Abstract
The chapter adopts an inside-out approach to interpreting the cultural modalities of the Vietnamese higher education. It debunks these modalities in three categories: Vietnamese traditions, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Also, it attends closely to post-1945 nation-state identities dominated by Marxism–Leninism and Ho Chi Minh ideologies. This chapter serves as a cornerstone for subsequent chapters to explore various aspects of higher education reforms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Interestingly, communalism is derived from the notion of “commune”, defined as “a union of several families grouped into one agglomeration or separated into many individual ones. It is formed not only by those who live there but also by all those who originated there and may return only once or twice in a lifetime, but have the tombs of their ancestors in the commune and their familial temple is maintained by a member of the clan” (Nguyen 1995, p. 70).
- 2.
Another interesting case in point is, believe it or not, the Vietnamese identity card still spares a space for specifying the card holder’s place of origin.
- 3.
Nguyen Van Huyen (1995) also remarks that clan is the basic social regime of Vietnam, comprising a number of families. It includes all individuals sharing the same stock, đồng tôn, with a common ancestor. The relations of the clan may spread to nine generations, cửu tộc.
- 4.
The Gia Long code places a high value of the importance of family. It says “The families in the chau or huyen share the land, establish the taxation system, and all families assume the government of the locality” (Nguyen 1995, p. 22).
- 5.
The Hồng Đức remained effective until the end of the nineteenth century when Gia Long, in his 11th year of reign, introduced another code constituted by the Hồng Đức code and the Chinese code of the Tsing dynasty (Nguyen 1995).
- 6.
Retrieved from the following website as of 17 February 2014: http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%E1%BA%ADt_H%E1%BB%93ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c.
- 7.
See also: http://pacific.net.vn/Home/NewsDetail.aspx?newsid=31.
Also, disloyalty includes “accusing or abusing one’s grand father, grand mother, father or mother; refusing to adequately provide for one’s parents; taking a wife during the mourning of one’s father or mother; merry-making, or indulging in pleasures and wearing clothes other than the mourning garments; learning of the death of one’s grand father or grand father and concealing the news without announcing the mourning; or falsely declaring that one is in mourning for one’s grand father or grand mother, one’s father or mother” (Nguyen 1995, p. 63).
- 8.
Nguyen Van Huyen (1995, p. 63) instanced the case of the child “who disowned his child to keep the little quantity of good rice remained for his mother; that of a son who dipped his warm body in the ice-cold river in the hope of catching fish that his parents liked; that of a son who slept in the evening with a naked body to attract all the mosquitoes to himself and to offer peaceful sleep to his father”.
References
Altbach, P. (1989). Twisted roots: The Western impact on Asian higher education. The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 18(1), 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138959.
Altbach, P., & Selvaratnam, V. (1989). From dependence to autonomy the development of Asian universities. Dordrecht: Springer.
Austin, J. (2005). Culture and identity: an introduction. In J. Austin, A. Keddie, A. Hickey, J. Nayler, J. McMaster, K. Howey, M. Lewis, & T. Rossi (Eds.), Culture and Identity (2nd ed., pp. 1–16). Frenchs Forest: Pearson Sprint Print.
Bhabha, H. (1987). Interrogating identity. In L. Appignanesi (Ed.), Identity: The real me (Vol. 6, pp. 5–12). London: Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Brocheux, P. (2007). Ho chi minh: A biography. Trans. Claire duiker. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dinh, X. L., & Nguyen, V. H. (1998). Xu huong doi moi trong lich su Viet Nam. Hanoi: NXB Van Hoa Thong Tin.
Hall, S. (1987). Minimal selves. In L. Appignanesi (Ed.), Identity: The real me (Vol. 6, pp. 44–46). London: Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Hall, S. (1991). The local and the global: Globalisation and ethnicity. In A. King (Ed.), Culture, globalisation and the world system (pp. 19–39). London: Macmillan.
Hall, S. (1992a). Introduction: Identity in question. In S. Hall, D. Held, & T. McGrew (Eds.), Modernity and its future. London: Sage.
Hall, S. (1992b). Cultural studies and its theoretical legacie. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, & P. Treichler (Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 227–294). New York: Routledge.
Hall, S. (1996a). Introduction: Who needs “identity”? In S. Hall & P. D. Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). London: Sage.
Hall, S. (1996b). Introduction: Identity in question. In S. Hall, D. Held, D. Hubert, & K. Thompson (Eds.), Modernity an introduction to modern societies (pp. 596–628). Malden: Blackwell.
Hall, S. (1997). Cultural identity and diaspora. In K. Woodward (Ed.), Identity and difference (pp. 51–59). London: SAGE in association with The Open University.
Harman, G., Hayden, M., & Phaṃ, T. N. (2010). Reforming higher education in Vietnam challenges and priorities (Higher education dynamics, Vol. 25). Dordrecht: Springer.
Hawkins, J. N., Neubauer, D., & Shin, J. C. (2013a). Introduction: Four hypothesis of higher education development. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hawkins, J. N., Neubauer, D., & Shin, J. C. (2013b). Is there an Asian hybrid university? New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Huu, N. (2005). Wandering through Vietnamese culture. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers.
Jamieson, N. L. (1993). Understanding Vietnam. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.
Karnow, S. (1983). Vietnam: A history. New York: Viking.
