PrefaceIn the second half of the twentieth century, Vietnam was a country very much in the American consciousness. Although many Americans have been to Vietnam and a large number of immigrants have come to the U.S. from Vietnam since the war, Vietnamese culture is not widely understood in the U.S.The culture is complex, having been influenced by many foreign invaders over the centuries. It has foundations in Confucian and Buddhist philosophies. Its collectivist worldview values group harmony over individual goals. Since Vietnamese behavior reflects patterns of respect that differ from those of most Americans, recent immigrants from Vietnam often misunderstand American behavior and speech and vice versa.The purpose of this monograph is to help rehabilitation service providers in the U.S. to understand some of the main elements in Vietnamese culture, especially those that relate to disability. The author of this monograph, Peter Hunt, is well qualified for this task. Mr. Hunt is of Chinese origin, but was born and raised in Vietnam and came to the U.S. when he was nine years of age. His interest in rehabilitation services stems from his own personal experiences as a person with an acquired disability. Over the years he has taken responsibility for arranging services for two other family members with disabilities. As a result, he is aware of the deficits and shortcomings in the health care delivery system and rehabilitation services, especially as they apply to cultural minorities with disabilities.Hunt holds a Masters of Public Health degree from Boston University. As a fellow at the Centers for Disease Control, he participated in research on disability among minority populations, particularly cultural influence on self–identification of disability status. He has also worked at the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) as special assistant to the director, where he also was a NIDRR Research Scholar and Research Fellow. He is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in rehabilitation science and technology at the University of Pittsburgh.This monograph on Vietnamese culture is part of a series developed by CIRRIE — the Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange — at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. The mission of CIRRIE is to facilitate the exchange of information and expertise between the U.S. and other countries in the field of rehabilitation. CIRRIE is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education.In addition to developing this monograph series, CIRRIE conducts workshops on providing disability services to foreign–born persons. We hope that this monograph will be useful to you in your work with persons born in Vietnam. We welcome your comments that will help us to deepen our understanding of ways to increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation services for persons born in other countries.
John H. Stone, Ph.D., Series Editor and Director,
Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE)
Introduction
To many Americans, the word "Vietnam" conjures images of the devastating war that took place in remote villages of Southeast Asia some 30 years ago. The media portrayal of Vietnam suggested it was made up of only scattered thatched–hut–villages a midst the burning fire of jungle warfare. Few Americans, especially those in the post–Vietnam War generation, are aware of the rich culture and history of Vietnam.
Vietnam nestles on the eastern shore of the Indochinese peninsula, and paradise–like beaches stretch from one end of the country to another. The land is fertile and abundant with untapped natural resources. Its people are gentle and blessed with an expansive civilization and affluent culture. These are the reasons why Vietnam has been much coveted by foreign invaders over the centuries. Appendix A provides a summary of current geopolitical statistics.
The aim of this monograph is to provide rehabilitation providers in the U.S. with basic information on Vietnam's history, culture, people and disability issues so that they can better serve Vietnamese with disabilities in the U.S.
General Background
Historical Background
Civil warfare and battles against foreign invaders are not unknown to the Vietnamese people. Their 4,000 years of history are filled with tales of the battlefield.
The saga began when the earliest settlers migrated from the Chinese Province of Kwang Si into the peninsula we now call "Indo China." They were known as the Lac and the Tay Au. In the fifth century BC, the Viet and Yue people from the coastal provinces of China joined the earlier migrants and expanded their settlements southward. Along the way, these early Vietnamese also assimilated the people of Champa (Chiêm Thành) and Kmer (Thủy Chân Lạp) and adopted some of their culture and traditions. This migration continued southward for more than 15 centuries.
Until the Chinese conquest in 111 BC, few historical records of earlier settlers were preserved; most "history" survived in the form of folklore embellished with myths and legends. The Chinese ruled Vietnam for the next 1,000 years and instilled in the Vietnamese China's Confucian philosophy and political culture. These, however, were unsettling years. Constant rebellions emerged as the Vietnamese tried to reclaim their land. They succeeded in 939 AD. This victory was credited to the most revered historical figures of ancient Vietnam history, the Trung sisters.
With their hard won independence, the Vietnamese continued to extend their settlements south to the Mekong Delta (Viets With a Mission, 2002).
In 1858, Vietnam fell prey to another foreign invader, the French. The French began their conquest in the south and by 1885 had usurped all of Vietnam. In the early twientieth century anti–colonial sentiment again began to fuel a nationalist movement. This was the genesis of the modern–day communist movement led by Ho Chi Minh. In March of 1945 Japan invaded Vietnam and stripped the French of all power. Ho Chi Minh seized the opportunity and declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945.
After World War II, the French refused to relinquish their colonial reign over Vietnam. War broke out between the communist–led Viet Minh (predecessors of modern–day Viet Cong), and the anti–communist Vietnamese who sided with the French. The defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 ended this eight–year war and led to the first Geneva peace talks. The Geneva agreement was a temporary division of Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel. The north was given to the communists and the south was allocated to the non–communists. The two sides were to reconvene in 1956 for a general election that would bring the two provisional zones together as a unified country. Instead, on October 26, 1955, South Vietnam declared itself the Republic of Vietnam.
Determined to unify the country, northern communists aggressively recruited new members and reconnected with its former networks in the south. This new force became known as Viet Cong, which led an underground, armed campaign against anyone who refused to support the cause of reunification. In 1961, in the face of internal political turmoil, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem requested the aid of the United States. President Kennedy sent military advisers. They were followed by U.S. combat forces sent by President Johnson to help crush the Viet Cong campaign, thus initiating the Vietnam War.
The war reached its turning point on the Vietnamese New Year's Day in 1968, an effort known the Tet Offensive. The north and south again agreed to hold peace talks in Paris. The talks dragged on at an agonizing pace, while the war continued to take its toll. A peace agreement was finally reached in January 27, 1973. The U.S. agreed to withdraw its troops from Vietnam, but military advisers remained behind. On April 30, 1975, the communists finally took over Saigon and completed their mission to reunify the country.
Even after reunification, war continued to break out on the borders of Vietnam. In December of 1978, Vietnam declared war against its western neighbor, Cambodia. China, a long time supporter of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, retaliated against Vietnam by attacking its northern border.
In the mid 1980s, there was a drastic change in the communist party agenda with a new focus on economic reform. The result was impressive. Vietnam became one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with an 8 percent annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997. Vietnam's inflation rate fell from 300 percent in 1987 to 4 percent in 1997. Per capita income rose from $220 in 1994 to $372 in 1999.
The 1990s was a decade of growth and prosperity. Vietnam became a member of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, the Association of South–East nations and the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. The U.S. normalized its relationship with Vietnam in 1994. The country currently has observer status in the World Trade Organization and is applying for membership. Vietnam expanded trade with neighboring countries and European markets. The culmination was the signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam in July 2000, which grants normal trade relations status for Vietnamese goods in the U.S. market (Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 2001).
Culture
Over the centuries, although the Vietnamese culture has been influenced by many foreign invaders, one can recognize the distinctive core values of the Vietnamese culture. Vietnamese cultural values rest on the principles of Confucianism. Contrary to the western idea of individualism, Vietnamese culture emphasizes the importance of family and community and its core values are harmony, duty, hon
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