The Reseach On Vietnamese Overseas Chinese Cultural Geography (1405-1945)

Vietnam, joined loam with China and had deep roots in history, is the only country in Central South China Sea that influenced by Chinese culture. Since Vietnam was independent, overseas Chinese had continued to enter into this country for ages. Especially since the Ming and Qing dynasties, there had been three large-scale of emigration. Because of the special relationship between Vietnamese and Chinese dynasties, the attitude of Vietnamese to Chinese became quite subtle, and its policies to Chinese affected the distribution of overseas Chinese and the extent of converged between them and local residents.Since the 17 th century, Hoi An, Ha Tien, Pho Hien, Cholon and other representative overseas Chinese communities had formed in Vietnam, then Chinese culture developed on this basis. Among the overseas Chinese all over Vietnam, the Minh-Huong people were a special group. As loyalists of the Ming dynasty, they moved into Vietnam retaining lots of customs and identity of Chinese culture, but rejected the Qing dynasty. Being intermarried with the locals,Chinese gradually blended into them. Vietnamese dynasties and the French colonial authorities were all taking preferential policies on Minh-Huong people, which was different with other overseas Chinese. Language and society groups of Overseas Chinese created a significant impact on their identity.Since Chinese entered into Vietnam, they had taken more emphasis on education, which was private school education at first. The subjects taught in those schools were same to domestic ones.In the early 20 th century, overseas Chinese began to establish new schools in Vietnam. These overseas schools emerged in the south and later spread in central and northern areas. Overseas schools, which were distributed at Chinese gathered places, were an important means of cultural heritage, and had great cultural significance.Religion of overseas Chinese showed its close relationship with the ancestral home. Unlike Buddhism, Taoism and other large religions, folk beliefs have many gods, such as Guan Gong,Tian Hou, Fu Bo, and Brothers. All of those have distinct regional characteristics. Monks who visited Vietnam were outstanding cultural envoys, such as Zhuo Gong, Yuan Shao, and Da Shan.Because of the similar cultural practices, it is more convenience for overseas Chinese to preserve customs.Vietnam and China shared similar characteristics in literature. Overseas Chinese run newspaper and other publications to spread Chinese culture and patriotism. Chinese literature was flourished in Vietnam under the activities of Che Jiu’s family, who wrote "Ha Tien Ten Poems" as a representative. In summary, the Vietnamese overseas Chinese cultural geography is co-founded by politic, economy and culture.