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The Vietnamese people (, ) or the Kinh people (), also known as the Viet people or the Viets, are a
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
n
ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
native to modern-day northern Vietnam and southern China who speak Vietnamese, the most widely spoken Austroasiatic language. Vietnamese Kinh people account for 85.32% of the population of
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
in the 2019 census, and are officially designated and recognized as the ''Kinh'' people () to distinguish them from the other minority groups residing in the country such as the Hmong, Cham, or Mường. The Vietnamese are one of the four main groups of Vietic speakers in Vietnam, the others being the Mường, Thổ, and Chứt people. Diasporic descendants of the Vietnamese in China, known as the Gin people, are one of 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, residing in the
Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
Zhuang Autonomous Region.


Terminology

According to Churchman (2010), all endonyms and exonyms referring to the Vietnamese such as ''Việt'' (related to ancient Chinese geographical imagination), ''Kinh'' (related to medieval administrative designation), or ''Keeu'' and ''Kæw'' (derived from Jiāo 交, ancient Chinese toponym for Northern Vietnam,
Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
''*kraw'') by Kra-Dai speaking peoples, are related to political structures or have common origins in ancient Chinese geographical imagination. Most of the time, the Austroasiatic-speaking ancestors of the modern Kinh under one single ruler might have assumed for themselves a similar or identical social self-designation inherent in the modern Vietnamese first-person pronoun ''ta'' (us, we, I) to differentiate themselves with other groups. In the older colloquial usage, ''ta'' corresponded to "ours" as opposed to "theirs", and during colonial time they were "''nước ta''" (our country) and "''tiếng ta''" (our language) in contrast to "''nước tây''" (western countries) and "''tiếng tây''" (western languages).


Việt

The term "" (Yue) () in Early Middle Chinese was first written using the logograph "戉" for an axe (a homophone), in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late
Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...
( BC), and later as "越". At that time it referred to a people or chieftain to the northwest of the Shang.Theobald, Ulrich (2018
"Shang Dynasty – Political History"
in ''ChinaKnowledge.de – An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art''. quote: "Enemies of the Shang state were called fang 方 "regions", like the Tufang 土方, which roamed the northern region of Shanxi, the Guifang 鬼方 and Gongfang 𢀛方 in the northwest, the Qiangfang 羌方, Suifang 繐方, Yuefang 戉方, Xuanfang 亘方 and Zhoufang 周方 in the west, as well as the Yifang 夷方 and Renfang 人方 in the southeast."
In the early 8th century BC, a tribe on the middle Yangtze were called the Yangyue, which was later used to describe peoples living further south. Between the 7th and 4th centuries BC, Yue/Việt referred to the State of Yue in the lower Yangtze basin and its people. From the 3rd century BC, the term was used for the non-Chinese populations of south and southwest China and northern Vietnam, with particular ethnic groups called Minyue, Ouyue (Vietnamese: Âu Việt), Luoyue (Vietnamese: Lạc Việt), etc., collectively called the Baiyue (Bách Việt, ; ). The term Baiyue/Bách Việt first appeared in the book '' Lüshi Chunqiu'' compiled around 239 BC. By the 17th and 18th centuries AD, educated Vietnamese referred to themselves as ''người Việt'' 𠊛越 (Viet people) or ''người Nam'' 𠊛南 (southern people).


Kinh

Beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries, a strand of Viet-Muong (northern Vietic language), with influence from a hypothetical Chinese dialect in northern Vietnam, dubbed as Annamese Middle Chinese, evolved into what is now the
Vietnamese language Vietnamese () is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language Speech, spoken primarily in Vietnam where it is the official language. It belongs to the Vietic languages, Vietic subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family. Vietnamese is s ...
. Its speakers called themselves the "Kinh" people, meaning people of the "metropolitan" centered around the Red River Delta with
Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
as its capital. Historic and modern chữ Nôm scripture classically uses the Han character '京', pronounced "Jīng" in Mandarin, and "Kinh" with Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation. Other variants of Proto-Viet-Muong were driven from the lowlands by the Kinh and were called ''Trại'' (寨 Mandarin: ''Zhài''), or "outpost" people", by the 13th century. These became the modern Mường people. According to Victor Lieberman, ''người Kinh'' ( Chữ Nôm: 𠊛京) may be a colonial-era term for Vietnamese speakers inserted anachronistically into translations of pre-colonial documents, but literature on 18th century ethnic formation is lacking.


