Question

I sometimes feel like living in a country (Vietnam) that is considered as a province in China. Is it true that Vietnam is just a small version of China?

Answer 1

Wrong perception. Vietnam is not.

Answer 2

Vietnam is definitely not a small version of China. Vietnam has its own distinct people, language, and culture. In facct, Vietnamese people are quite different from Chinese people. You could tell Vietnamese from Chinese by the following facial differences. Vietnamese have well-defined facial structure with deep eye sockets and bigger eyes. Also, many Vietnamese have double eye lids. The picture below shows typical Vietnamese facial features.

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On the other hand, *native* Chinese have flat facial structure with shallow eye sockets, slanted eyes, and single eye lids. The pictures below are what typical Chinese look like.

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Some Chinese look like Vietnamese, because China’s southern provinces used to belong to Vietnam and their ancestors are Vietnamese such as the picture below of Vietnamese Chinese.

Answer 3

I am re-posting my comment as an actual answer to the one posted by Dao TRAN below (who from a review of his/her posting history, has a clear bias against ANYTHING Chinese)

“China’s southern provinces used to belong to Vietnam”??? Haha… not quite.

Present day southern China, along with present day northern Vietnam, used to be part of a kingdom called “Nanyue”, with its capital in modern day Guangzhou, China (my hometown).

The kingdom was conquered and incorporated into the Han Dynasty over 2,000 years ago, and the region (including modern day northern Vietnam) was a Chinese province for the next 900 years, until Annam got its independence.

“Vietnam” is a relatively modern construct, and has NEVER occupied any portion of “southern China”. Most people in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan province, have some genetic overlap with their southern neighbors, but have always been Chinese and like all Chinese, are a mixture of various ethnic groups. Most in those referenced provinces self-identify as being Han, their ancestors have been assimilated and genetically intermixed with other Chinese groups.

BTW, if you are going to compare “average” profiles, you may want to try to be fair, and provide apple-to-apple comparisons, rather than some random picture of Chinese people found online (one of which is certainly less than flattering). Here’s the direct comparable to your picture:

Answer 4

I think many Vietnamese would take that as an insult. They are very nationalistic. A lot feel threatened by the Chinese.

Answer 5

I'm Chinese. My Vietnamese classmates have also told me about this problem. I told her, you have to have confidence, you come from an independent country, we speak different languages, this proves that you are not a part of China. Vietnam used to be part of China, but that was a long time ago.

I think one reason for this is that maybe the Vietnamese don't know much about their country's history. Is Vietnam's history merely one of trade and rivalry with China? I'm no expert. I don't know. But it may have its own civil wars, its own plots, its own battles against other Southeast Asian nations. His own literature, painting, architecture. It is important that we look to history for the glory of our country's past. Without history, we are like duckweeds in water, without a foundation.

There is also no shame in being culturally and architecturally similar to China. After all, ancient China was the most powerful country in Asia. Both South Korea and Japan have long been influenced by China. Vietnam is close to the south of China, so it's not surprising to learn about ancient Chinese culture. Some nationalists are always angry and see everything coming from China as aggression. Japan still uses Chinese characters, but the Japanese do not feel that their culture is copied from other countries, because they are confident enough and build the country well.

Read more and learn some Chinese characters when necessary, you can more easily understand the history of your own country.

Remember, Vietnam is a country with a long history and remains independent. This goes beyond many countries.