senex
Yaşlılık Çalışmaları Dergİsİ | Journal of Agıng Studıes
Sahadan Notlar
Notes from the Field
Anthropological Observations on Vietnamese Older Adults,
Questions to be Asked and Gerontology-Related Research in
Vietnam
Ulaş Başar Gezgin
Prof. Dr. - Duy Tan University, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Adress: Duy Tan University, 3 Quang Trung, Danang, Vietnam
E-Mail: ulasbasar@gmail.com
Received: 7 Ağustos 2018 ; Accepted: 5 Aralık 2018
doi: 10.24876/senex.2018.14
Cite as: Gezgin, U. B., (2018). Anthropological Observations on Vietnamese Older Adults, Questions to be Asked and Gerontology-Related
Research in Vietnam . Senex: Journal of Aging Studies, 2, s. 53- 58.
Abstract
Abstract
The current author is a social science researcher living in Vietnam for nearly a decade. Before developing a field work
framework to do research about Vietnamese older adults, we start with the author’s everyday life observations without any
reference to a scholarly source. Although the author penned a number of books and articles on Vietnam, these references
are intentionally removed for a lively, everyday life account. These observations, we guess will convince the readers that
Vietnamese older adults worth studying from an anthropo-gerontological perspective: Vietnamese old people are respected
in the society; old age is not associated with sickness or problem; the meaning of old age is different also because of circular
view of life and death etc. The tentative questions for interviews follow these observations. Finally relevant academic research
about Vietnamese older adults is reviewed to compare the observations with academic knowledge.
Keywords:
Vietnamese older adults • anthropo-gerontology • family values • circular life and death narratives • and the interpretations
of old age
Vietnamlı Yaşlılarla İlgili Antropolojik Gözlemler, Sorulacak Sorular ve Vietnam’da
Gerontolojiyle İlişkili Araştırmalar
Özet
Bu metnin yazarı yaklaşık on yıldır Vietnam’da yaşamakta olan bir sosyal bilim araştırmacısıdır. Vietnamlı yaşlılarla araştırma
yapmak üzere bir alan çalışması çerçevesi geliştirmeden önce, herhangi bir akademik kaynağa başvurmaksızın yazarın günlük
yaşamla ilgili gözlemleriyle başlıyoruz. Yazar, Vietnam üstüne kitaplar ve makaleler yazmış olsa da, bu kaynaklara, gözlemlerin
daha canlı ve günlük olmasını sağlamak amacıyla bilinçli olarak yer verilmedi. Bu gözlemlerin, okuru, Vietnamlı yaşlıların
antropo-gerontolojik bir bakış açısıyla incelenmeye değer olduğuna ikna edeceğini tahmin ediyoruz: Vietnamlı yaşlılar
toplumda saygı görüyor; yaşlılık, hastalık ve sorunla ilişkilendirilmiyor; yaşam ve ölüme yönelik döngüsel bakış nedeniyle
de ileri yaşın anlamı farklı vb. Bu gözlemleri şimdilik son şekli verilmemiş olan görüşme soruları izliyor. Son olarak, Vietnamlı
yaşlılarla ilgili gözlemleri akademik bilgiyle karşılaştırmak üzere, konuya ilişkin akademik çalışmalar gözden geçiriliyor.
Anahtar Kelimeler:
Vietnamlı yaşlılar •antropo-gerontoloji • aile değerleri• Döngüsel ölüm ve yaşam anlatıları ve ileri yaşa ilişkin yorumlar.
senex • Yaşlılık Çalışmaları Derg İs İ
| Journal of Aging Studies
Anthropological Observations on Vietnamese Notes on Vietnamese Family Structure
Older Adults
As a typical indicator of an agricultural society,
Notes on Vietnamese Folk Religion
in traditional Vietnamese culture, the families are
expected to have as many children as possible.
