Culture
Religion, family structure, festivals, music, ao dai, etiquette.
34 articles in this section. Most stand on their own.
Contemporary art galleries by city in Vietnam
Manzi (Hanoi), Galerie Quynh (HCMC), Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, plus the emerging gallery scene.
Vietnam's contemporary art scene
Galleries, art districts, public art, and the young Vietnamese artists worth following. HCMC vs Hanoi vs Hội An, plus the Đổi Mới-generation framework.
Vietnamese drinking culture — bia hơi, rượu, and the etiquette
Bia hơi nights, rượu shots at business dinners, 'một, hai, ba, dô!' toasting, and the role drinking plays in Vietnamese social and business life.
Vietnamese ethnic-minority crafts — buying authentic
How to tell H mong indigo, Dao embroidery, and Cham silk from tourist-grade imitations.
Vietnamese gaming and esports culture
VCS League of Legends, the PUBG Mobile scene, mobile gaming dominance, and the Vietnamese internet-cafe culture.
Vietnamese social hierarchy and formal titles
Age-based hierarchy, professional titles (Thạc Sĩ, Tiến Sĩ, Bác Sĩ), party and military titles. The system that organises every Vietnamese interaction.
Vietnamese hospitality — what to expect, regional differences
Vietnamese hospitality is real and structured. What 'being a guest' actually means, how north vs central vs south differ, and the gestures that count.
Kinship language in Vietnamese culture — the social structure behind the pronouns
Why Vietnamese has no neutral 'you' — the social structure behind anh / chị / em / chú / cô. The cultural framework, not just the words.
Lucky and unlucky numbers in Vietnamese culture
Why apartments skip the 4th floor, why 9 is auspicious, why 'đẹp' numbers cost more for plates. Vietnamese number superstition, with the cultural roots.
Martial arts training in Vietnam — Vovinam and Wing Chun
Vovinam (Vietnam s indigenous martial art), Wing Chun in HCMC, Vinh Xuan, and the foreigner-accessible schools.
Football and sport in Vietnamese culture
Vietnam is a football-obsessed country. The national team, the V-League, the bia-hơi match-night culture, plus the rising sports beyond football.
Vietnamese street food culture by region
Hanoi pavement-corner culture, Hue royal-cuisine-on-the-street, HCMC mobile vendors, Mekong floating markets — the regional street food map.
Vietnamese tea culture and ceremony
Vietnamese tea is everyday, not ceremonial — trà đá (iced tea) free at every meal. But there's a real tea-house tradition in Hanoi and Huế, plus the highland farms producing the country's best leaves.
Traditional Vietnamese games and pastimes
Đá cầu (shuttlecock kicking), cờ tướng (Vietnamese chess), bầu cua tôm cá (the dice gambling game), plus the modern pool-hall culture that's replaced much of it.
Vietnamese Birth Customs: Đầy Tháng, Thôi Nôi and the Zodiac Hour
A Vietnamese child's first year is marked by two formal ceremonies — đầy tháng at one lunar month and thôi nôi at the first birthday — alongside careful zodiac calculation.
The Vietnamese Education System: Exams, Tutoring and the Top Universities
Vietnamese schooling is 5+4+3 years through secondary, ends in the high-stakes thi tốt nghiệp THPT exam, and is supplemented by a near-universal private tutoring industry.
Vietnamese Funeral Customs: White Mourning, 49 Days and Paper Offerings
Vietnamese funerals follow a long arc — three to seven days of wake and burial, 49 days of formal mourning, and annual death anniversaries that continue indefinitely.
Gender Roles in Vietnam: Official Equality, Traditional Practice
Vietnamese law guarantees gender equality and women's workforce participation is among the highest in Asia, but traditional family expectations remain firmly in place.
Generational Divides in Vietnam: War, Đổi Mới and the Digital Native
Three Vietnamese generations live alongside each other — the pre-1975 cohort, the Đổi Mới generation born into reform, and the digital-native Gen Z — with sharply different worlds.
LGBTQ Life in Vietnam: Legal Status, Social Tolerance and the Scene
Same-sex relationships are decriminalised and broadly tolerated in Vietnamese cities, but same-sex marriage is not legally recognised — a familiar Asian middle ground.
The Vietnamese Lunar Zodiac: Twelve Animals and Marriage Compatibility
Vietnam's twelve-animal zodiac shares ten signs with the Chinese system but swaps Rabbit for Cat and Ox for Water Buffalo, and remains widely consulted for marriage matching.
Phong Thủy: Vietnamese Feng Shui in Homes, Altars and Business
Phong thủy — the Vietnamese version of feng shui — guides house orientation, altar placement, business opening dates and the placement of fish tanks and mirrors.
Religion and Family in Vietnam
Ancestor worship, Mahayana Buddhism, Catholicism in the south, and the structure of the Vietnamese family.
Traditional Vietnamese Music: Cải Lương, Ca Trù, Nhã Nhạc and Quan Họ
From UNESCO-listed northern chamber song to southern reformed theatre, Vietnam's traditional music traditions remain living art forms rather than museum pieces.
Vietnamese Cinema: Trần Anh Hùng, Tết Blockbusters and the Indie Scene
Vietnamese cinema lives in two parallel worlds — quiet art house films that win at Cannes, and Tết comedies that earn ten million dollars in a week.
The Vietnamese Diaspora: Việt Kiều from California to Berlin
Around five million Vietnamese live overseas — a diaspora shaped by 1975 refugees, post-1990 economic migrants, and labour exporters across the US, France, Germany, Australia and Asia.
Vietnamese Literature: From Nguyễn Du to Bảo Ninh
Two centuries of Vietnamese literature run from Nguyễn Du's verse epic Truyện Kiều through the colonial-era realists to Bảo Ninh's Sorrow of War.
Vietnamese Names: Order, Meaning and How to Address People
Vietnamese names run family-middle-given, and people are almost always addressed by the given name plus a kinship title — not by the family name.
Vietnamese Pop Music (V-pop): Sơn Tùng, Mỹ Tâm and the Underground Rap Scene
V-pop is no longer derivative — Sơn Tùng M-TP, Mỹ Tâm and Hà Anh Tuấn dominate the mainstream while Đen Vâu and Suboi lead a serious rap underground.
Vietnamese Wedding Customs: Ăn Hỏi, Đám Cưới and the Betel Tradition
A Vietnamese wedding is two ceremonies — the engagement (ăn hỏi) and the wedding day (đám cưới) — bound together by red áo dài, lacquered gift boxes and trầu cau.
Tết and the Vietnamese Festival Calendar
The lunar new year is the big one. But there are eight or nine other festivals worth knowing about.
Vietnamese Etiquette: What to Know
Greetings, addressing people, gifts, the table, the home — a working guide to not embarrassing yourself.
Gift-Giving Etiquette in Vietnam
What to give, what to avoid, and how to present a gift respectfully in Vietnamese business and social settings.
The Áo Dài and Vietnamese Dress
The áo dài isn't a national costume; it's a continuously evolving form. A short guide for visitors.