Vietnam Culture

Vietnamese culture is built on family obligation and ancestor veneration — the family altar is a fixture in homes and shops, and the death anniversary matters more than the birthday.

The Chinese millennium left Confucian structure: respect for education, age and hierarchy, visible in forms of address that change with relative age.

The French left coffee and bread, both thoroughly reinvented. Vietnamese coffee is robusta, brewed strong through a metal filter and cut with condensed milk, and the café is a social institution at every hour.

This is a young country — the median age is around 33 — and the street life, particularly in the south, runs on motorbikes, night markets and late eating rather than on anything a visitor would recognise as nightlife.