Ó Copyright by Mark Edward Pfeifer (1999)

Abstract/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents - [ Chapters - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ] -  Appendices - References Cited

Historians disagree concerning the precise origin of the Vietnamese people. Many writers have assumed that the Vietnamese are direct descendants of the Viets, a group of persons that inhabited land south of the Yangtze River in China. According to this theory, the various tribes of the Viets were gradually driven further and further south into the Red River delta of present-day North Vietnam by the expanding Chinese empire. Subsequently, it is argued, the first Vietnamese state was founded in the Red River region in the time period of 300 B.C. (Buttinger, 1968).

Some of the most prominent scholars of Vietnamese history have come to reject portions of this explanation. These historians have argued that the origins of the Vietnamese people reflect an amalgamation of persons from Southern China with the indigenous persons of the surrounding regions of Southeast Asia (Woodside, 1988; Jamieson, 1993; Chapius, 1995). Buttinger (1968) in his seminal history of Vietnam argues that a complex racial and cultural fusion occurred in the area of the Red River Valley. This fusion involved the Viet peoples from China, Thai peoples, as well as persons of Indonesian origin who for several centuries dominated the Red River Delta. In sum, Buttinger concludes that not only archaeological finds but language research as well confirms the mixed racial and cultural origins of the Vietnamese. He notes that while the Vietnamese do speak a distinctly separate language, close analysis demonstrates that their language contains important elements from the Mon-Khmer and Thai languages. According to Buttinger, Chinese elements enriched the Vietnamese language at a later stage in the Vietnamese civilization.

After 300 B.C., the Vietnamese gradually moved southward from the Red River region. However, it wasn't until the 16th century A.D. that Vietnamese civilization expanded into present-day South Vietnam, down to the Mekong River Delta. Prior to this time, the Indianized cultures of the Funan and the Champa (or Khmer) Kingdoms controlled this territory. Persons of Khmer ethnic origin, known as Chams, still constitute a minority group within Vietnam (Buttinger, 1968; Woodside, 1988).

Regardless of the precise origins of Vietnamese civilization, it is indisputable that Chinese influences have strongly shaped the development of Vietnamese culture. The history of Vietnam has been profoundly affected by the imperialistic behaviour of its northern neighbour. The Chinese gained political control of Vietnam in 111 B.C. With the exception of a few brief interludes, Chinese rule continued in Vietnam until a series of uprisings in the 10th century. 939 A.D. is the year from which the Vietnamese commonly date the beginning of their national independence (Buttinger, 1968; Chapius, 1995). After the 18th century Vietnam's sovereignty was again challenged, this time by the imperialistic ambitions of the French. France gained effective political control of the nation with the 1863 signing of a treaty with the Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc. This treaty extended French authority over the whole of Vietnam. French control was the stimulus for the development of a strong nationalist movement. After decades of agitation by Vietnamese nationalists, the Geneva agreement was signed in 1954. This treaty stipulated that Vietnam would be divided at the 17th parallel into two military zones. The Communist Viet Minh forces were to retreat north of the dividing line, the French and Republic of Vietnam troops south of it (Buttinger, 1968). By the early 1960s, the United States had replaced France as the primary backers of the South Vietnamese government. Fighting between South and North Vietnamese forces for control of the entire country came to an end with the Fall of Saigon to the communist regime of the North in April 1975.

After their introduction from China over the centuries as separate religious systems, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism merged into a unique philosophical and religious perspective, often referred to as the Tam Giao. This basic system of common values is shared to a certain extent by most Vietnamese (Hanh, 1967; Thien-An, 1975; Rutledge, 1985; Jamieson, 1993). Central to the syncretic belief system of the Tam Giao is its conception of family relations. The family is the basic institution established by the Vietnamese to ensure physical, emotional, and social stability for its members and to promulgate societal norms and standards (Rutledge, 1992). Traditionally, the Vietnamese have regarded the patrilineal extended family as vitally important to the perpetuation of Vietnamese cultural values. The traditional Vietnamese family hierarchy is strongly influenced by Confucian ideals intended to explain and legitimize all social relations. Following the Confucian tradition, the relations between the king and his people are similar to those linking the father with his wife and children. The family is thus regarded as the entity upon which the entire social system is modeled. A code of behaviour regulates all relations within the traditional Vietnamese family and specifies the duties and obligations of each family member. A set of rules guides the proper way of addressing relatives, appropriate gestures and body positions in given situations, and the order of precedence during family meals and religious ceremonies (Dorais et al., 1987).

