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NarrativeVietnam
Left, masks shaped on faces of Muir students in art class.
Vietnamese ethnicity in San Diego, By Justin
33,504 people of Vietnamese descent live in San Diego. They make up 2.25% of San Diego’s population.
Four great philosophies and religions have shaped the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity. Over the centuries, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism have melded with popular Chinese beliefs and ancient Vietnamese animism to form what is known as Tam Giao (or Triple Religion).
The Vietnamese language (kinh) is a hybrid of Mon-Khmer, Tai and Chinese elements with many of its basic words derived from the monotonic Mon-Khmer languages. The most widely spoken foreign languages in Vietnam are Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), English, French and Russian, more or less in that order.
Popular artistic forms include: traditional painting produced on frame-mounted silk; an eclectic array of theatre, puppetry, music and dance; religious sculpture; and lacquerware.
In the 10th century AD, the Vietnamese had won their freedom and built up an independent state named Dai Viet. The country was under the ruling of many national feudal dynasties, among which the most important ones are the Ly Dynasty (11th and 12th century), the Tran Dynasty (13th and 14th century), the Le Dynasty (15th, 16th and 17th century) with their centralized administration, strong army forces and a highly developed economy and culture. During this period, Vietnam as a nation had to ceaselessly fought against the vicious conquering conspiracies of Chinese and Mongolian feudal empires. Vietnam's long and tough struggles of resistance against the invasions of the Song (11th century), the Yuan or the Mongols (13th century), the Ming (15th century) had acquired glorious victories. Vietnam became stronger, all its ethnic groups became more united and the country moved into a new prosperous period after each struggle.
The festival which best epitomizes Vietnam's cultural identity is Vietnamese New Year or Tet. Popular festivals play a major role as mirror and guardian of a nation's cultural identity. In this aspect, the festival which best epitomizes Vietnam's cultural identity is Tet. Although endowed with honorable credentials, the New Year by Solar Calendar has not succeeded in becoming accredited in Vietnam, at least not in the countryside. People pay it polite homage countryside but reserve their heart and soul for their own traditional Vietnamese New Year "Tet" is a word of Chinese Origin. It is the phonetic deformation of "Tiet", a Sino Vietnamese term which means "Joint of a bamboo stern" and in a wider sense, the "beginning of a period of the year". The passage from one period to the next may cause a meteorological disturbance (heat, rain, mist) that must be exercised by ritual sacrifices and festivities. Thus, there are many Tets throughout the year (Mid-autumn Vietnamese New Year, Cold Food Vietnamese New Year, etc.). The most significant of all is "Vietnamese New Year Ca" ("Big Vietnamese New Year" or simply "Vietnamese New Year"), which marks the Lunar New Year.Vietnamese New Year occurs somewhere in the last ten days of January or the first twenty days of February, nearly halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox. Although the Lunar New Year is observed throughout East Asia, each country celebrates Vietnamese New Year in its own way in conformity with its own national psyche and cultural conditions.
For the Vietnamese people, Vietnamese New Year is like a combination of Western Saint Sylvester, New Years Day, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. It is the festival of Purity and Renewal.Nature always renews its youth, returning to its primary purity and freshness. People, who are part of Nature, follow the same course. Vietnamese New Year, the first day of spring, carries with it all the rebirth connotations that Easter has in the West. In the course of this period of universal renewal and rejuvenation, the Vietnamese feel the spring sap welling up within them. This feeling has given rise to special customs: every deed during the three days of Vietnamese New Year should be well intentioned and finely realized, for it symbolizes and forecasts actions during the coming twelve months. One abstains from getting cross, from using bad language. The most shrewish mother-in-law smokes the pipe of peace with her daughter-in-law. Quarrelling husbands and wives bury their hatchets. Children promise to be good, grown-ups hand the children gifts, which are often coins wrapped in scarlet paper since red is the color of luck. The children are happy to get new clothes. Beggars are given alms. The "new" world must be the best of the worlds. Once the holy resting time is over, activities resume with a new frame of mind after inaugurating ceremonies: "inauguration of the seals" for civil servants, "inauguration of the pen-brush" for scholars and students, "inauguration of the shop" for traders.
For the Vietnamese, Vietnamese New Year brings a message of confidence in humanity; it brings redemption, hope and optimism. The many sights at the time of the festival are many, but the greatest sight of all is the blooming cherry blossoms.
See interview of person born in Vietnam by the fifth grade class, below.
Interview with S
What is your religion? Most Vietnamese people are Buddhists. They have over a hundred gods. Each god represents something. There are gods of fertility (babies), luck (Buddha), god of red warrior (to protect your house), and more.
What holidays do you celebrate? Each full moon is a holiday. New Year’s is the first full moon. In the Vietnamese Zodiac there is a cat (no rabbit). At New Year’s the first person in the house carries the luck for the year. During first ten days of New Year, an unmarried person gets money in envelope with five to one hundred dollars. We play a gambling game with animals of different shapes. We bet on which animal will come up on dice. On some holidays we make lanterns and walk around with lanterns on sticks.
What is Vietnamese food like? Food has fish sauce—like soy sauce but from juice of fish. Foods from North or South (with lots of farms) are different. Pho is a beef noodle. There are spicy variations in the central region.
I was watching TV, and they said there were just two names in Vietnam. What was your last name? Le, Nguyen, Tran are the most common names. But some people are really from China. Pham is a Chinese name. My name was Nguyen.
What are the languages spoken? Three dialects are spoken in Vietnam. My mom is Central, and my dad is Southern. I enunciate words as they are written, but I use words from the south. Ant is “au” or “go”, depending on where you are from. The language is tonal. Ca can mean to sing, or fish, or rub or oldest male or all depending on the accent marks.
What music do you listen to? We have opera (cai luong). This is a musical play. They stretch out the last syllable.
What is your personal family history? Vietnam fell in 1975 when I was two. My dad got out of a concentration camp, and we came to the USA. We were in school in the USA, and we learned about holidays in a pull-out program. We were the only Vietnamese children there. Whatever my mom dressed me in, I didn’t want to wear. The teacher would make us tell the colors in class, and I didn’t want to wear too many colors I didn’t know how to say in English! We learned English by singing. When we came to the airport, I thought I was in heaven. Not a tiny village—big and loud and bright! I lost my first dollar!
Can you say something in your language? (S spoke.) With family by the title you know if they married into the family, if they are older or younger. Young people learn how to address the dad’s older sister, dad’s brother’s wife, dad’s younger sister… If you say the wrong title, they don’t like to hear it! I am the third aunt. I told my nieces to call me Aunt Stacey, but my grandmother did not like that! My cousin who is older than me has to call me older sister because my mom is older than her parents.