History


Origins and pre-history

According to the Vietnamese legend, ''The Tale of the Hồng Bàng Clan'' (''Hồng Bàng'' thị truyện), written in the 15th century, the first Vietnamese were descended from the
dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
lord Lạc Long Quân and the fairy Âu Cơ. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children. Their eldest son ruled as the Hùng king. The Hùng kings were claimed to be descended from the mythical figure Shen Nong. The earliest reference of the proto-Vietnamese in Chinese annals was the ''Lạc'' (Chinese: Luo), '' Lạc Việt'', or the Dongsonian, an ancient tribal confederacy of perhaps polyglot Austroasiatic and Kra-Dai speakers who occupied the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam. One hypothesis suggests that the forerunners of the ethnic Kinh descend from a
subset In mathematics, a Set (mathematics), set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all Element (mathematics), elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they a ...
of proto-Austroasiatic people in southern China, either around
Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
,
Lingnan Lingnan (; ) is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern China, Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong & Macau and Northern Vietnam. Background The ar ...
, or the Yangtze River, as well as mainland
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
. These proto-Austroasiatics also diverged into Monic speakers, who settled further to the west, and the Khmeric speakers, who migrated further south. The Munda of northeastern India were another subset of proto-Austroasiatics who likely diverged earlier than the aforementioned groups, given the linguistic distance in basic vocabulary of the languages. Most archaeologists, linguists, and other specialists, such as Sinologists and crop experts, believe that they arrived no later than 2000 BC, bringing with them the practice of riverine agriculture and in particular, the cultivation of wet rice.Blench, Roger. 2018
Waterworld: lexical evidence for aquatic subsistence strategies in Austroasiatic
In ''Papers from the Seventh International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics'', 174–193. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society Special Publication No. 3. University of Hawaii Press.
Blench, Roger. 2017.
Waterworld: lexical evidence for aquatic subsistence strategies in Austroasiatic
'. Presented at ICAAL 7, Kiel, Germany.
Sidwell, Paul. 2015b. ''Phylogeny, innovations, and correlations in the prehistory of Austroasiatic''. Paper presented at the workshop ''Integrating inferences about our past: new findings and current issues in the peopling of the Pacific and South East Asia'', 22–23 June 2015, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. Some linguists, such as James Chamberlain and Joachim Schliesinger, have suggested that Vietic-speaking people migrated northwards from the North Central Region of Vietnam to the Red River Delta, which had originally been inhabited by Tai
speakers Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Speaker (song), "Speaker" ( ...
. However, Michael Churchman found no records of population shifts in Jiaozhi (centered around the Red River Delta) in Chinese sources, indicating that a fairly stable population of Austroasiatic speakers, ancestral to modern Vietnamese, inhabited the delta during the Han- Tang periods. Others have proposed that tribes in northern Vietnam and southern China did not have any kind of defined ethnic boundary and could not be described as "Vietnamese" (Kinh) in any satisfactory sense. Thus, attempts to identify ethnic groups in ancient Vietnam are problematic and often inaccurate. Another theory, based upon linguistic diversity, locates the most probable homeland of the Vietic languages in modern-day Bolikhamsai Province and Khammouane Province in Laos as well as in parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam. In the 1930s, clusters of Vietic-speaking communities discovered in the hills of eastern Laos were believed to be the earliest inhabitants of that region. But so far, many scholars link the origin of the Vietic languages to northern Vietnam, around the Red River Delta.