Reverence for ancestors is a key component of the Tam Giao ideology and belief system. The Vietnamese family entity is conceived of as including obligations to both the deceased as well as the living. The traditional Vietnamese home includes an ancestral altar, where the spirits of deceased relatives are believed to reside. Ancestors, including parents, siblings, and grandparents, are worshipped annually in ceremonies commemorating the anniversary date of their death. Ancestors are invoked during regular family prayers at the altar as well as on the occasions of engagements, marriages, and funerals of family members. Ancestor worship is also a key component in the formal religious ceremonies of the major Vietnamese religions of Buddhism and Cao Daism (Dorais, 1989; Muzny, 1989).

The Vietnamese family ideology involves a set of role-based behavioural ideals. These ideals instill in the Vietnamese a rigid code of conduct, a strong sense of duty to other family members, and often a great deal of guilt. The primacy of family ties is central to the traditional Vietnamese belief system. Crucially, in Vietnamese culture, the family is considered to be more important than the individual. The family is conceived of as the central means of economic and social support. All family members turn over their earnings for the usage of the entire family. The larger family also determines the acceptability of marriage partners (Muzny, 1989). Going against family obligations is perceived as being contrary to the natural order of the world. Behaviour that is in oppositon to this natural order is perceived to inevitably result in negative consequences (or bad karma) not only for individuals but for their entire families as well (Jamieson, 1993).

The traditional Vietnamese family is patrilineal and extended in its organization. The parents, the sons and their wives, unmarried daughters, grandparents, and uncles and aunts may all reside in the Vietnamese household. The roles within the family are well-defined. The father is considered to be the head of the family unit and responsible for economic decisions, maintaining family traditions and leading the family in ancestor worship. The father is always to be accorded great respect. The eldest son is expected to never leave his parents and to continue living at the family home with his wife and children. After the death of his father, the eldest son becomes the head of the household, taking ultimate responsibility for decison-making and carrying on ancestral traditions. After marriage, other sons may create new households, preferably in close geographic proximity to the parents. However, unmarried daughters must always live with their parents (Muzny, 1989; Rutledge, 1992).

According to the traditional family ideology, the main duty of a Vietnamese woman is to care for her husband and his family. After marriage, the wife is expected to become a member of the husband's family with obligations to respect and care for her in-laws. Under the traditional Vietnamese family model, women are expected to engage in housekeeping, cooking, and rearing the children while depending on male household members to financially support the family. A Vietnamese woman is taught to submit to her father while under his care, obey her husband following marriage, and to listen to her eldest son in widowhood (Muzny, 1989; Rutledge, 1992). It should be noted that some scholars have questioned the extent to which such rigidly prescribed gender roles reflect the actual contributions of Vietnamese women to their families in Vietnam and North America. Hickey (1964) and Rutledge (1992) note that in the Vietnamese home, the mother is usually responsible for harmony among family members, coordinating the schedules of family members and managing the family budget. Indeed, all family members, including the male household head, typically submit their earnings to the mother, who makes financial decisions for the family as a unified whole. Haines (1986) and Woon (1986) observe that Vietnamese women have for centuries engaged in petty commerce outside of the household to support their families and during the war years of the 1950s to the 1970s, many families were broken up, at least temporarily, with men fighting in the military, and women joining the workforce and providing the primary financial support for their families.

Scholars have documented the continuation of collective family behaviour among Vietnamese immigrants and refugees in Canada and the United States (Woon, 1986; Rutledge, 1992; Hein, 1995). In her ethnographic study of Vietnamese families in Philadelphia, Kibria (1993) refers to these collective practices as "patchworking." She defines patchworking as a bringing together and sharing of resources among the divergent members of a household. Kibria observed that her research informants brought with them to the U.S, a collective, cooperative approach toward economic resources and activities among household members, which stressed and idealized the unity of family or kin group interests over that of the individual. Kibria notes that among her Vietnamese informants there was a strong belief that kinship ties could serve as a useful economic safety net. Kinship was perceived of as the most reliable source of support for the individual - the only institution that could be relied upon for assistance in all circumstances.

