Encountering the vietnamese habitus

© 2019, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. This chapter provides insights into what the Vietnamese habitus may look like – aspects of cultural and social norms, political culture and educational values – through a series of historical experiences that shape contemporary Vietnamese society. Five characteristics of the Vietnamese habitus are considered and discussed in terms of the relationships between people, people and society, society and the State: personal relations that act as the moral foundation of the Vietnamese person, individualistic dispositions in Vietnamese society, nationalism and democratic centralism of Vietnam’s political system, economic pragmatism in everyday life and international influences on the development of Vietnam’s education system and tradition of studying abroad. The chapter foregrounds the Vietnamese habitus in the three ‘fields’ (economic, intellectual and civic) as formative conditions of the returnees’ motivations and expectations of their acquired overseas education and provides the sociocultural logic for returnees’ choice and actions in these fields, which will be discussed in depth in the next four chapters