Early history and Chinese rule

The Kinh Vietnamese have dual ancestry from Đông Sơn-related peoples and southern China, like Mường peoples. Đông Sơn-related peoples are believed to be genetically and craniometrically discontinuous from the previous Hoabinhian hunter-gatherers of northern Vietnam due to extensive admixture with East Asian populations. Another study, however, suggests some affinities between present Kinh Vietnamese and hunter-gatherers from the Con Co Ngua site in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam about 6.2 k cal BP, who were phenotypically closer to Late Pleistocene Southeast Asians and modern
Melanesians Melanesians are the predominant and Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in an area stretching from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands. Most speak one of the many languages of the Austronesian languages, Austronesian l ...
and
Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...
.Kinh Vietnamese also show affinities with Núi Nấp populations from Bronze Age Vietnam, cited in . who can be modeled as a mixture of Dushan-related (~65%) and northern East Asian-related (~35%) ancestry. The Đông Sơn culture was pioneered by the Lạc Việt peoples, who also founded the Văn Lang
chiefdom A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...
, ruled by the semi-mythical Hùng kings. To the south of the Dongsonians/Lạc Việt was the Sa Huỳnh culture of the Austronesian Chamic people. Around 400–200 BC, the Lạc Việt interacted with the Âu Việt, a splinter group of Tai people from southern China, and Sinitic peoples from further north. According to a late-third- or early-fourth-century AD Chinese chronicle, Thục Phán, the leader of the Âu Việt, conquered Văn Lang and deposed the last Hùng king. Having submissions of Lạc lords, Thục Phán proclaimed himself King An Dương of Âu Lạc kingdom, uniting the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes. In 179 BC, Zhao Tuo, a Chinese general who established the Nanyue state in modern-day southern China, annexed Âu Lạc, which initiated Sino-Vietic interaction that lasted for a millennium. In 111 BC, the Han Empire conquered Nanyue, which also brought northern Vietnam under Han rule. By the 7th century to 9th century AD, as the Tang Empire ruled over the region, historians such as Henri Maspero proposed that Vietnamese-speaking people became separated from other Vietic groups such as the Mường and Chứt due to heavier Chinese influences on the Vietnamese. In the mid-9th century, local rebels aided by Nanzhao almost ended Tang rule. The Tang reconquered the region in 866, causing half of the local rebels to flee into the mountains, marking the separation between the Mường and the Vietnamese. According to Jennifer Holmgren, the first six centuries of Chinese rule saw more Vietnamization of local Chinese than Sinicization of local Vietnamese. Compared to the first six centuries of Chinese rule when demographics were relatively stable, Chinese migration during the Tang period was of sufficient magnitude to cause basic changes to certain portions of Vietnamese society in northern Vietnam. Most of these Chinese migrants came as soldiers or merchants, took a wife from the indigenous population, and settled down. They were individuals that settled down in a nuclear family, causing the average household size to decrease. Despite the increase of Chinese migrants to Vietnam, it was still much more constrained compared to Chinese migration to Guangdong and Guangxi due to the structure of Vietnamese society, which limited the ability of Chinese rulers to register and tax the local population. Vietnamese society retained their language and heritage. Other peoples like the Muong, Tay, and Nung people fled Chinese control into the uplands, where Chinese registers could not reach them. Non-Chinese foreign migration was also significant in the south due to pressures elsewhere such as the expanding Cham kingdom. Around 10.5% of Kinh Vietnamese carry the Han Chinese O-M7 haplogroup, suggesting heavy assimilation of Chinese migrants in northern Vietnam. In 938, the Vietnamese leader Ngô Quyền who was a native of Thanh Hóa, led Vietnamese forces to defeat the Chinese armada at Bạch Đằng River. He proclaimed himself king over a polity that could be perceived as "Vietnamese".


