Vietnam: East or Southeast Asian? 

Vietnam a country where East Asia meets Southeast Asia.

I agree with you about Vietnam being both, and I think that your facts are very accurate ! Thanks for the informative video!

Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia, but culture, customs, customs, cuisine, lifestyle, architecture are similar to East Asia.

Well researched and educational. Vietnam is one of my favorite places to visit.

This video is really inspiring and covers so many topics that paints the picture of what Asia is

A meaningful video, I appreciate and very like what you introduce our country to international friends, you can visit Vietnam someday, I'm sure you will have the best experience exciting! Thank you for giving us a meaningful video! Your voice is very warm, I love you!

Literally a professional video💟 Subscribed.

Vietnam is a special country, it locates in Southeast Asia but its location on the cultural map is within East Asian Cultural Circle.

Your channel is so underrated

Short answer: culturally East Asia, geographically Southeast Asia

Excellent photography clip...smooth and informative...great job!

Thank you for making this and speaking so clearly and thoughtfully. This in particular has made me fall in love again with Vietnam. I was enamored for some time and then became somewhat disconnected and confused about what frustration I felt living there for some time. I think in truth it was extremely difficult to sometimes relate too because of just how middle country it is in the perspective you so nicely broke down here. Being American but having lived in Japan and in Kuwait around Muslim countries. Vietnam was truly interesting and very difficult to rapidly adapt to or classify so as to be able to better relate to it. But then I never thought about it like you have and this video really helps me see it and be able to accept it in a much better light!!!!

The reasons why Vietnam belongs to Southeast Asia: geographical location, climate, economic region. Reasons why Vietnam belongs to East Asia: culture, traditional costumes, people, society, politics, most of their history, writing (kanji, chu nom, romaji-latin are three types) script in Vietnam), although tomaji is used, it does not mean that romaji is considered unique, it is only used a lot and is common, so don't misunderstand, a lot of Vietnamese people pay attention to kanji and nom... Vietnam is special, this country is very impressive.

Hi, thanks for making this. Your approach is more of academic thesis with video, than video thesis which is very distinct but may be challenging for most to follow. The contents is all round top notch, definitely on par with Kurzgesagt and others. Wish you had put your references in the description though. Otherwise, great work here! Look forward to check out your other contents

That was an exceptional breakdown of the topic. Well done

BALLER VIDEO, super impressed.

I think personally Vietnam is a Southeast Asian country, but when looking at the culture, my mind blows up to realize how similar Vietnam is to China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

Vietnam is our brother. One ASEAN

Great video! Looking forward to more content. Also, your voice is very soothing :)

As A Filipino, It’s Nice To Know About Our ASEAN Neighbors. And Yes, Vietnam Is Located In Southeast Asia But Culturally East Asia. Love Your Videos ^^ Hope You Post More. Salamat Po ^^

1. Culturally, Vietnam is Sinospheric as it belongs to Sinosphere (East Asian Cultural Sphere). Vietnamese people had been being affected by Confucism and Daoism, they used to use Hantu (Chinese script, known as Hanja in Korean and Kanji in Japanese) to write their language, their traditional costumes (aodai, aonguthan, aotuthan, aonhatbinh, aogiaolinh) are all fairly similar to other Sinospheric countries. Sinospheric countries use moon calendar, share same festivals and their vocabularies are similar as well. Meanwhile, the rest of mainland SE Asia is culturally affected by India. 2. Geographically, Vietnam is actually Southeast Asian. Despite that, Northern Vietnam’s climate has many similarities with the climate of southern China and can be said to be rather colder than the rest of the SEA. There were records of winter snowfall in most of the region until the 13th century, today the extent of snowfall has narrowed to the northwest.