Lee, M. (2006). Higher education in Southeast Asia in the era of globalisation. In J. J. F. Forest & P. G. Altbach (Eds.), International handbook of higher education (pp. 539–555). Dordrecht: Springer.
London, J. D. (2011). Education in Vietnam. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Marginson, S. (2008). Global field and global imagining: Bourdieu and worldwide higher education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(3), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690801966386.
Marr, D. G. (1981). Vietnamese tradition on trial, 1920–1945. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.
Marr, D. G. (2000). Concepts of ‘individual’ and ‘self’ in twentieth-century Vietnam. Modern Asian Studies, 34(4), 769–796. https://doi.org/10.2307/313131.
McHale, S. F. (2004). Print and power: Confucianism, communism and Bhuddism in the making of modern Vietnam. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Ngo, T. L. (2005). Ban sac van hoa – tinh tuong doi cua su da dang. Retrieved from http://www.chungta.com/Desktop.aspx/ChungTa-SuyNgam/Hanh-Dong/Ban_sac_van_hoa-tinh_tuong_doi_cua_su_da_dang/
Ngo, T. M., Lingard, B., & Mitchell, J. (2006). The policy cycle and vernacular globalisation: A case study of the creation of Vietnam National University—Hochiminh City. Comparative Education, 42(2), 225–242.
Nguyen, V. H. (1995). The ancient civilization of Vietnam. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers.
Nguyen, T. T. (1997). Influences of ideologies on Vietnam’s culture. Hanoi: National Politics Publishers.
Nguyen, T. N. (2011). A historical–political approach to constructing contemporary Vietnamese identity. In Asia Pacific education: Challenges, changes and diversity (pp. 162–171). Melbourne: Monash E-Publisher.
Nguyen, T. N. (2013). Asia as method? Towards decolonising research imagination. Paper presented at the Inter-Asia Studies Conference, The National University of Singapore.
Nguyen, T. T. M. (n.d.). Confucianism and its influences in Vietnam. Cultural Studies, 2.
Nguyen, T. N., & Lehy, P. (2015). Generalizing the self? Towards an Asian self in Australian transnational education. In P. W. Chan, H. Zhang, & J. Kenway (Eds.), Asia as a method in educational studies. Singapore: Sage.
Nguyen, N., & Tran, L. T. (2017). Looking inward or outward? Vietnam higher education at the superhighway of globalisation: Culture, values and changes. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2017.1332457.
Papastergiadis, N. (2005). Hybridity and ambivalence: Places and flows in contemporary art and culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 22(4), 39–64.
Pelly, P. M. (2002). Postcolonial Vietnam: New history of the nation past. Durham: Duke University Press.
Pham, T. N. (2010). The higher education reform agenda: A vision for 2020. In G. Harman, M. Hayden, & T. N. Pham (Eds.), Higher education in Vietnam: Reform, challenges and priorities (pp. 51–64). Dordrecht/Heidelberg/London/New York: Springer.
Pham, M. H., Le Phan, H., Vu, V. T., & Le, H. T. (1996). Van de con nguoi trong su nghiep cong nghiep hoa hien dai hoa. Hanoi: NXb Chinh Tri Quoc Gia.
Phan, N. (1994). Van hoa Viet Nam va cach tiep can moi. Hanoi: NXB Van Hoa Thong Tin.
Phan, N. (1998). Ban Sac Van Hoa Vietnam. Hanoi: NXB. VHTT.
Phan, L. H. (2008). Teaching English as an international language: Identity, resistance and negotiation. Clevedon/Buffalo/Toronto: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Rambo, A. T. (2005). Religion and society in Vietnam. In A. T. Rambo (Ed.), Searching for Vietnam: Selected writing on Vietnamese culture and society (pp. 69–108). Kyodai Kaikan: Kyoto University Press.
Ratliff, W. (2008). Vietnam rising: Culture and change in Asia’s Tiger Club. Oakland: The Independent Institute.
Smith, R. (1968). Vietnam and the west. Heinemann/London: Heinemann Educational Books.
Tran, N. T. (1999). Co so van hoa Vietnam. Hanoi: NXB. Giao Duc.
Tran, Q. V. (2000). Van Hoa Viet Nam, Tim Toi va Suy Ngam. Hanoi: NXB. VHDT.
Tran, N. T. (2003). Tim Ve Ban Sac Van Hoa Vietnam. TP Ho Chi Minh: NXB. Tong Hop TP Ho Chi Minh.
Tran, L. T., Marginson, S., Do, H., Do, Q., Le, T., Nguyen, N., Vu, T., Pham, T., & Nguyen, H. (2014). Higher education in Vietnam: Flexibility, mobility and practicality in the global knowledge economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tuong Lai. (2009). Tu tuong Ho Chi Minh sai buoc cung thoi dai. Retrieved from www.chungta.com/Desktop.aspx/
Welsch, W. (1999). Transculturality - the puzzling form of cultures today. In y. M. Featherstone & S. Lash (Eds.), Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World (pp. 194–213). London: Sage.
Yang, R. (2011). Self and the other in the Confucian cultural context: Implications of China’s higher education development for comparative studies. International Review of Education, 57(3–4), 337–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-011-9208-x.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nguyen, N.T. (2019). Cultural Modalities of Vietnamese Higher Education. In: Nguyen, N.T., Tran, L.T. (eds) Reforming Vietnamese Higher Education. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 50. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8918-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8918-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-8917-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-8918-4
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)