为什么大部分中国人认为越南在文化上和泰国柬埔寨相似？ [美国媒体]

Why do most Chinese think that Vietnam is culturally similar to Thailand and Cambodia?

为什么大部分中国人认为越南在文化上和泰国柬埔寨相似？



Fragrant Grass
Fragrant Grass, lived in Vietnam (1991-2012)
Updated Aug 29
I am a Vietnamese who live in Beijing and Shanghai so I think I am qualified to answer this question.
First of all, I oppose the statement that most Chinese people think that Vietnam is culturally similar to Thailand and Cambodia. I have this kind of conversations many times with many Chinese. Unsurprisingly, most of them think that Vietnam is a branch of Chinese culture aka Sinosphere. Why? Because in history book of China, it is written that the Viet people of Vietnam originally came from Guangdong. Due to some conflicts, they moved down South to establish the new country which is Vietnam. Many Chinese thought that Vietnamese language is very similar to Cantonese. By so, a Vietnamese and a Cantonese person can understand each other (which is not true).

我是越南人，生活在北京和上海，所以我认为我有资格回答这个问题。、
首先，我反对这种说法。我和很多中国人有过多次这样的对话。不出意外的是，大部分人认为越南是中国文化的分支，即属于汉字文化圈。为什么？因为在中国历史书里，称越南的越南人原本来自中国广东。由于战争，他们往南迁到新的国家，即越南。很多中国人认为越南语和粤语很像。所以，越南人和广东人说话可以互相理解（事实并非如此）。

It is true that Vietnamese culture is influenced by Chinese mainstream philosophies such as Ruism, Daoism and Mahayana Buddhism. But it doesn't mean Vietnam doesn't have each own culture. It doesn't mean that we are 100% like the Chinese. And I am assured that a Vietnamese and a Cantonese person can't understand each other even though Vietnamese has some loan words which pronounced kind of similar to Cantonese. If we chase back to the origin of languages, Viet language is Mon-Khmer while Canonese is Sino-Tibetan language. How come the two be similar?

不过越南文化确实受中国主流哲学影响，比如道教和佛教等。但这不意味着越南没有自己的文化。并不意味着我们100%像中国人。而且我可以保证虽然越南语和粤语有点类似，一个越南人和一个广东人说话是无法互相理解的。如果我们追溯语言的源头，越南语和粤语属于两种不同的语系。所以怎么可能类似？

About the history of Viet origin that I mentioned above, I would not argue this matter as history is a propagandized weapon. It is written for the winners so each side has a different version. China said that Viet was from China. Vietnam said “No, Viet people were here long before some Viet of Guangdong moved down here”…

说越南人来源于中国，这个我不想争论，因为历史是政治宣传的武器。历史是由胜利者书写的，存在着不同的历史版本。中国说越南人来自中国，越南说“不，早在广东人到来之前，越南人就已经存在了”。

Most Chinese don't know that Vietnamese writing system has been romanized. They still thought that Vietnamese writing was characters aka “chu Nom” which developed from Han characters. I personally think that it was such a shame that we abandoned our traditional characters. The Roman characters help us learn English easier but also distant us from our ancient culture.

大部分中国人不知道越南的书写系统已经被罗马化了。他们还认为越南还在使用发展自汉字的喃字。我个人认为抛弃自己的传统文字是很可惜的。罗马字符可以快速帮助我们学习英语，但是让我们远离了自己的古老文化。

Most Chinese don't know much about Vietnam and vice versa. Most Vietnamese don't understand China. We have many distorted perceptions towards China. For examples many Vietnamese believe that China is still backward in economy. Many Vietnamese think that Chinese people are aggressive and they hate Vietnamese so much that we are afraid of going to China for travelling. Many Vietnamese think that China is very ugly and polluted and has nothing to see… From the Chinese perspective, Vietnam and other SEAs as well are underdeveloped and uneducated. Many Chinese people were so surprised when they found out that I speak English and Chinese fluently. They were like “but you are from Vietnam, aren't you?”.

