Vietnamese nationalism


Vietnamese nationalism is the nationalism that asserts that the Vietnamese are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of the Vietnamese. It encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Vietnamese people for many centuries in the history to preserve and defend the national identity of the Vietnamese nation.
Unlike other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam is the most culturally distinct from the rest, with the country being part of Sinosphere world, and Vietnamese is recognized as the only language in the country. Most Vietnamese nationalism focuses on the military history of the country; however, there are also other aspects of the nationalism in Vietnam.
However, most of Vietnamese modern nationalist concepts aim mainly on China, which has many times fueled the anti-Chinese sentiment in Vietnam, although there were other anti-Cambodian and anti-French in the past.

History of Vietnamese nationalism

During the first states like Au Lac and Nanyue, nationalism among the population was weak, as there was no centralized Vietnamese nation. However, the nationalism grew following with the later Chinese millennium in Vietnam, several attempts against Chinese occupation resulted with many wars that happened throughout thousand years of Chinese rule, after which Vietnam finally regained independence in the 10th century following the battle of Bạch Đằng. Lý Thường Kiệt's famous declaration of Vietnam's independence, Nam quốc sơn hà, is a patriotic and nationalistic poem that still lives on in Vietnamese society generations later and now. Nguyễn Trãi's Bình Ngô đại cáo is considered the other declaration of Vietnam's independence against the Chinese Dynasties.
In 17th century, in the North during the time of the Trịnh Lords, the Trịnh mandated that the Chinese entering the country had to strictly follow Vietnamese customs and refrain from contacts with the local Vietnamese populace in the cities. However, in the south, the Nguyễn Lords favored the Chinese, allowed many Chinese settling in new conquered land from Khmer Kingdom. The immigrated Chinese scholars even became Nguyễn Lord officials. The Nguyễn Dynasty under that influence once saw themselves as "Han nhan".
The Nguyễn Lord after defeating the Tay Son formed Nguyen Dynasty. The Nguyen Dynasty completed the Vietnamese "March to the South" or Nam tiến, in which they over the span of 700 years starting from the Lý dynasty gradually invaded and colonized the entire state of Champa and parts of the Khmer Empire. Under the Nguyễn dynasty, they attempted to assimilate all of the ethnic minorities in the territories that they had captured by forcing them to adopt sinicized Vietnamese customs. Copying the Chinese idea of Central Plain, the Nguyễn dynasty saw themselves as belonging to a superior culture, unlike the Indianized states of Champa and the Khmer Empire. As such, they saw themselves as carrying out a civilizing mission against the minorities who were not civilized and were seen as barbarians. In spite of considering themselves as superior due to being sinicized, members of the Vietnamese royalty looked down upon those that were non-Vietnamese as inferior due to Chinese influence.
On the later time, after the Nguyễn dynasty ruling Vietnam, the dynasty had been using the Vietnamization concepts to begin its massive Vietnamization of non-Vietnamese people. During the nam tiến period of the Nguyễn Dynasty, the Gia Long Emperor stated that "Hán di hữu hạn" 漢夷有限 when differentiating between Khmer and the Vietnamese. 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 Han customs."

Modern Vietnamese nationalism

As for the French invasion, many resistances came around but failed. However, following from time, Vietnamese nationalism also changed and through it, it also focused on only one goal - independence of Vietnam.
After 1979 war with China, Vietnam nationalism became anti-China. The sentiment grows bigger because of South China Sea/Vietnam East Sea dispute.

Economy

There has been a growing movement among Vietnamese by boycotting Chinese products, and rather using the Vietnamese-made products, which is called "made in Vietnam" to counter with "made in China".

Culture

Despite of being part of Sinosphere cultural influence and sharing many cultural aspects such as Confucianism, and having Chữ Nôm as its former writing script, Vietnamese nationalists mostly refuse to accept the solely Chinese influence. They believe the Vietnamese already had a profound culture before Chinese influence i.e Dong Son, rice cultivating... Adding with the interactions and later conquests of Indianized Kingdom of Champa, Vietnamese nationalists believe it is a major cross-road of two civilizations rather than one.
Vietnamese textbooks also refer the influence of China but refuses to recognize Chinese elements in Vietnamese nation.The current 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 when the Han Chinese conquered the land of Bai Yue tribes.

Military

For much of its history being razed by wars, Vietnamese developed its nationalism based on its successful history of warfare. Many Vietnamese generals are revered and are a source of pride and nationalism in Vietnamese society, such as Trần Hưng Đạo, the famous general who stood up to the mighty Mongol Empire by successfully repelling the 3 Mongol invasions of Vietnam in 1258, 1285, 1287–88 and Nguyễn Huệ, a revered Emperor and general who defeated the Qing Dynasty of China in the Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa, which was a large battle that is 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 in Vietnam named, 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 imperialism, 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 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.

Education

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.