Despite of urbanization and industrialization, That was originally for two reasons: For family
older people are still highly respected in work and as a social security system. In the
Vietnam. One of the major reasons of this respect traditional Vietnamese family, the youngest
involves the folk religion which is tightly tied son (not daughter) is expected to live with their
with the national culture. Although Vietnamese parents and own the house after they die. It is
are mostly Buddhist or atheist or both (as obviously patriarchal in contrast to Vietnamese
Buddhism does not require a belief in God(s)), relevant laws which promote egalitarianism.
for most of the rituals including death and birth, The logic behind allotting this social task to the
folk religion which is a combination of ancestor youngest involves the fact that the youngest one
worship, animism, shamanism and Chinese is expected to live at least as long as his parents.
beliefs (especially Confucianism and Taoism)
is more applicable. Nobody can be converted With the wars and revolutions, this family
to this belief system, as it does not form an structure was mostly untouched as Vietnamese
official, institutional religion. It is rather part of revolutionaries had no intention to fight with
the national culture. So introduction to these their own national culture; but the law, as stated
belief systems is possible only by naturalization. above, is in favor of egalitarianism, rather than
Furthermore, let us note that this belief system patriarchy. That is why, Vietnam has one of the
is not completely consistent, at times it is self- highest indicators for gender equality. Women’s
contradictory, but this is not considered to be a participation to social and political life is very
problem for the followers, just like the situation high, even higher than those for some of the
in some other religions. For example, belief in European countries. On the other hand, the
ghosts, paradise and hell and rebirth which are urbanization ratio is changing and economic
theoretically irreconcilable are concatenated in a activities are getting diversified. In other words,
religious monolith.
not all the families are in villages or equivalent
rural areas, and not all of them are engaged in
According to Vietnamese folk religion, the house agriculture only. Although Vietnam’s population
has a special importance. The deceased are is more than 90 million, the number of cities
considered to live in the house as ghosts. Thus, with at least 2 million people is only 2, Hanoi
it is a ‘settled’ belief succeeding the hunter- (exceeding 7 million) the capital, and Ho Chi
gatherer religions. There should be ancestor Minh City (formerly Saigon, nearly 7 million)
worship days to commemorate the ancestors which is the economic engine of the country
with full participation of the extended family. (similar to the case for Ankara and Istanbul). So
This partially explains the respect for older adults although urbanization is a trend to be influential
in Vietnam: As the older adults will become in Vietnam, Vietnamese prefer to live in small
ancestors, they are highly respected.
cities which have ties with the rural areas.
So many families are nowadays engaged with
trade, industrial activities or service sectors (very
typically restaurants and coffee shops) which
do not require a high of number of children for
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Gezgin • Vietnamlı Yaşlılarla İlgili Antropolojik Gözlemler, Sorulacak Sorular ve Vietnam’da Gerontolojiyle İlişkili Araştırmalar
support. Secondly, in contrast to the past ‘Que
será, será / Whatever will be, will be’ kind of
parenting, i.e. “let’s have the baby first, we can
think about it later on” , a quality parenting
approach is getting more common which focuses
on providing the best opportunities possible for
each child. This mentality, the diversity of family’s
economic activity and the rising economic costs
of parenting lead to decline of the number
of children per family and accordingly the
household and family size.
With a larger family size, the respect for older
adults was even more guaranteed: If Child 1
can’t help his daddy, Child 3 would have time.
By the way, within the Vietnamese family, the
children are called by their numbers. Even when
they are called as Aunt or Uncle, usually they
are called by their number on the basis of birth
order. Number 1 is not allotted to anybody. The
oldest in the birth order is called Number 2. For
example, Uncle 2 (chú hay), Aunt 7 (dì bảy),
Sister 3 (chị ba). The maternal relatives and
paternal relatives are completely separated by
different expressions. Unlike the case in English,
maternal uncle and paternal uncle have
different terms: Cậu for maternal uncle (‘day’ in
Turkish) and chú for paternal uncle (‘amca’ in
Turkish). Even for maternal uncle’s wife and
paternal uncle’s wife, different expressions are
used. In such a family configuration, the family
is not only extended, it can be super-extended:
Distant relatives of nth degrees are named as if
they are closer members of the family. This is an
excellent family net for Vietnamese older adults.
state that it is nevertheless rare for Vietnamese
older adults not to be taken care of by the family
network. Uncared older adults are considered to
be shame for the families: “What kind of a family
would not care for their older adults?!! Shame!”