大部分中国人对越南不太了解，反之亦然。大部分越南人也不了解中国。我们对中国有很多扭曲的看法。比如很多越南人认为中国依然是一个经济落后的国家。很多越南人认为中国人是好斗的，认为他们很讨厌越南人，搞得我们都不敢去中国旅游了。很多越南人认为中国非常丑陋，高污染，没啥好看的。而在中国人看来，越南人和其他东南亚国家也是不发达没教养的。很多中国人都对我能流利说中文和英文感到惊讶。他们的反应就像“你不是来自越南吗？”

History has made such a huge gap between us, distanted our relationship and made it become a complicated thing. I think only when both sides are open to the differences and to learn from each other, then we can have mutual understanding and compassion toward each other.

历史在我们之间制造了这么大一个裂痕，疏远了我们的关系，让事情变得复杂。我认为只有包容对方向对方学习，我们才能互相了解和同情。

Nguyễn Thắng, Dev at Freelance Jobs
Answered Aug 9
what wrong with that thinking?
in fact we vietnamese peoples have invade cambodia too! i mean in the feudalism!
We also accept other cultures and knowledge other than Chinese knowledge and culture. There is nothing wrong with saying we are a mixed culture led by the Kinh people themselves!
Even so, our culture is still the most Chinese-like culture in all matters! Anyway we are rivals for thousands of years! This fact motivates us to learn about our enemies, and to find a way to exist by side of them!

这种说法有什么不对？实际上我们越南人在封建时期也侵略过柬埔寨。除了中国知识和文化，我们还接受了其他的文化和知识。说我们是一个由京族领导的混合文化，这并没有错。
即使如此，我们的文化依然最像中国文化！毕竟我们是数千年来的对手！这促使我们去向敌人学习，想办法和他们共存。

We not really think much about how they think about us! Because we are so much like them in the way of thinking! We just noticed how much they understand us! That is the core of the problem!
You will be surprised when China is a big country with 1.4 billion people and 56 different races!
But even more surprisingly, Vietnam with 100 million people and the same 54 different races!
But at the top of these races are the "Han" peoples and the "Kinh" peoples!

我们不太去思考他们如何看待我们！因为在思维方式上我们是那么的像他们！我们只注意到他们了解我们多少！这是问题的核心所在！
你会惊讶的发现中国是一个多么巨大的国家，14亿人口，56亿民族！你会更惊讶的发现越南1亿人口也具有54个民族！各自的主要民族是汉族和京族！

Justin Poon, studied at China West Normal University (2000)
Answered Aug 24
I do not think so.
Among the three countries, Vietnamese culture is the closest to Chinese culture. Both Vietnam and Cambodia are the earliest inhabitants of the Indo-China Peninsula. They can be counted as indigenous and the two ethnic groups share the same origin. In history, Vietnam was developed by China for 1000 years, so the cultural integration is affirmative. Many ancient cultural relics are also written in Chinese characters. The Chinese components in Vietnamese are many and complex. The total number of Chinese loan words can reach about 70% in Vietnamese.
Thailand and Cambodia are different from Chinese culture, and their words are invented from ancient Indian scripts.
In terms of eating habits, Vietnamese food is more like a Chinese dish. Other countries are deeply influenced by India, but they are also influenced by Chinese people, but they are basically the tastes of ethnic minorities in southern China.

我不这么认为。在这三个国家中，越南文化最接近中国文化。越南和柬埔寨都是中南半岛最早期的定居者。他们可以被看成是土着，两个民族有着同样的起源。历史上，越南被中国开发了一千年，所以形成了文化整合。很多古老的文化遗产也是汉字写成的。越南文里的中文很多。越南文里的中文外来词占据70%左右。
泰国和柬埔寨与中国文化不同，而且他们的文字发明自古老的印度文字。
就饮食习惯而言，越南食物更像中国食物。其他国家深受印度影响，但是也受中国影响，主要是中国南方的少数民族饮食。