Kibria notes that in the U.S., Vietnamese persons quickly go about rebuilding and/or creating new kinship groups for the purpose of sharing economic as well as other resources such as child care, language skills, and information about the host society and its institutions. Importantly, Kibria points out that the rebuilding of kin groups among the Vietnamese is made easier by the existence of cultural kinship traditions that define the boundaries of the kin group in an inclusive manner. Distant relatives such as cousins as well as individuals unrelated by traditional criteria may be defined in familial terms such as "brother" or "sister" for the purpose of economic exchange and resource sharing. Kibria provides examples of unrelated young Vietnamese "brothers" who formed households in order to collectively pool material resources and provide one another with social support.

Significantly, migration to North America has also led to role changes among men and women and some conflict within Vietnamese families. In North America, many Vietnamese women have become significant income earners for their families. While it was not uncommon for women to work outside the home in Vietnam, men were considered to be the primary breadwinners of the household. In Canada and the United States, the relative financial contribution of women to Vietnamese families has increased greatly. In pre-1975 South Vietnam, many Vietnamese immigrant and refugee men had held middle-class occupations in the government or as military officers. Upon coming to North America, many of these same men encountered unemployment or much lower status work in the lower tiers of the occupational structure as a result of language difficulties, a lack of transferable skills, and/or employment discrimination. At the same time, many Vietnamese women have also found jobs in the informal and secondary sectors of the labour market, earning equivalent incomes to Vietnamese men. This shift in the balance of resources among genders is a source of tension and change in the relations of Vietnamese men and women (Kibria, 1989; Kibria, 1990; Rutledge, 1992; Kibria, 1993; Kibria, 1994).

Importantly, Kibria (1993) points out that the shift in the balance of resources occurring between men and women has not resulted in a radical restructuring of gender relations within Vietnamese families. According to Kibria, Vietnamese-American women are exercising greater influence in the decision-making processes within their families because of their relatively greater control over resources in comparison to the past, but for the most part they have not utilized this increased power to challenge traditional Vietnamese cultural conceptions of gender relations and family life.

Overall, Kibria concludes that many Vietnamese immigrant and refugee women continue to support the ideology of the traditional family system. Women's support of this system reflects the power it affords them as mothers as well as the perceived necessity of the family system for personal economic support. Kibria notes that among her informants, both men and women saw the collective household economy as key to their ability to survive and attain socioeconomic mobility. This collective household economy was centred upon and legitimated by the traditional Vietnamese family ideology. Within the context of an uncertain economic environment, Vietnamese immigrant women valued the power of the traditional family system to support and uphold men's and children's obligations to the larger family unit.

In the traditional Vietnamese family, children are taught to have respect for their parents and elders in general. These principles of filial piety, respect, and duty to the family include a responsibility for providing for one's parents in their old age (Rutledge, 1992). The roles of children have also been changing in many Vietnamese immigrant and refugee families. Traditional Vietnamese family values are tested by the North American cultural emphasis on individualism. Many of the more acculturated Vietnamese young people resist turning over their earnings to the larger family. The freedom to date among young people of the opposite gender, which is especially frowned upon for females, is also a source of conflict between parents and children in Vietnamese families (Rutledge, 1992; Kibria, 1993). In many households, English language fluency and greater fluency and familiarity with the procedures of bureaucracies and state institutions has resulted in enhanced power and freedom for young people and a general decline in parental authority within Vietnamese families. In situations of interaction with the larger society, the parents often come to rely upon the children. This reliance creates a reversal from traditional Vietnamese roles and sometimes results in a form of intergenerational conflict within families as parents feel a loss of power and status and children do not feel they earn the respect they deserve from their parents given their everyday importance to the family (Rutledge, 1992; Kibria, 1993) .

Until the past few decades, the vast majority of Vietnamese lived an agrarian life-style. The village was the primary social system with which Vietnamese interacted outside of their immediate families. Village affairs were conducted in the communal house, where all official documents pertaining to the village were deposited. Individual villages possessed their own laws, which were a mixture of administrative rules, customary laws, as well as religious guidelines associated with a village deity. In addition to the communal administrative centre, each village also had its own temple, market area, and social service delivery system. Individual villages typically negotiated economic arrangements with regional governments to export cultivated crops and bring income into the area (Hickey, 1964; Ho Tai, 1987).