To those who say Southern Vietnam is more influenced by SEA culture than the North, thats not true. There are many more Hoa people (VNese people of full or partial Han Chinese ancestry) living in the South than the North. The Hoa people arent considered an ethnic minority because they share many similarities to the Vietnamese culture. There is a whole populated district 5 in HCMC that consists mostly of Hoa people. The Hoa people scatter across many Southern Vietnam regions but in the North you can only find a few of them in Bac Giang and Quang Ninh. Being borned and raised in HCM city with my mother being Hoa as her grandfather migrated from Guangzhou to Vietnam at the end of the Qing Dynasty, I can attest that the South belongs to the East Asian cultural sphere as much as the the North does. There are indeed some remnants of the Champa civilization in Middle Vietnam and Mekong Delta regions and more Khmer people live in the South than in the North, but the Khmers only take up 1,37% of Vietnamese population. Most of Southern Vietnamese are Kinh people who originally came from the North and developed a different dialect overtime. Very rarely there is someone borned from Khmer-Kinh parents because the Khmers mostly marry their own kind. When we talk about cultural sphere, its about the arts, traditions, cuisine, and literature and only very small groups of people in Southern Vietnam celebrate anything related to SEA cultural. Whereas most of the major festivals, traditions and buildings in the South are overwhemingly influenced by East Asian culture. In fact, you can even find much more French influence in HCMC and Da Lat than SEA culture.

Wonderful video. Thank you

Very nicely made. Good job.

Next time: "Mongolia: Central or East Asian?"

A very thoughtful video. The only flaw l noticed, was in stating that the Latin alphabet was introduced by the French. It was actually introduced by the Portuguese. Vietnam does actually have Theravada, but Mahayana dominates most of the country. In many ways, we can see Vietnam as a sponge, that has soaked up influences from many cultures and nations.

Very well-made video. Thank you for this.

Love you Vietnam...Don't listen to some Racist People and comments here...atleast SE asian is living in Harmony and peacefully We also have Conflict Identity too...It's like ARE FILIPINOS ASIAN, HISPANIC OR PACIFIC ISLANDER??? Actually yeah we're SE Asian HAHAHAHA

I’m glad you made this video, I was offended when people like my ap world history teacher categorizes Vietnam as theverada who uses Indic scripts because they are usually categorize as southeast Asian

Didn't you guys pay attention to the detail he pointed out? If Vietnam didn't have the southward expansion and remained only the northern part, then Vietnam could have been part of east asia geographically, too. The original Vietnamese stock from the north with the influence of the 1000 years under the different Chinese dynasties eat talk and study just like east asians. The video clearly pointed out that belief system, education, and family structure clearly follow Confucius just like China Japan, and Korea. Vietnamese is even closer to china in term of langue features for being tonal, where korean and Japanese are not. Vietnamese and Chinese languages is SVO: Subject Verb Object. Where as korean and Japanese are SOV: Subject Object Verb. Clearly Vietnam without the southern expansion is east asian, period. However after gaining independence in 10th century, the original stock intermarried native central and south Vietnamese such as champa..khemer ( Cambodian). So because of this, central and southern Vietnamese have south east asian admixtures. You can tell this fact by looking at northern viets. They look more like people from honghong or quangxi. Where as central and southern viets still look east asians but some parts looked mixed, giving them a distinct appearance. The sense that Vietnamese feel they also part of southeast asians because of the southern expansion and the intermarriage. Political and geographical labeling don't matter much because if you look at the case of white Americans, they are called Americans but they are genetically European. So just like the author of this video said Vietnamese are east asians.

i've been watching your videos and they're excellent , keep the good job

Well, this totally deserves a subscription

Really good video! You did much more research than the average Westerners making videos about Vietnam. I just wanna add on that it wasn't just the last dynasty that called itself the Middle Kingdom, but many previous dynasties as well. Hope you can make more videos about Vietnamese cultural history like you did with Ryukyu!

Thanks for your time making this video, it is great and very informative. As a Vietnamese person, I find this topic is interesting but not really necessary to put Vietnam as a part of East or South East Asia. It is not a big deal and does not mean too much for us tbh because as you said, putting Vietnam as an East Asian country does not help Vietnam richer lul. We are striving to make more money and be wealthier just like other nations in the world. We welcome supports from all other countries that are willing to help us and bring us peace. Visit Vietnam when the pandemic situation gets better! For now, be save everyone!

Cool video Jessup

The best culture video about Vietnam!

Indonesian here. Personally I think from the information given in this video that Vietnam is (for the most part) East Asian, if not at least culturally. This is kinda the problem with defining sub-continents and regions with modern-day political borders - it just isn't representative of the situation most of the time. Anyway love from Indonesia! edit: so a bunch of y'all are telling me Vietnam is definitely southeast Asia. I guess that is a valid point seeing it borders other southeast Asian countries and has some cultural aspects more akin to southeast Asia. I dunno not an expert by any means.

