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To be precise, Western Orientalism began to form and develop in the 16th - 17th centuries, associated with the need for missionary work and the promotion of commercial activities in the era of "East Sea trade". Western Vietnam Studies, therefore, also emerged from this time, and by the 17th century, many noteworthy authors and works had appeared, such as Alexandre de Rhodes with History of the Kingdom of Tonkin (1621-1648) and Travels and Missions (1653); Cristophoro Borri with Cochinchina in 1621; Jean Baptiste Tavernier with A New and Curious Travelogue on the Kingdom of Tonkin (early 17th century); William Dampier with A Voyage to Tonkin in 1688; Samuel Baron with A Description of the Kingdom of Tonkin... However, it was not until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, along with the process of invasion and domination by French Colonialism, that Western Vietnam Studies (which in essence and primarily was French Vietnam Studies) truly became a discipline with famous scholars such as Henry Maspéro, Léonard Aurousseau, Paul Pelliot, Léopold Cadière, Emile Gaspardonne, André Georges Haudricourt, Madeleine Colani, Pierre Gourou, etc. In 1900, the École française d'Extrême-Orient was established with its headquarters and main library in Hanoi, becoming the most important center gathering French and Western Vietnam scholars.
It is easy to see that most French and Western Vietnam scholars were originally experts researching China or India before shifting to Vietnam research, so they often placed Vietnam in a comparative relationship with China or India, and more importantly, they had not yet escaped the Eurocentric perspective. Vietnam Studies during the French colonial period developed within the general development of Western Orientalism, deeply influenced by the two major academic traditions of Sinology and Indology; although it contributed to raising awareness about the land and people of Vietnam, in reality, it was a tool for French Colonialism to plan its policies of subjugation and colonial exploitation.
For a long time in Vietnamese history, there have appeared brilliant scholars such as Le Van Huu (13th century), Nguyen Trai (early 15th century), Ngo Si Lien (late 15th century), Le Quy Don (late 18th century), Phan Huy Chu (early 19th century)... with immortal works about the land and people of Vietnam. It is entirely possible to honor them as the Founders who laid the foundation and built the base for Vietnamese Vietnam Studies. By the early 20th century, based on the traditional academic foundation, many Vietnamese intellectuals absorbed knowledge and advanced scientific methods from the West and elevated their scientific works. Soon after, most of these intellectuals, through various paths, came to the revolution, to the dialectical and historical materialism of Marxism-Leninism, and became leading experts in the social sciences of the new Vietnam. They were the ones who pioneered modern Vietnamese Vietnam Studies.
Vietnam Studies was initially understood in a broad sense to include all scientific disciplines (mainly social sciences and humanities) researching the land and people of Vietnam, such as Vietnamese History, Vietnamese Culture, Vietnamese Literature, Vietnamese Arts, Vietnamese Language, Vietnamese Economy, Vietnamese Law, Vietnamese Ethnology, Vietnamese Geography, Vietnamese Environment, etc. In that spirit, we can mark October 10, 1945, when President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No. 45 establishing the Faculty of Letters in Hanoi (the predecessor of the current University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Hanoi) as the milestone marking the emergence of modern Vietnamese Vietnam Studies. In 1953, with the birth of the Department of Literature, History, and Geography, and subsequently the establishment of research institutes and social science faculties at General Universities, Pedagogical Universities, and from 1995 to the present, the Universities of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, marked new development steps of Vietnamese Vietnam Studies in the direction of specialization.
It must be affirmed that in the early period of construction, Vietnam Studies could not help but rely on existing Vietnamese research specialties as the foundation for its formation and development. The maturity of each specific discipline researching Vietnam, both domestically and internationally, can be seen as an opportunity for the development of Vietnam Studies. Vietnam Studies anywhere is also about researching the land and people of Vietnam. However, modern Vietnamese Vietnam Studies is fundamentally different from the Vietnam Studies of the early Western period in that it researches Vietnam with its own purpose and requirements. Vietnamese Vietnam scholars study themselves to understand themselves, to find their strengths and weaknesses in order to serve the needs of building and developing the country and people of Vietnam itself.
It is easy to see that as science goes deeper into specialization, it increasingly reveals its difficulties and limitations in observing and evaluating objects and phenomena as a whole system. The development requirement of science is that the process of specialization and disciplinarization must be simultaneous with the process of expanding connections, penetration, and intermingling between scientific disciplines. The interdisciplinary approach arose in such a context and is increasingly becoming an important trend in the world as well as in Vietnam. Interdisciplinarity also has different levels of breadth and depth, and the level of interdisciplinary research depends on the ability to use multiple specific methods for a research object simultaneously, comprehensively, and effectively, leading to a common scientific understanding.
Along with the development of the interdisciplinary research method is the method of Area Studies. Area Studies takes the socio-cultural space including human activity fields and the interactive relationship between humans and natural conditions as the research object. The purpose of Area Studies is to achieve comprehensive perceptions of a space, and to discover the characteristics of nature and human life in that space.
