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Are the Vietnamese proud of their Sinospheric past? I get the feeling that only the Vietnamese of Chinese descent seem so.

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as a Chinese,it is a pity to lose Vietnam since Ming and Qing dynasty ever tried to conquer Vietnam.on the other hand I admire Vietnam to fight for independent against we chinese and French and Americans,only blood win enermy’s respect.unlike stupid Koreans,cos they thought they are the strongest in the universe even the USA army in their land.

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Why waste your time to proud of something very vauge definably and practicably . Go to a random street and ask a local about “sinosphere”, I can assure 99% wouldn’t know what it is .

It’s not something we should try to discard but also not something to so sproud of .

Just like Indosphere or Anglosphere. Nothing to be proud of , it’s just a bunch of country that happened to be under the same influence of other country.

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What makes me will always exist within me. I will not give up on anything whose consequences have made me who I am now. After all, culture is not politics, and I can't say I don't like many things in this Sinosphere.

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Most people aren’t proud of that and they don’t even admit that Vietnam belongs to the Sinosphere. In their mind, Vietnamese culture is something so pure and wonderful, and it has been inherited from the Vietnam ancestors, and it was never affected by any other culture. Some “historians” got “famous” by “proving” Yi Ching and Chinese characters are invented by the Vietnamese. They hate China so much that they furiously decline any reliance between Chinese culture and Vietnamese culture.

And at the same time they don't really understand Vietnamese culture, many people believe ao dai is thousands of years old (It was invented in 19th century). They consider Chinese characters evil because it's Chinese, while Vietnam considered Hanzi the symbol of wisdom for many centuries.

Well that's sad, the heavy influence of Chinese culture in all aspects of Vietnamese culture is undeniable and it's an essential part of Vietnamese culture. Nationalism can get very wrong.

Edit: I totally don't know why such a negative answer like this can get this many upvotes, but thanks

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Generally speaking, we Vietnamese are proud of our thousands of years of history, not just the Sinospheric part. Our history is said to date back since the Paleolithic age and was one of the earliest civilisations in the world. Our Sinospheric past started just around 2,300 years ago when the Qin Dynasty general Zhao Tou (aka Triệu Đà in Vietnamese) defeated the state of Âu Lạc and established the independent state of Nam Việt (Nanyue). Since then, our Sinospheric past was a mixed bag of the Sino-influenced culture and fights against the invasions of Chinese empires.

Being part of the Sinic world gives us some similarities to the Chinese culture; but at the same time we have own language and traditions. The combination of similarities and differences makes our culture unique.

We are proud of our past in the same way with the Japanese and the Korean are proud of their history.

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I totally agree with Andrew Dang ’s & Banh Dau comments : two great answers

We Vietnamese are just proud of things that truly bring us benefits and reputations”

Even China itself is not Sinopheric anymore”

Sinosphere : its the past, the old time makes Vietnam today, It help this country establish, It still has influence? Yes, But its fading so fast

Vietnam today : Over 100 million people, 700 billion $ economy GDP PPP, fast growing Economy , Strong Military

=> So why Foreigners & East Asia countries ( Chinese, Korean, Japanese) Still think Vietnamese Must Ask/ cry to join Sinosphere then they laugh at Vietnamese for these small things?

= >Vietnam already escape so-called Sinosphere, Why Vietnamese ourselves dont created Our Sky? We Vietnamese have Ambition, have strength, Have unique, Why Vietnamese Must knee on groud to obey others law? So ridiculous & Inssult for Our Vietnamese

Sinosphere : It brings benefits for Vietnam? Yes, I makes Vietnam easy to join East asia economics & trading,

=> Sinosphere is a tool for Vietnam to use, Vietnam/Vietnamese consider Sinosphere just a tool to help Vietnam gain “ benefits and reputations”

Only benefits and reputations make Our Vietnamese “proud”. Vietnamese never “proud” so-called Sinosphere . I believe most of Vietnamese even dont know/ care about it

Very simple

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As a fellow Vietnamese, it is regrettable to find so many of my countrymen who express disapproval over our own history. Indeed modern Vietnam has tried extremely hard to alienate itself from its own past, in the belief that we are eradicating traditions which were imposed by the “northern colonizers” (the Chinese). Now, Chinese influence is often seen as a shameful display of foreign culture, whose arrival have displaced our “pure Vietnamese traditions.” The “original form” of Vietnamese culture is fantasied as an extraordinary beauty whose memories we have forgotten, forever lost to the corruption brought upon us by foreign invaders.

And so we have willingly distanced ourselves from our own culture for fear that they are “too Chinese.” In the early days of Vietnam, the Party had tried to “purify” the Vietnamese language by replacing Chinese loanwords with native ones and discouraged Vietnamese traditions which may have originated in China. In doing so, modern Vietnamese is trapped in a gap of identity crisis, confused by the future and the past; and then another past which we imagine but have not come to define us. The Koreans and Japanese have not actively removed Chinese influence from their culture near our extent, yet funny enough neither Koreans nor Japanese face this kind of identity issue as serious as Vietnamese.

So am I proud of the Sinospheric past of Vietnam, you ask?

What is there not to be proud of?

