Vietnam People

Ethnic Vietnamese, or Kinh, make up roughly 88% of the country's population; the remaining 12% is split among 54 ethnic minority groups. The Kinh originated in latter-day northern Vietnam and southern China, gradually spreading southward. The high degree of Chinese influence in facets of Vietnamese culture, especially religion, is due in large part to the Kinh's Chinese origins. With a largely urban and lowland population, Vietnam's largest minority group, the Hoa, is also ethnic Han Chinese.

Many of the 54 minority ethnic groups are living in villages largely untouched by modern civilization. They are adhering to traditional conservative ways of life that are economically dependent on agriculture. Those with communities in the central or northwestern highlands are commonly known by the English term "hill tribes". They frequently speak a different language instead of or in addition to Vietnamese.

Among them, larger groups in the north include the Tay, Muong, and Thai, part of a Malay ethnolinguistic group. Other major northern groups, including the Hmong, Dao and Nung have roots in southern China, having migrated to Vietnam as recently as the 19th century. In the central highlands, the largest groups are the Mnong, Ede and Banar.

The Khmer and Cham make up another class of minority groups. Khmer are ethnic Cambodians indigenous to Vietnam's Mekong Delta region, which they controlled until the late 19th century. Cham are native to the central coast of Vietnam, descendants of the Champa kingdom conquered by Kinh from the north in the 15th century.

The Vietnamese have a strong sense of family, and of community, and are accustomed to close human contact and far- reaching interrelationships. This might be one of the reasons why, despite centuries of occupation by foreigners, Vietnamese cultural traditions have survived.