Vietnam Culture

December 13, 2002

Many Vietnamese in Vietnam and America tend to believe that self-help is the key to success. Although they are correct, another important key is politics. The Vietnamese basically emphasize a work ethic, and not group or community activities. 

Vietnamese are oriented toward family, not toward society or other groups, like political groups. Vietnamese feel a strong obligation toward parents. The traditional Vietnamese concept of government does not involve a national political leadership or a strong central government. The village leaders and local customs are more important. Localities have a lot of autonomy. So even though Communism has pushed Vietnam more toward centralized government, Vietnamese-Americans come from a tradition of weak national and regional political groups.

Many Vietnamese also remain indifferent to politics because they have no unity on social issues. They often use protest for attention-getting rather than running for government office or for voting, fundraising, and other regular political activities. Also, Vietnamese do not really have any outreach to other political groups or issues with which they all agree. 

In spite of the fact that they have a high number of people in California, they have not united to form a political group. Vietnamese do not have a political power base to support their self-help efforts. They have too many conflicting beliefs.

The Vietnamese community has a high-level of self-help. People have achieved a relatively high degree of business ownership. They also have established areas of commerce. They have succeeded in preserving the Vietnamese language and community. But it is only because of the efforts of individuals and not because of organized political leadership or parties. A common observation is that the community needs more unity and more effective leadership. 

Today, Vietnamese often choose to become more Americanized. They are tending to decrease in self-help efforts, because they are forgetting their language and culture as they assimilate into American culture. 

Vietnamese really value education and wisdom. They also typically want to delay satisfaction for future benefit. Education is a practical way to increase wealth and is also valued because of its scholarship and wisdom. But education is seen as a way to promote oneself and family, not to lead a community. 

Even though Vietnamese have a strong work ethic, Vietnamese culture does not really emphasize planning ahead, management techniques, entrepreneurs, or risk-taking. Perhaps this because of non-materialistic aspects of culture, such as Buddhism. The idea of independence and autonomy is not emphasized.

It is clear that Vietnamese must combine self-help and political activism if they want to become successful in America as a group. Otherwise, they will either be assimilated or remain as a small isolated community with little power or prestige among other American groups.

Without political influence Vietnamese will not be able to improve their economic and social standing in America. Vietnamese culture will remain a small influence upon other Americans. Also, Vietnamese language and culture will be assimilated into Western culture. Vietnamese children will be at a disadvantage in school and society. Vietnamese businessmen will have less respect and influence. Vietnamese will never become leaders in American society, and Vietnamese people in America will not have leaders of their own community.

Vietnamese should join a political party, most probably the Democratic Party, and work within it to increase their voting, number of candidates running for office, and requests for money for candidates and issues. They should ally with other Asian-Americans on common issues. They should take positive steps to open Vietnamese culture to values and actions that emphasize common action and community.

Together with the high self-help characteristics, political influence will allow Vietnamese to take a high place in American society.