Very informative. I knew the link between Indian language and culture had to be greater than peripheral

Great share, thank you.

Excellent video

dayummm jessup this is a whole RCST essay

I am a black lay Sinologist. Been interested in China and the Far East because of that legend (Bruce Lee 李小龙), who hit and left our world ever so shortly. Interestingly, I also view Vietnam as somewhat as close to China as it is to the South East. The Viet people are even mentioned in Chinese Classics that date back to the 1st and 2nd Century AD. And a Vietnamese Genius, Master Nguyễn An （阮安) was majorly involved in the architecture and building Forbidden City in Beijing during the Ming (明) dynasty. Fascinating and informative video - Thanks for sharing

Like your voice very much👍! Very relaxed 👌

great! love to watch more content about Vietnam.

It is incorrect to say that the Latin script was introduced to Vietnam by the French. It was introduced there by the Portuguese.

Very informative video. Cheers from an ethnic Vietnamese ;)

amazing video

super cool & high quality video! with full of information! love this video to every bit!

Good morning, this is my comment for the algorithm, have a nice day

영상이 얼마 없지만 전부 퀄리티가 높네요. 앞으로도 계속 활동하길 기대하며 구독합니다 :)

great video! I hope you continue to make content; i really enjoyed this

we are both haha, we love the combination of the personality traits of Southest Asia and the culture of East Asia

I love this video.

I'm half-Khmer, (technically 3/8ths, with an 8th of Vietnamese thrown in). I've always found Southeast Asia's ethnic diversity to be very interesting. The entire peninsula is heavily culturally influenced by India whereas Vietnam has clearly seen some heavy Sinification over the centuries. I've always attributed that to them being on the coast and maritime trade with China.

Well is it really that important lol Vietnam is Vietnam they have thier own unique culture and stuff. Even countries in East Asia have differences in many things since hisotry is just too complex. Kudos to quality videos tho!

I love your videos. Geographically Vietnam is South East Asian it is unlike any other South East Country. I find it very interesting that Vietnamese is an Austro Asiatic language like khmer (pronounced khmai, like Thai ) look forward to seeing more videos from you

Vietnam’s the Turkey of East/SE Asia 😳

I remember Vietnam in Asian Football Cup; nice team ! Greetings from Latin America

Great thumbnail.

Awesome video!

Đông nam á hay đông á đối với tôi là chuyện bình thường , chúng tôi vẫn sống thoải mái ,tự do và hơn nữa tôi vẫn tự hào về lịch sử Việt Nam .Đất nước chúng tôi đang phát triển hằng ngày , và cũng cảm ơn video của bạn.

I've been to Vietnam, actually they look like Cantonese and Guangxi people, and have similarities with people in Fujian, and Hubei, cultures are mixed, they are clearly East Asian.

As the latest Wikipedia context: Vietnam is located geographically in SEA but its people are SinoSpheric. Even if there are ancient Cham settled down in the central highland and the ancient Khmer settled down in the South delta of the Khong river. Their language is in the language family of Austroasiatic: Khmer, Mon, Viet, and sub-branches. There are some elderly Vietnamese called "Tao", and "Troung" as Chinese people that is different of them since ADE 10th

as indonesian, i can say the information about austronesian quoted in these video is true, and thanks, now i know more about vietnam culturally 👍

_love beautiful vietnam_ 💚 & *_greeting from bali island_* 💚 _we're indonesia volcano & nationalpark tour organiser_

Vietnamese people are just Vietnamese people. We do not care if we belong to this or that because it's really not a big problem for us. We are getting so tired and bored with such topics as:" Whether Vietnam is SEA or East Asia?" We know who we are and where we stand. We have our own and unique culture and traditions. Why should we be either this or that? We choose the best out of those two and make it ours. Is it clear enough?

There is no such a thing as typical Southeast Asian culture or language. People in this region are extremely diverse. Therefore one cannot say Vietnamese culture is Southeast Asian, but Vietnam IS a Southeast Asian country, despite what influences on her culture.