Since the 1950s, the agrarian way of life and village superstructure has remained far more intact in the Northern portion of the country compared to the Central and especially Southern regions. As the Vietnam War escalated in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States contributed extensive funds and technical assistance to South Vietnam. With the help of U.S. financial contributions, the number of students attending school in the Republic of Vietnam doubled between 1955 and 1960 and doubled again by 1969. The number of radio sets in South Vietnam soared from an estimated 125,000 units in 1960 to 2,200,000 in 1970. Television was introduced to South Vietnam in 1966. By 1969, an estimated two million viewers were reached through nearly 300,000 privately owned sets and approximately 3,000 community sets. At the same time, rapid urbanization was taking place. In 1945, the population of Saigon was about half a million. By 1954, it was about two million. The size of the city approached three million in 1965 (Jamieson, 1993).

The growing U.S. presence under the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the late 1950s and early 1960s directly contributed to the strong influence of American culture in the Southern portion of the country. The social and cultural environment in South Vietnam came to reflect an amalgamation of Vietnamese, French, and American values. Crucially, U.S. economic and technological assistance was the stimulus for the rise of an affluent middle class composed of government officials, military officers, professionals, and merchants (Duiker, 1995).

It was this new middle class which felt the most severe discomfort and hardship after the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Many South Vietnamese men were forcibly sent to "reeducation camps" created by the Communist regime for the purpose of indoctrinating and punishing those with ties to the former government. Poor living conditions and heavy labour were common in the camps. Some South Vietnamese were forced to move to the so-called "New Economic Zones." These were tracts of land that had been abandoned or damaged by the war. The "New Economic Zones" were designed to reduce the population burden on overcrowded urban centres in South Vietnam and to reintroduce cultivation to non-productive land. Many of the Vietnamese who were forced to relocate had led urban lifestyles before 1975. Conditions were difficult in these barren rural areas for Vietnamese who had little desire or propensity for agricultural work (Strand and Jones, 1985; Kibria, 1993)

The urban middle class residents of South Vietnam suffered severe losses in status after the rise of the Communists. Children of former army officers or governmental officials were often discriminated against and denied admittance to the top educational institutions. After 1978, the government began a policy of nationalizing many private businesses. For many South Vietnamese merchants (including a large Chinese-Vietnamese mercantile class), business ownership severely declined in profitability. Unemployment became a serious problem as former army officers, bureaucrats, and businessmen lost their jobs. Compounding the above difficulties was a drought in 1977, followed by floods, which exacerbated already existing land cultivation problems caused by military mining and herbicides. Food became scarce. Given these conditions, many South Vietnamese, particularly the former urban elite and middle class, felt an acute sense of political persecution and financial desperation, which compelled them to attempt to escape the country (Strand and Jones, 1985; Kibria, 1993).

The history of Chinese immigration into Vietnam goes back over two thousand years. In Vietnam, ethnic Chinese developed their own residential communities, each with its own institutions, including religious centres, schools, shops, and political organizations. Gradually over the years, the Chinese-Vietnamese came to accept a variety of Vietnamese cultural norms. However, while some inter-marriage did occur, most Chinese continued to consider themselves as ethnically separate and maintained usage of their ancestral language (Strand and Jones, 1985; Whitmore, 1985; Desbarats, 1986).

The maintenance of close ties with China, along with this distinct ethnic identity, created tensions between the ethnic Chinese and the Vietnamese majority. Conflict was exacerbated by the traditional "middlemen" occupations held by significant numbers of ethnic Chinese in Vietnam. A disproportionate number of Chinese-Vietnamese resided in urban centres and worked as merchants and money lenders. As a consequence of Vietnamese resentment of ethnic Chinese wealth, the Chinese were over time subject to several repressive governmental measures designed to end their economic control over trade and retail activities. These actions were undertaken by several emperors, the Viet Minh in the North after the 1940s, as well as the Diem regime, which ruled the South in 1950s and 1960s (Strand and Jones, 1985).

