People and Population
People
The first and lasting impressions of the Vietnamese people are of their warmth, adaptability, work ethic, tenacity, energy, humor, optimism, and love of country. The Vietnamese, despite what they and their country have suffered at the hands of the U.S., France, Japan, and China, among other foreign powers, find inspiration in the past and look to the future with great optimism and hope. If you are bold enough to begin learning the language, which will permit you a fuller appreciation and understanding of the people and their culture, you will even discover that people are appreciative, patient, and happy to correct your mistakes not with admonitions and disdain but with gentleness and respect.Ethnicity
Although Vietnam’s population includes fifty-four ethnic groups, each with its own language, it is nonetheless relatively homogeneous.About 90 percent of the population consists of ethnic Vietnamese, most of whom live in lowland areas in the North (Red River Delta)) and South (Mekong Delta). Another fifty-two ethnic groups account for 7 percent of the population, living mostly in the central and northern mountainous areas of the country. Ethnic Chinese, the largest minority group, make up the remaining 3 percent. Most live in southern Vietnam, particularly in the Cholon district of HCM City.The government’s mistrust and wrath with respect to things Chinese has made the ethnic Chinese Vietnamese perennial targets of discrimination and victims of periodic expulsions. The majority of the so-called boat people who fled Vietnam after the war in several waves are of Chinese ancestry.In 1978, the government implemented a series of anticapitalist measures that included the confiscation of private property and businesses, many of which belonged to ethnic Chinese. It is estimated that around 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam from 1978 to 1989,either by boat or over the border into China. As elsewhere in Asia, they are best known for their business acumen and well-organized regional and international networks.
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Above: Thai Ethnicity - Living in the mountains of northern Vietnam |
Population
By 2003, Vietnam’s population had reached 81 million, making it the fourteenth most populous country in the world. Although Vietnam has endured centuries of war, including most recently the First Indochina War against France and the Second Indochina War against the U.S.,its population growth was quite high from 1960 to 1975, at slightly over 3 percent annually. At the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, a baby boom pushed Vietnam’s population to unsustainable levels, and in 1976 the government issued a two-child-only directive. Now, after many years of this policy, Vietnam’s population growth rate has stabilized and, in fact, declined to a rate of less than 2 percent annually. In response, the government has removed the limit on the number of children, a shift that will likely lead to an increase in the birth rate. This, in turn, may eventually have deleterious effects on the nation’s education system and on a strained labor market that is currently unable to absorb the large numberof new workers entering the work force each year.For historical reasons,Vietnam’s population is exceptionally young. Approximately half of the Vietnamese are under twenty-five.
Tags: Viet Nam Today
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July 18, 2010 at 8:29 AM
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