There’s a reason why Hanoi was once referred to as the “Paris of the East”. Vietnam was a French colony for nearly 100 years until Ho Chi Minh declared its independence in 1945. Whether it’s the wide, open boulevards or religious practices, here are some of the aspects of Vietnamese culture that was influenced by the French.
Architecture
By far the most tangible example, much of Vietnam’s urban landscape retains its French influence. A stroll through Saigon’s Nguyen Hue Street will make you feel as though you’re in one of the many Parisian boulevards and avenues.
Towering columns, barrel-vaulted ceilings, aesthetically pleasing symmetries, you’ll find relics of the French occupation scattered across Vietnam, especially in Saigon and Hanoi. One of the best-preserved buildings is the Saigon Central Post Office, a fossil of the French-Indochina period; old phone booths and vintage stamps give off a nostalgic vibe that makes you feel as though time has come to a standstill.
Food
Here’s a piece of French-Vietnamese heritage that you can literally taste. Many staple foods today feature a blend of Vietnamese and French styles.
Banh mi is arguably the poster child of French-Vietnamese cuisine although the banh mi that we see today was the product of the early ‘50s. When the French first occupied Vietnam, baguettes were considered a luxury item; it was only during World War 1 where inexpensive rice flour was used that it became accessible to the masses. Soon, customers saw the need for a portable meal to go with the hustle of modern life and that’s when meats and vegetables were used as fillings.
Coffee is another vital part of Vietnamese culture that is credited to French origins. Coffee was first introduced to Vietnam by the French where it quickly became one of their most successful exports. Café culture took off in Vietnam as you’ll see from the coffee shops that can be found in almost every corner. As for the brewing methods, the traditional drip filter (phin in Vietnamese) draws inspiration from both the French press and the pour-over.
Fashion
No other Vietnamese outfit has seen as much French influence as the ao dai. The ao dai that we see today is a long gown that’s worn over trousers and features a split in the sides offering ease of movement. It’s now used as a uniform for schools and service crew, and worn on special occasions.
However, the modern ao dai wasn’t as tight-fitting in the past. Prior to the 1900s, the ao tu than (the more commonly worn dress before the ao dai) was much looser and featured darker colours to make it more ‘dirt-friendly’. French-influenced tailors started to design slimmer ao dais that highlighted the curves of the body.
Religion
7 percent of Vietnamese are Catholics today. While Portuguese and Spanish missionaries were among the earliest to proselytise the faith, it was the French Jesuits who firmly established the Christian community.
Apart from the more French-influenced churches like the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, many churches feature a unique blend of Vietnamese and European design. The St. Francis Xavier Church in Saigon, for instance, houses a statue of Mary in a Chinese pavilion.
On an unrelated note, the author of Les Miserables, Victor Hugo, is venerated as a saint in Caodaism - a syncretic religion established in Tay Ninh. The Caodai pantheon also comprises other figures such as Lenin and Shakespeare.
Language
The modern writing system of the Vietnamese language traces its origins to the colonial era. Before it was romanised, Vietnamese was written with Chinese characters to represent Vietnamese words much like old Japanese and Korean. What this meant was that to be able to read and write, you would have to be familiar with classical Chinese in addition to Vietnamese.
The French Jesuit, Alexandre de Rhodes, romanised the language based on Latin alphabets where it was later enforced by the French-Indochina administration.
Apart from influencing the modern writing system, the Vietnamese language contains several French loanwords. For instance, cà phê (meaning coffee in Vietnamese) is derived from café and xà phòng (meaning soap in Vietnamese) is based on the French word, savon.