Tensions between the Vietnamese government and the Chinese-Vietnamese population intensified following reunification in 1975. The Communist government attempted to integrate the sizable Chinese population in the heavily urbanized South with the rest of the nation. In early 1976, ethnic Chinese residents were required to register their citizenship. Those who retained Chinese status were subjected to heavy taxes, job discrimination, and a reduction of food rations. In the Fall of 1976, all Chinese schools and newspapers were closed. In early 1977, those Chinese-Vietnamese who had registered as Chinese citizens were dismissed from their government jobs and prohibited from public enterprise and retail trade. Food rations were terminated and the free movement of Chinese-Vietnamese within Vietnam was forbidden. In addition, the property of many ethnic Chinese was seized and several thousand Chinese were expelled from the country (Strand and Jones, 1985).

By the summer of 1978, more than 160,000 Chinese-Vietnamese had fled into China. Several thousand more left the former South Vietnam by boat. Indeed, Chinese-Vietnamese constituted a disproportionate number of the "Boat People", who escaped from Vietnam in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As of 1980, at least 400,000 ethnic Chinese "Boat People" had escaped persecution in Vietnam. By the mid-1980s, the ethnic Chinese population of Vietnam was estimated to be practically non-existent (Strand and Jones, 1985).

It is difficult to find accurate estimates of the Chinese-Vietnamese population in Canada or the United States. It is likely that former ethnic Chinese residents of Vietnam identify themselves to census takers alternately as Chinese or Vietnamese. However, it is clear that the Chinese-Vietnamese should be considered a distinct ethnic group with a culture and history quite different from that experienced by the ethnic Vietnamese or other major subgroups of the Chinese population.

Throughout Vietnam’s history, religious affiliation has been a key factor influencing the social and class structure of the nation. All of the major Vietnamese religions have long carried strong connotations for the personal identity of their followers, given the unique development and important role of each in Vietnam's history. The following is a discussion of the some of the key characteristics and historic experiences associated with the largest religious subgroups found within Vietnam.

Buddhists - Prior to 1975, over 70% of the entire population of all regions of Vietnam was considered to be Buddhist (Canh, 1983; Rutledge, 1985). Mahayana Buddhism - the branch of Buddhism observed by over 90% of Vietnamese Buddhists - was introduced to Vietnam in the second century A.D. by the Chinese (Hanh, 1967). In almost every village in Vietnam there is a Buddhist pagoda (chua). In many villages, the village common house (dinh), which functions as a meeting site and a place for the worship of the village spirit protector, is also located in the pagoda complex (Hanh, 1967, McClellan, 1993). In addition to its religious functions, the Buddhist temple has also served as a centre for social interaction and the provision of mutual aid among villagers. Throughout Vietnam, Buddhist schools and universities were established as well as Buddhist-run orphanages and hospitals (Hanh, 1967).

Over the past two centuries, Vietnamese Buddhist identity has become strongly intertwined with a fervent nationalistic sentiment. These nationalist feelings have been fuelled by the antagonisms between Vietnamese Buddhists and Catholics. After the French conquest of Vietnam in the latter half of the 19^th century, French officials accorded open support to the Vietnamese Roman Catholic Church. Catholic churches and missionaries were not restricted in their work, while other religionists were (Hanh, 1967). Most followers of Buddhism associated themselves with a variety of resistance forces, which fought the French colonizers. While a sizable number of Vietnamese Catholics also participated in the resistance, Catholics as a group were widely suspected of collaborating with the French.

Many Vietnamese, especially the rural villagers, believed that Buddhism and Confucianism were the proper religions of Vietnam, whereas Christianity was perceived to be the religion of the westerners, and the French in particular. In the perception of many Buddhists, to embrace Christianity meant to side with the colonizers. As French forces destroyed villages and burned down Buddhist pagodas and other structures, resistance leaders ordered the destruction and the burning of Catholic churches in reprisal (Hanh, 1967; Gheddo, 1970).

Buddhist nationalism and conflict with Catholics were key variables in the opposition movement to South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem in the early 1960s. Buddhists were angered by the perceived favouritism shown to Catholics by President Diem, himself a Catholic. Many of the most prominent positions within his South Vietnamese government and military were held by Catholics. In addition, President Diem's brother served as a powerful archbishop in the Vietnamese Roman Catholic church. Many Buddhists resented the disproportionate influence of the well-educated and prosperous Catholic elite.