Medieval and early modern period

Ngô Quyền died in 944 and his kingdom collapsed into chaos and disturbances between twelve warlords and chiefs. In 968, a leader named Đinh Bộ Lĩnh united them and established the Đại Việt (Great Việt) kingdom. With assistance of powerful Buddhist monks, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh chose Hoa Lư in the southern edge of the Red River Delta as the capital instead of Tang-era Đại La, adopted Chinese-style imperial titles, coinage, and ceremonies and tried to preserve the Chinese administrative framework. The independence of Đại Việt, according to Andrew Chittick, allows it "to develop its own distinctive political culture and ethnic consciousness". In 979, Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng was assassinated, and Queen Dương Vân Nga married Dinh's general Lê Hoàn and appointed him as Emperor. Disturbances in Đại Việt attracted attention from the neighbouring Chinese
Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
and
Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...
Kingdom, but they were defeated by Lê Hoàn. A Khmer inscription dated 987 records the arrival of Vietnamese merchants (Yuon) in
Angkor Angkor ( , 'capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura (; ),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-English Dictionary''. Bureau of Special Research in Modern Languages. The Catholic Uni ...
. Chinese writers Song Hao, Fan Chengda and Zhou Qufei all reported that the inhabitants of Đại Việt "tattooed their foreheads, crossed feet, black teeth, bare feet and blacken clothing". The early 11th-century Cham inscription of Chiên Đàn, My Son, erected by king of Champa Harivarman IV (r. 1074–1080), mentions that he had offered Khmer (Kmīra/Kmir) and Viet (Yvan) prisoners as slaves to various local gods and temples of the citadel of Tralauṅ Svon. Many Kinh Vietnamese also lived in Champa and were well-assimilated, like other Austroasiatic groups living in the state. Successive Vietnamese royal families from the Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần and Hồ dynasties, who had ( Hoa)/Chinese ancestry, ruled the kingdom peacefully from 968 to 1407. Emperor Lý Thái Tổ (r. 1009–1028) relocated the Vietnamese capital from Hoa Lư to Đại La, the center of the Red River Delta in 1010. They practiced elitist marriage alliances between clans and nobles in the country. Mahayana Buddhism became state religion, with Cham, Indian and Chinese cultures influencing Vietnamese music instruments, dance and religious worship. Confucianism also slowly gained attention and influence. The earliest surviving corpus and text in the
Vietnamese language Vietnamese () is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language Speech, spoken primarily in Vietnam where it is the official language. It belongs to the Vietic languages, Vietic subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family. Vietnamese is s ...
were dated to the early 12th century whilst surviving chữ Nôm script inscriptions were dated to the early 13th century, showcasing enormous influences of Chinese culture among the early Vietnamese elites. The Mongol
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
unsuccessfully invaded Đại Việt in the 1250s and 1280s, though they sacked Hanoi. The
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
of China conquered Đại Việt in 1406, brought the Vietnamese under Chinese rule for 20 years, before they were driven out by Vietnamese leader
Lê Lợi Lê Lợi (, chữ Hán: 黎利; 10 September 1385 – 5 October 1433), also known by his temple name as Lê Thái Tổ (黎太祖) and by his pre-imperial title Bình Định vương (平定王; "Prince of Pacification"), was a Vietnamese peopl ...
. The fourth grandson of Lê Lợi, Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (r. 1460–1497), is considered one of the greatest monarchs in Vietnamese history. His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, military, education, and fiscal reforms he instituted, and a cultural revolution that replaced the old traditional aristocracy with a generation of literati scholars. He also adopted Confucianism and transformed Đại Việt from a Southeast Asian style polity to a bureaucratic state that flourished. Thánh Tông's forces, armed with
gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...
weapons, overwhelmed the long-term rival
Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...
in 1471 and launched an unsuccessful invasion against the Laotian and Lan Na kingdoms in the 1480s.