“Please leave a comment for the algorithm” hahahahha Not until I’ve moved outside of the region did this topic become relevant in my search to assert my own identity. Previously, I’ve managed to curb nationalism, and if needed I only thought of the Vietnamese as simply Vietnamese, maybe sometimes (rarely) as East Asians for its cultural evidences, also perhaps because contemporary Vietnam presented a ton of cultural imports from the ‘big three’ (Chinese-languages period dramas and literature, Korean drama and music, and Japanese anime, video games, and manga were all ubiquitous in our cultural lives), our mental images and linkages were being built up in my psych. Southeast Asia was only personally associated with the ASEAN, and there’s such little relevance in my life to the point that the name meant nothing else other than a mere political affiliation. So yes, the Vietnamese people (người Kinh), along with their country, Vietnam, were East Asian, per my answer, whenever the topic got brought up, prior to being told repeatedly we were Southeast Asian by Westerners, who proceeded to greet me in the Thai way and talked to me about Thailand, all of which weirded the fuck out of me. Then I realized the ramifications of this oversimplified grouping of countries and peoples, the effects it has on outsiders’ understandings, attitude, and even possible investment interests. I hope the intricacies finally got out into people’s heads, that reducing countries and peoples to nuanced simplistic words deducts the overall picture from your view and undermines peoples’ own identification of themselves, and I thank you for an extensive research, respectful insights, and clear presentation, even though some small details can be further discussed, clarified, or corrected. Hopefully the peoples of Vietnam will one day straighten themselves out, and be able to put their (our) own unique identity onto the world, which will undoubtedly have to recognize us as we are.

The Vietnams of their region: 1. Is vietnam east or southeast asian? 2. Is mongolia central or east asian? 3. Is bhutan east or south asian? 4. Is afghanstan everyone in asia or just central asia?

😊 you must put a lot of thought and effort on making this video and i respect that

thank you for subtitle

I am Chinese and I identify with Vietnam's East Asian identity. Because many cultures in Vietnam are similar to China, and the national spirit, the will to fight is strong, if you give Vietnam time, it is a small matter to surpass other countries in Southeast Asia. Sooner or later, Vietnam will develop into a country like Japan and South Korea. These are things that other Southeast Asian countries cannot do, it is a cultural attribute that predestines them!

The Latin script was introduced to Viet Nam before the French. It was introduced by Jesuit missionaries primarily from Portugal. Great video overall though! 👍

Actually, the origin of the people is not so important, but the important thing is that the Vietnamese have been annexed by China for over 4000 years and are influenced by Confucianism. In fact, the East Asian countries are also divided into many ethnic groups, but they have one thing in common, they are developed by Confucianism and by a very important idea of Confucius that is "Only the learning path can help people rise up" . And Vietnam is no exception if you come to Vietnam you will see their culture such as traditional costumes, using lunar days and celebrating lunar new year, festivals, using a lot of kanji adapted words..., ant architecture: temples, pagodas, rural houses... ,education, textbooks, exams, university exams with subjects like Chinese "Gao Kao"..., so in Vietnam they only have a position in Southeast Asia while culture, education, lifestyle ... are considered East Asians.

just be yourself, don’t worry about labels

Nice video. I don't see many people acknowledging Chinese influence in Vietnam.

Culture - east asia (Chinese) Location - SEA

No need to separate. Vietnam is Vietnam

Wonderful

A good question to ask.

I think Vietnam is definitely an East Asian cultural area, and I think that the characteristic of East Asian people is that they tenaciously resist and are stubborn even in wars against enemies that are more powerful than themselves.

I have been involved in Southeast Asian studies for 40 years, and I think this is one of the most insightful presentations I have ever heard about the place of Vietnam in the overall Asian picture. Very nicely done. I learned a lot.

The Apocryphal Twain: “Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

wow the Chinese characters for Vietnam look so cool.

RIP Champa.

I’m a Vietnamese-American. My parents are both Vietnamese. I’m 6 foot tall. My brother is 6’2 even taller and bigger than me. Vietnamese are not small or short. I think because of the weather and the foods in Vietnam make people shorter. I’m married to a Japanese wife. I like sushi, Korean bbq, boba. In the states, we are all Asian Americans. Anyway I would consider Vietnam is East Asia. I know most of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese who did not step outside their country and think they are bigger and smarter than Vietnamese. They are wrong. If you come to United States, you will see a lot of smart Vietnamese in a freedom society.