Buddhist opposition to the Diem regime broke into the open in May 1963 at the city of Hue in central Vietnam. May 8 was the anniversary of the death of the Buddha and the Buddhist faithful were preparing to celebrate religious festivals in the city of Hue, the centre of Vietnamese Buddhism, and a city of ancient Buddhist tradition. A few days before the festival, the Diem government forbade the carrying of religious banners through the streets of Vietnamese cities. The government ordered the local police to enforce the law outlawing the display of religious flags. On the day of the anniversary, 10,000 Vietnamese Buddhist clashed with the police. Eight died and twenty were wounded in the incident. Subsequently, in the summer of 1963, several Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns immolated themselves to show their opposition to the policies of the Diem government and its perceived persecution of Buddhists (Hanh, 1967; Gheddo, 1970). President Diem was assassinated and his regime overthrown in November 1963. After 1975, officials of the Communist regime took strong measures against Buddhists. Buddhist pagodas and other properties were confiscated throughout South and Central Vietnam and converted to government buildings. At the same time, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns were put in prison or were forced to work in rural communes (Canh, 1983).

Catholics - Prior to 1975, Catholics constituted approximately 10-15% of the total population of Vietnam (Rutledge, 1985). The first Catholic missionaries to arrive in Vietnam were the Spanish and Portuguese in the 16th century. These first efforts at evangelization were renewed by the Jesuits in the 17th century. The French priest Alexander de Rhodes landed on the coast of North Vietnam in 1627 and he and his fellow Jesuits encountered great success in converting many Vietnamese in this region to Catholicism. By 1663 there were about 200,000 Catholics among the 2,000,000 Tonkinese. Missionaries met with somewhat less success in South Vietnam, but by the 1660s there were another 100,000 Vietnamese Catholics in the southern portion of the nation. Among other exploits, Father de Rhodes was also responsible for the romanization of the Vietnamese language (Gheddo, 1970).

Subsequent Vietnamese emperors directed periodic violent persecutions against the Catholic population beginning in the late 17th century and lasting until the mid-19th century. In these waves of harassment, churches were destroyed and Catholic villages were burned as the faithful were commonly forced to trample on the cross and offer sacrifices to Buddhist and other traditional Vietnamese idols. In the two centuries of severe persecution, the Vietnamese Catholic church accumulated approximately 130,000 martyrs, several hundred of whom have been beatified by successive popes (Gheddo, 1970).

The collective memory of these indigenous martyrs and saints as well as that of other Vietnamese Catholics who were persecuted in later decades, constitutes a central component of the Vietnamese-Catholic identity. Vietnamese-Catholics have always perceived themselves as being a minority group within Vietnam. To escape persecution and to avoid requirements that they worship the village god, rural Vietnamese Catholics seceded from native villages and established new ones under the leadership of parish priests. Frequently, these new villages were founded adjacent to already existing ones. At times, however, priests led their parishioners into undeveloped areas and founded new villages. Catholics throughout Vietnam developed "super-village" enclaves, in which were based complex institutional systems of mutual assistance. Catholics established their own hospitals, newspapers, schools, universities, and military units (Gheddo, 1970; Ho Tai, 1987; Jamieson, 1993).

After the Geneva Conference in 1954, which divided Vietnam into two countries, the Communist government of the North began severe persecutions of predominantly Catholic villages in several regions of North Vietnam. At the end of 1954, nearly 800,000 Vietnamese, mostly Catholics, left their homes in North Vietnam as refugees to come to South Vietnam. The perceived special treatment given to these refugees by the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem, helped provoke the conflict between Buddhists and Catholics, which peaked with the overthrow of the Diem regime in 1963 (Hanh, 1967). Under Diem, Catholic refugees were resettled in the suburbs of Saigon and in Rural Development Centres in the Central region, in part to serve as a basis of support for the anti-Communist regime. Catholics were also given prominent positions in the government and the armed forces. Many Catholics took on major roles in commerce, the professions, and in cultural affairs (Duiker, 1995). After the Communist takeover in 1975, hundreds of priests and nuns were arrested, churches were seized or monitored, and the separate Catholic social, educational, and medical establishments were taken over by the state. Given their previous experiences with the Communists and strong association with the South Vietnamese regime, it is not surprising that Catholics constituted a disproportionate share of the refugees and immigrants who left Vietnam after 1975.

