For most US travelers, a trip to Vietnam is a trip of a lifetime. Not only is the journey long, but the destination is exotic, and a far stretch from the culture of the ‘Western World.’ Before you go, it’s’ a good idea to understand Vietnam street culture so you can get the full scope of your adventure.
After all, you’re traveling to explore the cultures of the world! Here we’ll discuss Vietnam street culture and its modern landscape.
Incredible places are not often defined solely by their location. There are places that are largely the sum of their parts, as with purpose-built chalet towns in the Alps or tourist-trap seaside resorts on the Costa del Sol – but outside of these ‘all-inclusive’ destination resorts, places are so much more than the sum of their parts.
A heady combination of history, geography, art, architecture, and above all culture is what makes somewhere special, and this couldn’t be truer of Vietnam street culture.
Vietnam has a long and storied history, which, alongside its tropical forests and hazy sunsets, make it a tourist destination all of its own. But in recent years, Vietnam street culture or countercultural movements have brought cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City into an exciting present.
Let’s dive into Vietnam street culture and what has influenced it to evolve to the present day.
The Influences Behind Vietnam Street Culture
Vietnam has had a troubled and often turbulent past. The country gained independence from China in the 10th century after over 1,000 years of rule and began to expand southwards, incorporating the Champa and Khmer culture which resided in what is now southern Vietnam and Cambodia.
This Chinese influence remained despite the emergence of an independent Vietnamese state and still forms many of the foundations of the culture today. But that wasn’t the last colonization Vietnam would endure.
In the late 1800s, the French colonized Vietnam and the surrounding region, creating French Indochina. This brought a wave of Catholicism, Western culture, and a whole range of other influences to Vietnam street culture.
There are still French quarters in Hanoi, which are fascinating to see and explore.
The French lost control of Vietnam during WWII to the Japanese and, in the decades after, the country was divided by communist and Western ideologies. This north-south divide led to war and further suffering for the Vietnamese people, all of which was largely staged at the hands of the world’s great superpowers.
Since 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has unified the country, combining all the influences and scars left from centuries of colonization, war, and struggle.
All this history may not seem relatable to today’s Vietnam street culture, but there are plenty of links to be drawn. The underlying roots of traditional Vietnamese culture have remained through all that turbulence and this is evidenced in many cultural outlets.
There’s certainly a strong sense of nationalism about today’s Vietnam – understandably, given the plight of its people.
But there’s also a brilliant blend of all the influences that have shaped the country, whether it’s the baguette-like bread used in Bánh mì or the language and phonetic differences between north and south. Vietnam street culture is a myriad of experiences.
Let’s look at a few of the things that are most prevalent in Vietnam street culture.
Vietnam Street Art
Part of the Vietnam street culture is its street art. Hanoi has embraced the rapid growth of modern cultural movement within its walls, and indeed across them. This has been typified by the recent unveiling of street art on Phung Hung Street in Hoan Kiem.
This is Hanoi’s Old Quarter, and its history has been rendered directly onto the wall that bounds the street.
Stone arches act as frames for depictions of Hanoi’s past, with different street artists taking different forms and inspirations to create an eclectic tableau that marries the past with the present. The iconic nature of these artworks has already been enshrined, with Vietnam tours diverting to take this new cultural nexus in.
Street art in Vietnam is still relatively young, only appearing in the country’s largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, since the 2000s. There’s a distinct American style that has blossomed in popularity with many youths looking west for inspiration from hip-hop and rock culture.
Although these values have been largely shunned by the traditional mainstream, works have taken off online and underground, helping to dr