A brief background of the socio-cultural setting of Vietnam

1. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Reported by:
Rachell Felasol
(Crim. 2-C, Group 10)

2. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Way of Life
Before the late 1800s, nearly all
the people of Vietnam lived in
villages, and the cultivation of
wet rice was the principal
economic activity. The basic
component of rural society was

3. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
the nuclear family, composed of
parents and unwed children. As
in China, however, extended
family relationships were also
important. In many cases,
extended families lived together.
Parents arranged the marriages

4. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
of their children, and filial piety
(obedience to one’s parents) was
expected. Wives, too, were
expected to obey their
husbands. Families venerated
their ancestors with special
religious rituals. The houses of

5. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
the wealthy were constructed of
brick, with tile roofs. Those of
the poor were of bamboo and
thatch. Rice was the staple food
for the vast majority, garnished
with vegetables and, for those
who could afford it, meat and
fish.

6. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
The French introduced Western
values of individual freedom and
sexual equality, which
undermined the traditional
Vietnamese social system. In
urban areas, Western patterns of
social behavior became

7. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
increasingly common, especially
among educated and wealthy
Vietnamese. Elite Vietnamese
attended French schools, read
French books, replaced
traditional attire with Western-
style clothing, and drank French

8. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
wines instead of the traditional
wine distilled from rice.

9. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
The trend toward adopting
Western values continued in
South Vietnam after the division
of the country in 1954. Many
young people embraced sexual
freedom and the movies,
clothing styles, and rock music

10. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
from Western cultures became
popular. But in the North, social
ethics were defined by
Communist principles adapted
from China and the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
The Communist government

11. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
officially recognized equality of
the sexes, and women began to
obtain employment in
professions previously
dominated by men. At the same
time, the government began
enforcing a more puritanical

12. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
lifestyle as a means to counter
the so-called decadent practices
of Western society. Traditional
values continued to hold sway in
rural areas, where the concept of
male superiority remained
common.

13. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
In 1986 the Vietnamese
government adopted an
economic reform program that
borrowed freely from free-
market principles and
encouraged foreign investment
and tourism. As a result, the

14. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Vietnamese people have
become increasingly acquainted
with and influenced by the
lifestyles in developed countries
of East Asia and the West. The
Communist regime finds this
trend worrisome, believing it

15. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
could lead to an increase in
individualism, materialism, drug
use, and pornography. While the
administration stresses the
importance of economic
development, it remains
committed to wiping out what it

16. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
considers the “poisonous
weeds” of capitalism in
Vietnamese society.

17. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Social Issues
During the Vietnam War, the
Communist government of North
Vietnam was successful in
limiting the country’s social
problems to those directly
connected with the war effort.

18. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Although malnutrition and
poverty were common,
corruption was rare and the
incidence of drugs, prostitution,
and crime was limited.

19. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Following the war, Vietnam
developed high rates of birth
defects, probably due to the
aerial spraying of Agent Orange
and other chemical herbicides
during the war. The U.S. military
sprayed these defoliants on

20. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
forests and crops to help expose
the hiding places of Communist
forces. As a consequence,
innumerable Vietnamese were
exposed to extremely toxic
byproducts known as dioxins,
which have been associated with

21. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
severe birth defects and certain
rare cancers in humans. Toxins
that leaked into croplands and
rivers around the sprayed areas
also had long-term effects on the
food supply of the country as a
whole.

22. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Land mines from the war also
posed a significant problem.
Concealed by both U.S. and
Communist forces, land mines
continued to kill and cripple
people after the war. From the
end of the war in 1975 to 2005,

23. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
more than 58,000 Vietnamese
were killed by land mines—more
than all the U.S. servicemen who
died during the war. See also
Mine (Warfare).

24. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Social problems have increased
since the economic reforms of
1986. Corruption has escalated
as increasing amounts of money
circulate through society.
Unemployment is also on the
rise, especially among young

25. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
people. Drug addiction and
alcoholism are becoming serious
problems; prostitution is
rampant, especially in urban
areas; and incidents of acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome
(AIDS) have increased in

26. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Vietnam. Many of these social
ills may be inevitable
consequences of the
modernization process.
However, they represent a
serious challenge to a
government determined to bring

27. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
about economic development
without the accompanying
problems of social and political
instability.

28. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Culture
Traditional Vietnamese culture
reflected the influence of
neighboring China. Vietnamese
art, architecture, music, and
literature all followed Chinese
forms. With the advent of French

29. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
colonialism in the late 19th
century, however, the influence
of Western culture replaced that
of China. Modern Vietnamese
cultural expression combines the
socialist realism of Communist
systems with current trends in
the capitalist world.

30. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Source:
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1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.

31. Socio-Cultural Setting:
Vietnam
Gam Uhn!!!

32. Socio-Cultural Setting
as we
Understanding

33. Socio-Cultural
Community
for
establish a

36. Republic of the Philippines
CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY
Dumarao Satellite College, Dumarao, Capiz
Theme: “Understanding Better the Political, Economic &
Socio-Cultural Setting of Southeast Asian Nations for
Peace, Prosperity & People”
March 09, 2015 (8:00-11:30 am)
Campus Library