There is hope in Vietnam

Recently I traveled to Ho Chi Minh, the largest city of Vietnam.

The country was occupied by Chinese for more than 1000 years since Dynasty Tang. Vietnamese language then was Chinese Language. Thereafter it was colonized by France for another 100 years. During the occupation of France, French helped Vietnamese to invent their language that is similar to the French language. From thereon, Chinese Language started to diminish in Vietnam.

Vietnamese spent 9 years fighting with France to gain independence. The Vietnam War which took another 21 years saw the Northern Vietnam declaring war with Southern Vietnam. Millions of people were killed in the war. Vietnamese launched the guerrilla wars against the American. They managed to chase American away.

US suffered major loss in Vietnam War. In fact, American not only suffered loss in Vietnam, but also Afghanistan & Iraq.

In 1988, Vietnamese government (The Communist Government) allowed Vietnamese to learn foreign languages and started to liberalize the economy in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh (used to be called Saigon) is the earliest city to be allowed to practice market economy in Vietnam.

There are altogether 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam (China has 56 ethnics) with Buddhism as the main religion.

Before I went there, I used to think that Vietnamese are like Mainland Chinese. My impression of China is that the people there were generally quite rude and not that sincere in doing business. (So sorry, this was the experience I encountered in China many years ago. Of course, this is only a small group of culprits.) However, the encounter that I had in Vietnam was excellent. The people there are sincere in doing business, very warm towards tourists and are very helpful. They gave tourists very good hospitality.

Back in 30 years ago, the Vietnamese refugees were being chased out by their government (some actually chose to run away from the country) from their country and quite a number of them came to Malaysia to seek shelter. I remember they were placed at Bidong Island at Terengganu (or Kelantan?). The Malaysian government even built a special Vietnamese village at Sungai Besi (near the current Sg Besi Toll) to be their home. There was even one boat full of refugees were drowned in the South China Sea near Malaysia Sea. You see, how pitiful they were!

Many years later, the Vietnamese all over the world (most of them are in the US and Australia) managed to earn good living in these countries and are able to build homes for their children. Some become rich businessmen. Some got themselves involved in the local government administration and were elected to be the local representatives (or members of parliament). They developed and built Vietnamese Towns. That’s why you would find that besides China Town, there are now lots of Vietnamese Towns in US and Australia.

Vietnamese are people who are hardworking, resilient, energetic and full of creativity. For a race who has gone through hardship and difficult times, they appreciate the value of freedom and understand that there is no short cut to success. They are willing to work very hard and go extra miles in achieving their career goals. They venture into business, learn foreign languages and most importantly, willing to leave behind the historical and cultural burden and move on to strive for greater success in life.