these literati elites viewed their relationship with China. Opposed to much of what nationalist lore proposes that the Chinese were hated as they were cultural and economic tyrants, Kelly sets out to prove that the Chinese were not hated but in many cases respected and liked. Through a series of envoy poets within the Chinese tributary system that carried on throughout much of the dynastic age, in which delegates from tributary nations such as Vietnam would be sent to pay respects to the Chinese emperor and pay tribute, Kelly studies what he feels is a more accurate representation of what the Vietnamese relationship with China was like. If these literati can be taken as a representation of the society as a whole it opens entirely new possibilities to the Vietnamese nationalistic narrative.