Older adult nurseries or care centers are unheard
of. In short, older adult care is considered to be a
family responsibility.
Traditionally, Vietnamese family members live
close to each other. For example, a neighborhood
may consist of close and distant members of a
set of concentric, prototypical families. However
this proximity is no longer applicable in areas
where some family members moved somewhere
else for job opportunities. But even in that case,
they would not miss ancestor worship days and
return home for any serious family issue.
Notes on Vietnamese Social and Culture Life
Typical entertainment of the Vietnamese is
karaoke and drinking alcohol. Drinking has a
significant value in culture. Vietnamese drink
for any occasion without moderation. That is
why alcohol-caused illnesses are very common
in Vietnam. However, drinking habits follow
the patriarchy: Women rarely drink. It is known
that women live longer than men worldwide
on average. But this age difference can be
even larger in Vietnam because of the gender
differences in excessive drinking.
Vietnamese are known to live longer. This is
usually attributed to their simple life without
stress (after the Vietnamese-American War),
simple meals and positive attitudes not only
for life, but also for death. For Buddhism there
is no paradise or hell, but in Vietnamese folk
religion, people can go to hell if they did bad
things including murder, robbery, not respecting
older adults etc. There is an afterlife. They will
return to life in another body, and this can be
either a human beings’ or an animal’s. This
cycle of rebirth will continue until people will
However by shrinking of this family net due to the
decline of the family/household size as a result of
3 major factors mentioned above, the
Vietnamese older adults can also have less
support in case of a life difficulty including a
health emergency. The social insurance system
in Vietnam is considered to be weak and far
from meeting the needs of the older adults.
That is why the family net is vital for survival.
Based on our observation we can
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| Journal of Aging Studies
find a way to arrive at the stage of eternal bliss, Tentative Interview Questions to be Asked
Nirvana. Thus people who die don’t feel like that for Vietnamese Older Adults
is the end of the story, and the funerals are not
field work
always gloomy. Life continues in new bodies and For an anthropo-gerontological
with Vietnamese older adults, a few questions
through the children of the family.
would be especially interesting. For one thing, in
Final Notes
Vietnamese culture being old is not associated
with negative terms in contrast to the situation
Vietnam, diverging with the case in China, did not in countries like Turkey. So the meaning and
enforce any form of one child policy. Contrary to construction of old age in Vietnam would be
the situation in China, Vietnamese government completely different. So we can ask them about
promoted families to have as many children as their interpretation of old age. Secondly, we can
possible after the war (i.e. after 1975) to balance ask whether they feel the negative consequences
the lopsided distribution of women and men at of the shrinkage of the household. Thirdly, we can
reproductive age. Not only men, but also women ask them their interpretation of life and death.
had joined the ranks of guerilla warfare, but still As death is not the end of everything according
a higher percentage of men were in combat to Vietnamese culture, their interpretation of old
and among casualties. Government’s promotion age is expected to be different as well: With a
coincided with Vietnamese traditional values circular model of life and death, old age would be
which brought a population boom until 21st the last stage before rebirth rather than the last
century. After the war, the government told the stage before the end of everything. Of course in
female guerillas and women in general to return other cultures too there is a belief in afterlife, but
to their home to have children. So the percentage as the name implies it is after life, in other words,
of female soldiers in Vietnamese army is limited. it starts only when the life ends, and that is not
the case for Vietnamese folk religion. Fourthly,
Respect for older adults can go to its extremes
we can ask them about their daily activities, as
to lead to gerontocracy which is known to mean
this can be a source of inspiration for older adults
government by older adults. This is also against
of other cultures.
an egalitarian understanding of democracy.