Cao Dai - Caodaism is an indigenous Vietnamese religion that originated in South Vietnam in the 1920s. Caodaism is syncretic in its organizational structure, philosophy, theology, and ritual practices. The primary influences are Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and spiritualism, with some elements drawn from Christianity as well. The synthesis of elements adapted from other religious systems may be observed in the Cao Dai practices of priestly celibacy, vegetarianism, seance inquiry and spirit communication, homage to ancestors and prayers for the dead, meditative self-cultivation, and proselytism (Oliver, 1976; Phan Van Phuoc, personal interview, July 14, 1996).

The original Cao Dai Holy See was established at Tay Ninh, about 100 km north of Saigon. After its official establishment in 1926, Cao Dai quickly gained an impressive following of two million persons residing in portions of Southern and Central Vietnam. By the 1950s, by one estimate, approximately 1/8 of the South Vietnamese population practiced Cao Dai. Caodaism attracted significant numbers of followers from all classes of Vietnamese including nationalistic but anti-Communist civil servants as well as village peasants. In certain strongholds of South and Central Vietnam, Cao Dai adherents constituted a majority of the region's population and like Catholics in some regions, formed their own schools, hospitals, orphanages and social delivery systems within autonomous "super-village" social structures (Jamieson, 1993).

Cao Dai followers also came to represent a major political and military bloc in South Vietnam. From 1926 to 1956, the major elements of the Cao Dai armed forces were incorporated into the South Vietnamese army. The strength of the Cao Dai influence in political affairs may also be observed in the composition of the National Congress which was formed in the early 1950s to discuss the terms of a Vietnamese independence treaty with the French. The Cao Dai were awarded 17 seats at this congress, the largest delegation of any of the major politico-religious groups operating in South Vietnam at the time, including the Buddhists and the Catholics (Oliver, 1976). After 1975, the Communist regime arrested and detained most of the Cao Dai leaders including the church's papal hierarchy. The Cao Dai's Holy See in Tay Ninh province was confiscated and village temples were shut down. The actions of the communists followed a long history of attempts by authorities to suppress the influence of Caodaism. In the 1930s, Cao Dai temples were closed and key personnel were imprisoned by the French for their perceived nationalistic activities (Oliver, 1976). During the second Vietnam War (1958-1975), the leaders of South Vietnam worked to reduce or eliminate the political and military power of Cao Dai leaders. As a result of this religious and political persecution many adherents of Cao Daism developed a strong minority identity, inhabiting close knit communities in regions where they were numerically concentrated, a factor which has helped stimulate the development of Cao Dai congregations in regions of Vietnamese resettlement and migration including Canada and the United States (Dorais, 1989; Phan Van Phuoc, personal interview, July 14, 1996).

Protestants - Protestant groups constitute a very small minority - less than one percent - of the population of Vietnam (Rev. Minh Ho, personal interview, May 21, 1997). The proportion of Vietnamese Protestants in North America is likely higher, though the numbers are difficult to estimate. Some of the Christian churches involved in work at the refugee camps have attracted new Vietnamese adherents. In addition, some Protestant denominations in North America have actively targeted their evangelization efforts towards the Vietnamese population. The Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) has engaged in missionary work in Vietnam since the early part of the 20^th century. The majority of Vietnamese Protestant congregations in Canada are affiliated with the CMA church. Vietnamese Mennonite, Baptist, and Lutheran congregations also have formed in a few Canadian cities (Rev. Binh Nguyen, Personal Interview, July 10, 1997).

The Vietnamese people are united by a common language and a collective family system which has its basis in a coalescence of Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian philosophical systems. However, numerous cleavages have long been present in Vietnamese society. Ethnicity, urban or rural residence, region of origin, and religious affiliation are sources of considerable social and class differentiation among the population originating from Vietnam. Persons of Vietnamese origin bring diverse family and personal histories with them to North America. This internal heterogeneity has important implications not only for the formation and composition of ethnic diaspora "communities" but also for the interactions of segments of the population with the institutional sectors of the host society including the housing market, the labour market, and the criminal justice system.

To Chapter 4

Abstract/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents - [ Chapters - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ] -  Appendices - References Cited

		Updated February 09, 2004