Ask most people what they know about Vietnam and their answer is likely to be delivered through the prism of the country’s civil war and America’s devastating war against the country. Yet there is so much more to this fascinating and complex South-East Asian country. Contemporary Vietnam is a dynamic regional economic power. And its history, which includes 1,000 years of Chinese rule, has provided it with a diverse and intricate cultural legacy.
Though still led by an authoritarian communist regime, Vietnam’s opening up since 1986 has been largely welcomed. Known as Doi Moi, or “Renovation”, and underpinned by the regime’s socialist-oriented market economy, the policy has transformed the country. Since then, the Vietnamese economy has boomed, with impressive growth rates (seven per cent in 2019) that have helped take 45 million Vietnamese out of poverty.
Modern Vietnam is characterized by a dynamic, young population — 70 per cent are under 35 — that is eager to learn English, internationalist in outlook and revelling in their new relative freedoms. Since 1986, illiteracy has been virtually eliminated, the whole country now has electricity and most citizens are free to holiday abroad.
There are important caveats to the good-news narrative, however. All Vietnamese know that it isn’t advisable to discuss politics (at least not in public), and certainly not to question the regime’s legitimacy. “Vietnam did little to improve its abysmal human rights record in 2019,” says Human Rights Watch. The organization also severely criticized the restrictions the regime places on “freedom of expression, association [and] assembly”, in addition to its blocking of access to some websites and requests that social media companies “remove contents deemed to be politically sensitive”. Despite its democratic failings, Vietnam is a better country to live in today than it was pre-Renovation. Its opening up has seen not only an economic boom but also a tourism boom. Traditional cultures, dramatic landscapes and vibrant cities, famously the capital, Hanoi, in the north, and Ho Chi Minh City in the south, attract millions of international tourists every year.
To make sense of the country’s rapid transformation, we speak to two Vietnam experts: academic Dana Healy and intercultural communication expert and businessman Axel Mierke. Both have lived in Vietnam, are regular visitors and have chosen careers based on imparting their knowledge and experience of the country.