Older people should be respected, but only as A Brief Overview of Gerontology-Related
much as other age groups. Recently the average Research in Vietnam
age of Vietnamese politics is declining, and
this also has implications for the future policies. Before conclusion, we review a number of
The youngest of the Vietnamese-American War gerontology-related research studies conducted
combatants are now in their 60s, and their leaders in Vietnam: Lam, Mai & Hong (2013) note that
are in 70s and 80s. As the war was over by 1975, not surprisingly there are regional differences
currently more than two-thirds of the Vietnamese in the percentage of older adult population
society were born after the war. Thus the war across Vietnam, and their access to health
generation will be less influential in Vietnamese services. Majority of them live in rural areas.
politics soon. This may have implications not Two-thirds of the Vietnamese older adults live
only over politics but also societal dynamics. So with their children, although this percentage is
let us note the intergenerational ideological gap declining annually. Even a decade ago, Giang
on this occasion.
& Pfau (2007) identified the rural-urban gap in
terms of Vietnamese older people’s quality of
life. However, both settings have advantages
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Gezgin • Vietnamlı Yaşlılarla İlgili Antropolojik Gözlemler, Sorulacak Sorular ve Vietnam’da Gerontolojiyle İlişkili Araştırmalar
and disadvantages for old age. While Ha &
Vo (2016) find that quality of life is better for
urban Vietnamese older adults than rural ones,
anecdotal evidence provides another account
with regard to intensity of family care in rural
areas.
always been seen as a responsibility and filial
piety of children and their extended families.
Therefore, providing healthcare for aged
people in their family and community context is
important” (p.224).
Finally, agreeing with our observation, Mai et al.
Nguyen et al. (2017) investigated quality of life (2017)’s statistical analysis associate manhood
of Vietnamese older adults in rural areas and with alcoholism in Vietnam. Based on these
checked its relationship with a set of variables, findings, we can also ask Vietnamese older adults
their housing arrangement, family care, and past
concluding that;
and present drinking habits.
“While higher QoL in elderly men was significantly
correlated with 5 factors, aged ≥ 80 years, Within the limited space we had in this section,
following Buddhism and Christianity, having we could only refer to a handful of gerontologybetter connection and without illness in the past related research studies in Vietnam. In the
6 months, these among female counterparts are future study, some other relevant works will be
aged ≥ 80 years, completing secondary level or properly presented and discussed such as Hoi,
above, having medium and high socioeconomic Thang & Lindholm, 2011; McCann et al., 2004;
status and without illness in the last 6 months” Teerawichitchainan, Knodel & Pothisiri, 2015;
Teerawichitchainan, Pothisiri & Long, 2015;
(p.63).
Vietnam Ministry of Health, 2017 etc.
Regardless of rural/urban divide and converging
with our observation that ancestor worship Conclusion
requires a ‘settled’ life, Tran & Vu (2018) find
It is seen that an anthropo-gerontological
that one of the most important factors in life
perspective is rare in Vietnam. Most of the
satisfaction of the Vietnamese older adults is
research either concerns demographics or
permanent housing.
medicine/health, nevertheless a number of
Similar to our observation about older papers published on well-known gerontology
adult care as family responsibility, Yamada journals are to be noted. Thus, we expect that our
& Teerawichitchainan (2015) conclude that field work would provide valuable information
“[i]ntergenerational coresidence significantly for gerontology and anthropology communities.
increases the psychological well-being of the
older adults in Vietnam” while Nguyen & Nguyen
(2010) state the following:
“Similar to many other countries worldwide,
Vietnam is facing a challenge of an ageing
population. This challenge is even more difficult
to overcome because Vietnam is a developing
country lacking an established aged care
infrastructure and system. Many aspects of aged
care have largely been relied on families of aged
people due to a strong influence of Confucian
philosophy. Looking after aged parents has
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