16th century – Modern period

With the death of Thánh Tông in 1497, the Đại Việt kingdom swiftly declined. Extreme climate, failing crops, regionalism and factionism tore the Vietnamese apart. From 1533 to 1790s, four powerful Vietnamese families – Mạc, Lê, Trịnh and Nguyễn – each ruled their own domains. In the northern Vietnamese polity of Đàng Ngoài (outer realm), the Lê emperors barely sat on the throne while the Trịnh lords held power of the court. The Mạc controlled northeast Vietnam. The Nguyễn lords ruled the southern polity of Đàng Trong (inner realm). Thousands of ethnic Vietnamese migrated south and settled on the old Cham lands, with Cham inhabitants assimilating into the new Vietnamese state. Vietnamese also settled in the highlands of Vietnam and intermixed with the natives over centuries. European missionaries and traders from the sixteenth century brought new religion, ideas and crops to the Vietnamese (Annamese). By 1639, there were 82,500 Catholic converts throughout Vietnam. In 1651, Alexandre de Rhodes published a 300-pages catechism in
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and romanized-Vietnamese (''chữ Quốc Ngữ'') or the
Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet (, ) is the modern writing script for the Vietnamese language. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages like French language, French, originally developed by Francisco de Pina (1585–1625), a missionary from P ...
. Conflict among Vietnamese ended in 1802 as Emperor
Gia Long Gia Long (Chữ Hán, Chữ hán: 嘉隆) ( (''Hanoi, North''), (''Ho Chi Minh City, South''); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh (阮暎), was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynas ...
, who was aided by French mercenaries, defeated the Tay Son kingdoms and reunited Vietnam. By 1847, the Vietnamese state under Emperor Thiệu Trị, a people that were identified as "người Việt Nam" accounted for nearly 80 percent of the country's population. This demographic model continues to persist through the French Indochina, Japanese occupation and modern day. Between 1862 and 1867, the southern third of the country became the French colony of Cochinchina. By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated into the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three Vietnamese entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education introduced new
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
values into Vietnam. Despite having a long recorded ethnic history, the formation of the ethnic Vietnamese or Kinh identity, only begun by the late 19th and early 20th century, with the help of the colonial administration. Following the colonial government's efforts of ethnic classification, nationalism, especially ethnonationalism and eugenic social Darwinism, were encouraged among the new Vietnamese intelligentsia's discourse. Ethnic tensions sparked by Vietnamese ethnonationalism peaked during the late 1940s at the beginning phase of the First Indochina War (1946–1954), which resulted in violence between Khmer and Vietnamese in the
Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( or simply ), also known as the Western Region () or South-western region (), is the list of regions of Vietnam, region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong, Mekong River River delta, approaches and empties into the sea th ...
. The mid-20th century marked a pivotal turning point with the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, a conflict that not only left an indelible impact on the nation but also had far-reaching consequences for the Vietnamese people. The war, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, resulted in significant social, economic, and political upheavals, shaping the modern history of Vietnam and its people. Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the post-war era brought economic hardships and strained social dynamics, prompting resilient efforts at reconstruction, reconciliation, and the implementation of economic reforms such as the Đổi Mới policies in the late 20th century.


Genetics

Several studies show close genetic affinities between Kinh Vietnamese and Thais although other studies show closer affinities with Tai-Kadai peoples. Overall, the Kinh predominantly have southern Chinese ancestry, which is closely related to
Lingnan Lingnan (; ) is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern China, Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong & Macau and Northern Vietnam. Background The ar ...
Han, but also have minor genetic contributions from Laotians, Malays (i.e. Proto-Malay, Negrito, and Bidayut) and Thais (i.e. Mlabri and H’tin). Gene flow between Khmers and Kinh is undirectional with more evidence of Vietnamese contributing to the Khmer genome than vice versa. Likewise, there is no evidence of Chams contributing to the Kinh genome from the Nam Tiến conquests. However, Kinh share mtDNA haplotypes with Chams, originating from intermarriages between well-assimilated Kinh and Chams in the preceding Champa state. The Kinh also possess 'genetic characteristics of the Baiyue lineage', similar to other Tai-Kadai-speaking Baiyue populations in mainland China. In particular, they cluster with Longli Bouyei and Qiandongnan Dong, who could be described as a good representative of the 'ancestral Tai-Kadai' population. These populations also cluster with Iron Age Taiwanese populations (e.g. Gongguan, Hanben) and Neolithic to Bronze Age Fujianese populations (e.g. Xitoucun, Tanshishan). There is also evidence that the Kinh diverged from the Hlai, who have the most enriched Baiyue ancestry among Tai-Kadai groups, much earlier than the Dai diverged from Hlai. Overall, majority of Vietnamese belong to maternal haplogroups M (39%) and N (61%). In particular, M's subhaplogroup of M7 (20%) and N's subhaplogroups of R9’F (27%) and haplogroup B (25%) are common. In northern Vietnam, haplogroups, A, B4, F1a and G are common.Haplogroups A and C are particularly common in northwest Vietnam, with haplogroups M and M7 peaking in northeast Vietnam and settlements near the Gulf of Tonkin. Haplogroup M71 also peaks in central Vietnam. In contrast, haplogroups M and M7 are quite rare for northwest Vietnam and far south Vietnam, near the Mekong Delta. In southern Vietnam, haplogroups D (9%) and N peak (67%) and to an extent, R9'F (29%). R9'F is instead more common in the Red River Delta (32-36%), followed by central (21%) and northwest Vietnam (16%). Meanwhile, common paternal haplogroups for Vietnamese are O1a1a2, O1b1a1a and N4-F2930.