Vietnam Studies, as stated by scholar Tran Bach Dang at the First International Conference on Vietnam Studies (in 1998), is a scientific discipline "researching a Vietnam in its entirety", a science "researching a land, the people in that land with all relationships with nature, history, and society in every aspect, highlighting the characteristics and specificities of Vietnam" [1]. Such a scientific discipline would be difficult to develop and fulfill its goals and functions correctly if it still kept traditional disciplinary approaches and did not actively shift towards interdisciplinary and area studies approaches. Thus, it can be imagined that Vietnamese Vietnam Studies began to be formed from specialized sciences about Vietnam, matured in a specialized research environment, and then from the achievements of specialized sciences or on the foundation of specialized sciences, it gradually moved towards interdisciplinary and area studies. Having said that, it is also necessary to exclude extreme tendencies, such as considering Vietnam Studies as superior to other sciences, or considering all research specialties, all topics, and projects related to Vietnam as Vietnam Studies. The time has come for us to build Vietnam Studies into a true scientific discipline within the scope of academia, with specific and clear objects and research methods.
Grasping this development trend, on November 11, 1988, the President of the University of Hanoi (the former name of VNU Hanoi) decided to establish the Center for Coordination of Vietnam Studies and appointed Prof. Phan Huy Le as Director to build the Vietnam Studies discipline in the direction of interdisciplinary research. On May 17, 1989, after a short period of operation, the Minister of Higher Education and Vocational Secondary Education, based on the Center for Coordination of Vietnam Studies, decided to upgrade it to the Center for Vietnam Studies and Cultural Exchange under the University of Hanoi. In 1995, in the new development trend of Viet Nam National University Hanoi, the Center for Vietnam Studies and Cultural Exchange was renamed the Center for Vietnam Studies and Cultural Exchange with the task of implementing interdisciplinary research programs and expanding international cooperation. Under the direction and organization of Prof. Phan Huy Le, the Center has completed many state-level scientific projects, many interdisciplinary science and training programs, and established exchange and cooperation relations with almost all Vietnam research organizations at universities around the world. Every year, the Center receives hundreds of interns, research students, and foreign scientists to study, research, and exchange science, preparing for Master's or PhD theses, of which dozens have successfully defended their Master's theses and 8 have successfully defended their PhD theses. Through exchange and cooperation relations, the Center has introduced the research results of the Vietnamese scientific community to foreign countries. Based on that, the Center proposed and played a leading role in organizing the First International Conference on Vietnam Studies on July 15, 16, and 17, 1998, in Hanoi.
The First International Conference on Vietnam Studies gathered 300 international scientists from 26 countries and 400 Vietnamese scientists from 18 provinces and cities, presenting 437 reports (including 176 by foreigners) in 15 subcommittees. This was "truly the largest international gathering of the big family of Vietnam scholars worldwide, between Vietnamese scientists and those from abroad who together research Vietnam" [1]. Since Vietnam Studies was formed, there have been many national or regional conferences such as the Euro-Viet conference in Europe; the annual conference of the Japan Association for Vietnam Studies in Japan; the annual conference of the Asian Studies Association or the Vietnam Conference of the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University in the USA..., but no conference has reached a global scale and marked such a leap in the development of Vietnam Studies as this one. Especially during the conference, for the first time, Vietnam scholars not only shared academic concepts and approaches with each other but also drew closer to each other in research goals and friendly, cooperative attitudes. General Vo Nguyen Giap rightly remarked: "There was a time when Vietnam research projects could be aimed at outside purposes (governance, invasion, missionary work, market exploration...), but now, we trust that the research achievements of the international Vietnam scholars community are increasingly directed towards the goal of enhancing mutual understanding, enhancing friendship, cooperation, and developing together. And this conference today is a symbol of cooperation between the Vietnamese research community and international scholars" [1]. The conference prepared the basis for the establishment of an International Council for Vietnam Studies and periodic international conferences on Vietnam Studies, opening a new development step for world Vietnam Studies with the central and active role of Vietnam.
In fact, during the period from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, besides the Center for Vietnam Studies and Cultural Exchange of Prof. Phan Huy Le, a number of Departments, Centers, and Faculties of the University of Hanoi, Hanoi Pedagogical University, and the University of Ho Chi Minh City were opened and initially paid attention to Vietnamese History and Culture in an interdisciplinary direction, but the main task of these Departments, Faculties, and Centers was still teaching Vietnamese language to foreigners.
After the First International Conference on Vietnam Studies, interdisciplinary and area studies at the Center for Vietnam Studies and Cultural Exchange began to become the main direction of activity. Many Departments, Faculties, and Vietnamese language teaching centers previously also began to declare their mission as researching and training Bachelors of Vietnam Studies, such as the Department of Vietnam Studies under the Faculty of Philology of Hanoi Pedagogical University, the Southeast Asian Studies Center of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City, the Faculty of Vietnamese Language and Culture for Foreigners of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Hanoi, the Department of Vietnam Studies of Dalat University (Lam Dong).
The Ministry of Education and Training, faced with the development needs of Vietnam Studies in both breadth and depth, organized the drafting and promulgation of the Training Framework for Bachelors of Vietnam Studies, "providing basic, systematic, modern, and practical knowledge about Vietnam Studies and Vietnamese Language" for both foreign students and Vietnamese students. In this Framework, besides familiar subjects such as Ethnic Groups in Vietnam, Foundation of Vietnamese Culture, Historical Process of Vietnam, Political Institutions of Vietnam, Vietnamese Geography, Vietnamese Literature, Vietnamese Language..., there are also new subjects on interdisciplinary and area studies methods [2].
Vietnam Studies in Vietnam since the First International Conference has gradually entered the orbit of development, step by step meeting the needs of the renovation cause, becoming a scientific discipline with many advantages serving the cause of national construction and defense. To meet this new development need of Vietnam Studies, on March 19, 2004, the Prime Minister signed a decision to establish the Institute for Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences.
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