The word “Sinosphere” is literally “Chinese Sphere” in English, but it only tells half the story. Just like the Roman Empire, China has influenced her neighbors in many ways, from which we have paved our own path on the foundation that has been laid down. The culture and traditions that we have developed cannot be more Vietnamese in that they have truly defined us —who we really are rather than something which we fantasies to be.

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Pictures from Google.

Vietnamese can never dispose the glory of our ancestors, for it will always be a part of our identity. By keeping away from our very own cultural definition, what have modern Vietnamese become?

It is a Frankenstein of Four Nothings (四不像)

Neither Western nor Eastern.

Neither East nor Southeast Asian.

Neither Confucian nor Non-Confucian.

Neither “Pure Vietnamese” nor “Chinese-influenced.”

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Do we feel proud or not, all depend on the cultural and ethnic feeling of Vietnamese people.

However, for most of the time, Vietnamese people don’t have a good sense of understanding Chinese or Sinosphere at all. And, be honest, I don’t think Vietnamese Chinese would feel proud either, since they have been assimilated so strongly. I think the actual number of Sino-Vietnamese people might be over 10–15 million over 90 million people, but being assimilated so far now they are not aware with it. And I am the few one.

They have a strong dislike because Vietnam was invaded by China for many years. Even Vietnam won or lost, the Chinese often razed and attacked Vietnamese civilians. Thus, this hostility remains.

Few other things: Vietnamese people learn Hanzi, learn Chinese characters, watch Chinese movies and this is quite normal for them. But if they are requested to feel proud, then no.

And it is just like Koreans and Japanese, they are both Sinosphere countries, but they have no sense of feeling like this either, even it may have better appreciate than Vietnamese.

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Vietnamese are very practical. We are just proud of things that truly bring us benefits and reputations.

Did Sinospheric past or being a part of Sinosphere really help us gain the national independence and freedom, national development and the respects from other countries? Hell no!

The Nguyen of Vietnam, the last feudal dynasty in Vietnamese history and also a 99% Sinicized dynasty, completely failed in the defense of national independence and sovereignty against the French colonialism in XIX century. At that time, Nguyen dynasty learnt and copied nearly all everything from China, from laws to military formations, and what was happened? They obviously failed to guarantee the independence for Vietnamese people.

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Phan Bội Châu, a notable Vietnamese scholar and a famous revolutionary during the first years of XX century, raised questions for himself about: Should Vietnamese people proud of their Sinospheric past? Did Vietnamese submissions to the Celestial Empire for one thousand years really bring them prides? Let’s see what he wrote in his monumental work “ Việt Na m Quốc Sử Khảo ” ( The Review of Vietnamese History ) :

“…Tiết thứ 3: Thần phục Bắc triều mà không giúp được gì cho nước

Quanh năm châu, có nước nào thần phục người ta mà được người ta yêu thương không? - Không có. Có nước nào thấy nước khác thần phục mình mà rủ lòng thương yêu đến không? - Cũng không có. Hai ý đó lấy chứng cớ ở đâu? Xin lấy chứng cớ ở nước Việt Nam ta…”

“…Section III: Submission to the Celestial Empire did not help anything

Around the whole world, is there any submissive countries that received the love from other people? No one. Is there any countries really love the one who submitted to them? Hell no. Was there any proofs for it? Yes, in case of our Vietnam…

Then, he came up with some conclusions:

…Rõ ràng ỷ lại vào người ngoài không bằng tự cường lấy ta. Bởi vì tự cường thì khí thế của mình mạnh, khí thế mạnh thì chuyển yếu thành mạnh…Nếu như nước ta, 50 năm về trước mà bỏ hẳn được cái tư tưởng "thờ nước lớn", biết bồi dưỡng cho cái cơ sở độc lập, biết phát triển cái căm uất thành sức mạnh, cùng với người khác tranh thắng, thì đâu đến nỗi như ngày hôm nay…

…Obviously, the dependence on the foreigners is not a good choice in comparison with self-reliance. Because of self-reliance, the national strength of the country will be consolidated, the weak then become the strong ... If our country, 50 years ago that completely abandoned the idea of "worshiping big countries", to foster the national development, to grow up, to compete with the others, for sure we are not in such a bad situation like this (i.e. under French colonialism)…

Throughout history, Independence and Freedom are the most important things that Vietnamese proud of, as President Ho Chi Minh once said: “ Nothing is precious than independence and freedom ”.

With this high independent spirit in Vietnamese bloods and veins, for thousand years Vietnamese language has not lost, for thousand years an independent Vietnam still survive but not a Commandery of the Celestial Empire, not an oversea territory of France or an “America’s backyard”. Consequently, Vietnamese people even “won” title “ Prussians of the Asia ” (or Southeast Asia) by Western media . This is the way how the world knows about Vietnam.

Vietnam today is moving ahead with high speed, it was not the Sinospheric past but the strong spirit of Independence and Freedom that make every Vietnamese should proud of!

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As a Vietnamese, I accept that Vietnam is sinospheric in culture, but I am not proud of it. I see it as a symbol of the Chinese dominations of Vietnam, a symbol of shame, in a way. However, I do recognize it. Lots of things like Tet are things I love, I realize there is Chinese influence there and I'm not proud of that, I just celebrate Tet because it's fun, to me, it's our own culture. So that's my answer, I am not proud of Chinese influence in my country, as it is a symbol of defeat, but I do recognize it as part of our own culture.

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