Religions

According to the 2019 census, the religious demographics of Vietnam are as follows: *86.32% Vietnamese folk religion or unaffiliated *6.1%
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
*4.79%
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
(mainly
Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...
) *1.02% Hoahaoism *1%
Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
*<1% Caodaism *0.77 Others It is worth noting here that the data is highly skewed, as a large majority of Vietnamese may be unaffiliated with any religion, yet practice forms of traditional folk religion or Mahayana Buddhism. Vietnamese folk religion is not an organized religious system, but a set of local worship traditions devoted to the "thần", a term which can be translated as "spirits", "Gods" or with the more exhaustive locution "generative powers". These Gods can be nature deities or national, community or kinship tutelary deities or ancestral Gods and the ancestral Gods of a specific family. Ancestral Gods are often deified heroic persons. Vietnamese mythology preserves narratives telling of the actions of many of the cosmic Gods and cultural heroes. Estimates for the year 2010 published by the Pew–Templeton Global Religious Futures Project: *Vietnamese folk religion, 45.3% *Unaffiliated, 29.6% *Buddhism, 16.4% *Christianity, 8.2% *Other, 0.5%


Diaspora

Originally from northern Vietnam and southern China, the Vietnamese have expanded south and conquered much of the land belonging to the former
Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...
Kingdom and Khmer Empire over the centuries. They are the dominant ethnic group in most provinces of Vietnam, and constitute a small percentage of the population in neighbouring
Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
. According to a 2020 study, Kinh Vietnamese mostly reside in the lowlands of Vietnam. Beginning around the sixteenth century, groups of Vietnamese migrated to Cambodia and China for commerce and political purposes. Descendants of Vietnamese migrants in China form the Gin ethnic group in the country and primarily reside in and around Guangxi Province. Vietnamese form the largest ethnic minority group in Cambodia, at 5% of the population. Under the
Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...
, they were heavily persecuted and survivors of the regime largely fled to Vietnam. During French colonialism, Vietnam was regarded as the most important colony in Asia by the French colonial powers, and the Vietnamese had a higher social standing than other ethnic groups in French Indochina. As a result, educated Vietnamese were often trained to be placed in colonial government positions in the other Asian French colonies of Laos and Cambodia rather than locals of the respective colonies. There was also a significant representation of Vietnamese students in France during this period, primarily consisting of members of the elite class. A large number of Vietnamese also migrated to France as workers, especially during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, when France recruited soldiers and locals of its colonies to help with war efforts in metropolitan France. The wave of migrants to France during World War I formed the first major presence of the Vietnamese in France and the Western world.La Diaspora Vietnamienne en France un cas particulier
(in French)
When Vietnam gained its independence from France in 1954, a number of Vietnamese loyal to the colonial government also migrated to France. During the partition of Vietnam into
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
and South, a number of South Vietnamese students also arrived to study in France, along with individuals involved in commerce for trade with France, which was a principal economic partner with South Vietnam. Forced repatriation in 1970 and deaths during the
Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...
era reduced the Vietnamese population in
Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
from between 250,000 and 300,000 in 1969 to a reported 56,000 in 1984. The fall of Saigon and end of the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
prompted the start of the Vietnamese diaspora, which saw millions of Vietnamese fleeing the country from the new communist regime. Recognizing an international humanitarian crisis, many countries accepted Vietnamese refugees, primarily the United States, France, Australia and Canada. Meanwhile, under the new communist regime, tens of thousands of Vietnamese were sent to work or study in
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
countries of Central and
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
as development aid to the Vietnamese government and for migrants to acquire skills that were to be brought home to help with development.


See also


Notes


References


Bibliography


Books

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Journal articles and theses

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Web sources

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Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * *Cœdès, George. (1966)
''The Making of South East Asia''
(illustrated, reprint ed.). University of California Press. . Retrieved 7 August 2013. * * * * * *Hall, Kenneth R., ed. (2008)
''Secondary Cities and Urban Networking in the Indian Ocean Realm, C. 1400–1800''
Volume 1 of Comparative urban studies. Lexington Books. . Retrieved 7 August 2013. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vietnamese People Ethnic groups in Vietnam