Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Chinese in Vietnam - by Tai Lam
The Chinese in Vietnam - by Tai Lam
Example 1:
The everyday term ren 人 simply means person and its easy character to
learn. Although the major Confucian virtue of ren is written a bit differently,
Ren 仁 (authoritative conduct), it is derived by adding the number two 二 to
indicating the old parents. The other morpheme is the character son ‘ 子 ’
underneath the ‘old’, symbolizing a son, or more precisely, offspring, is
underneath the parents being carried. From the character ‘xiao’, people are
probably inspired by the scene of a good son carrying his weak old father unable
to walk well, willing sacrificing his youthful energy and time to serve his father.
Xiao (shau) in Chinese really compasses all forms of active love for parents.
Confucius, whose ideas about inequality and hierarchy are quite dominant
in Chinese cultures, was an intellectual of humble origins in China around 500 BC.
One of Confucian principles of teaching is The stability of society based in
unequal relationships between people. These relationships are called Wu Lun 五
meaning ‘strict father’ and their mother as cimu 慈母 meaning ‘kind and
protective’
The center of Chinese community society is the family including the
immediate relatives and the ancestors extending back for many generations. The
continued use of family middle names from past generations reflects this
emphasis, i.e. each generation will have their fixed middle name (know as
“generation name”, ‘beiming’ 輩名) to follow orderly. From this, they will know
who is ‘upper’ or “older” than who. Therefore, if two Chinese people happen to
know that they have the same family name after introduction, they immediately
will gladly recognize as relatives (as belonging to the same ancestors) and then
following to ask each other’s middle name in order to get to know who is senior.
Later, this kind of relation will be described as to be social link. The Chinese
term of ‘social uncle, siblings (shishu 世叔, shuxiung 世兄…) etc. can be heard
through this ‘fraternization’.
The Chinese family unit provides an economic safety net for its members.
In turn, the standards of family devotion, loyalty, and pride are woven into each
member. Rituals to honor the ancestors make the family a strong religious unit
and determine the welfare of the living members. A strong, unified family is
deemed necessary for mutual protection in a competitive and alien society. It
also is of great advantage in helping a new immigrant family member integrate
into life in Vietnam. Many attempts, however, have been made by the former
government to force the Chinese to assimilate as Vietnamese citizens, but thus
far, they have resisted and tended to develop their culture.
The Chinese family ranges from a small nuclear family to a larger group
including several small families under one roof. Each generation may have its
own apartment within the house. The sociolinguistic concept of ‘ Five
generations in the same house’ (Wu dai tong tang 五代同堂) is said to be the
most fortunate (‘fu’ 福) with a lot of Children, grand-children and great grand-
children attaching all around.
As in the rest of Chinese society, the Chinese family is patriarchal (male
dominated), with the leadership passing to the eldest or most worthy son. Elders
generally exert great influence. The expression ‘ the father’s power transferred
to the elder’ after death (xiung quan dai fu 權兄代父). Years ago, parents in
Chinese family decide the marriages of their children. The choice of husband or
wife is often determined by business considerations and the strong desire to
have a family with equal social standing. This is said to be ‘ equal door to equal
house’ (men dang hu dui 門當戶對).
Festivals are an important part of life for the Chinese. Especially Chinese
(as well as Vietnamese) New Year is a moveable feast in the lumar calendar
(everything goes as one’s wish); yi fan feng shun 一帆風順(a ship in full sail
with the inscription: "Smooth sailing"). On the red paper are Chinese words
(calligraphy) written by Chinese ink and stuck on the front entry door : Wu fu lin
men 五福臨門, wishing five kinds of good fortune arrive at the door. These five
good fortune are: Longevity, prosperity, health, excellence, good end.
Red is perhaps the most auspicious colour in Chinese culture, signifying
happiness and good luck. Gold is reminiscent of riches. The pronunciations of
many of the images shown are homophonic with the aspirations they represent.
For example, the word for bat ‘fu’ 蝠 is very similar in sound to fortune ‘fu’福.
Reading some of the other symbols easily seen in the Chinese community, people
can see that this is a wish for conjugal bliss, prosperity and longevity:
Conjugal happiness: A (female) phoenix matched on the opposite side by a
(male) dragon (‘long feng he ming’ 龍鳳和鳴); plums ; paired birds etc.
Prosperity, good fortune: A bat atop two coins which have the inscription
‘fa cai’ 發 財 , "Make money" ; paired fish (homophonic with ‘excessive’ );
oranges (homophonic with ‘good’); a ship in full sail with the inscription:
"Smooth sailing"
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