Great job! This was a very thorough and informative video!

i would like to think we are a mix of southeast and east asia because i love both cultures

The fact is that we're MIXED of Viet-Han or Han-Viet, so are the Cantonese and Fu-jianese. Believe all you want but that is history.

Hello! A Vietnamese here, thank you for your extensive summary of Vietnams affair with this. I have to say that the terms "East Asia" and "Southeast Asia" themselves span so many cultural regions specific to provinces and smaller cities/villages, that for example, even though Vietnam is geographically Southeast Asia, Kinh Viet/Vietnamese culture has largely been Sinicized, thus makes us more "East Asian", but Viets who live further down Central and South regions will grow up interacting with significant Malayo-Austronesian cultural elements, due to the concentration of our Austronesian minor ethnic groups there, like Cham people. You could say some South Vietnam provinces/autonomous regions are more "Southeast Asian". It depends, just as how it is more accurate to classify Mongolia, Korea, Japan + its occupied islands and part of Northern China as Northeast Asia due to a more specific cultural sphere there. After all, it doesn't matter to me that Vietnam has to be either East or Southeast Asian, but it does matter that Viets know how to identify their unique mix of cultures and not mistake our identities for anything else. :)

It is a Eastern Asian Country found in South Est Asia

Great insights! Culturally, Vietnam always seemed to me like a cousin to Korea. In some instances such as with cuisine (minus the tropical and French influences), Vietnamese has felt even more familiar than Chinese cuisine.

Our east asian culture doesn't make us east asian, let'z dance and have some durians my beloved sea 🇻🇳👯‍♀️🇸🇬👯🇵🇭👯‍♂️🇲🇾👯‍♂️🇱🇦

Almost like a continuum. Next Thailand would be slightly less East Asian and slightly more SEAsian as well compared to Vietnam. I would more than be happy to use the term Northeast Asia for China, the Koreas, Japan, Mongolia and Taiwan instead of East Asia. The term East Asia should encompass both Northeast and Southeast Asia.

Theo dòng lịch sử: Các triều đại phong kiến Trung Quốc chia vùng Lưỡng Quảng đến đèo Ngang Hà Tĩnh thành 3 quận ( Giao Chỉ - Cửu Chân và Nhật Nam ), nhưng do 3 quận này rất rất giống nhau về văn hóa nên người Hán gọi chung là người Giao Chỉ... Tính từ đèo Hải Vân trở vào ( trừ người Kinh và các đồng bào dân tộc khác ở phía Bắc di cư vào Nam hàng trăm năm ) thì văn hóa 2 miền khác hẳn, bởi đồng bào dân tộc Chăm và Khơme có nguồn gốc từ Tây á, các dân tộc như Êđê, Gia - rai, C'ho, Raglay, S-tieng... thì có nguồn gốc từ Ấn Độ và Bangladesh

The ancient Royal Families of Vietnam - Nguyen, Tran and Le or Ly were originally Chinese Clans, supposedly from Fujian Province, who moved into Coastal North Vietnam in the first Millenium AD, when it was still under Chinese control. They brought advanced fishing technologies with them and soon grew wealthy and inter-married with the local Viet. They were the ones who had the wealth and power to finally overthrow Chinese Control and become Independent. But these Clans still maintained Chinese Ruling System, Customs and Language in their Imperial Courts. Over 40% of the Vietnamese male Y-Chromosome is of Chinese origin - and that may extend back to the first Chinese Military Colonies in the 2nd-1st centuries BC, where the Chinese Soldiers inter-married with the local Au-Lac women from the Bai-Yue Tribes. The ancient Lac cultures may have been Matrilineal, and there seems to be a tradition of greater Female Autonomy and Leadership that the later mixed (Kinh) offspring maintained - see the Trung Sisters Rebellion against China, led by Female Generals. BUT, while (some of) the Vietnamese (Kinh) may acknowledge their Chinese Ancestry - they have always maintained their desire for Independence from Chinese.

Don't matter if Vietnam is Southeast Asia or East Asia, I think people just want to give the definition weather Vietnamese are dark skin/poor Asian or Light skin/classy Asian. I'm Vietnamese, I think stereo typing of where you from or your ethnicity don't matter at all.

So what is Indonesia ? Southeast asian ? Pacific islander / polynesian ? :)

Greeting from Vietnam! You should visit Vietnam for the one time of your life.

I'd love to visit Vietnam