Video summary
The video explores the profound and often overlooked Chinese influence on Vietnam, sparked by the creator's recent travels through central regions like Hanoi and Halong Bay. The narrator argues that while Vietnam is a blend of various cultures, including significant French and indigenous elements, there are distinct areas where the country feels more Chinese than many realize. This observation is rooted in personal experiences ranging from eating traditional noodle dishes to witnessing architectural styles and social dynamics that mirror Southern Chinese culture rather than typical Southeast Asian norms. The creator emphasizes that these observations are based on genuine cultural immersion rather than a political agenda, noting how historical trade routes and centuries of interaction have blurred the lines between Vietnamese and Chinese identities in specific regions.
One of the primary arguments presented revolves around cuisine and language, where the similarities are striking enough to confuse even locals. The narrator points out that certain Vietnamese dishes, such as those from Hanoi and Hue, rely heavily on soy sauce and techniques that are distinctly Cantonese, challenging the common perception that Vietnamese food is primarily French-influenced in the north. Furthermore, the use of Chinese characters for centuries was essential for writing the Vietnamese language before it transitioned to the Latin-based script used today. This linguistic heritage is still visible in ancient temples and modern establishments that embrace a Sino-Vietnamese aesthetic, suggesting a deep historical connection that persists despite periods where acknowledging this link was socially frowned upon due to political tensions.
Beyond food and writing, the video highlights geographical and demographic factors that reinforce these cultural ties. Northern Vietnam's landscape, characterized by misty limestone karsts, shares a striking resemblance to famous sites in China like Guilin, creating an aesthetic that feels uniquely East Asian rather than tropical Southeast Asian. Additionally, the narrator notes that many Vietnamese people possess physical features that could easily pass for Chinese or Korean, a result of historical migration patterns and the country's long, narrow geography which facilitated lateral cultural exchange. The social fabric also reflects Southern Chinese family dynamics, with an emphasis on emotional expressiveness and high EQ, contrasting with the more transactional approach sometimes attributed to other Asian cultures.
Ultimately, the creator concludes that Vietnam is not secretly part of China but exists within a vast Sinosphere where cultural influences naturally blend over time. The distinction between North and South Vietnam is crucial; while the south, particularly areas like Chinatown in Saigon, has a heavy Cantonese immigrant presence, northern Vietnam feels organically Chinese due to its ancient trade history and geographical proximity to Guangxi. As modern borders and national identities solidify, these ancient connections remain visible in architecture, food, and daily life, offering a fascinating glimpse into how culture travels laterally across the region. The video ends by inviting viewers to reflect on whether acknowledging this deep historical Chinese influence is becoming more acceptable in 2026 compared to previous decades when it might have been considered taboo.
Read the full video transcript
Shout out to Steph Curry. Just signed
with Lee Ning.
So guys, I just finished a big bowl of
cao, which is a Hoyan noodle dish. Hoan
used to be a Chinese Vietnamese trading
port for many, many years. And uh this
dish, Galo, is probably one of the best
Vietnamese noodles, if not the best
Vietnamese noodle that nobody has ever
heard of. Pop up a photo right here. And
it kind of got me thinking, how Chinese
influenced is Vietnam? Um, I know this
is a controversial question. I don't
want people to take it the wrong way,
but they probably will anyway. But
literally, I'm just a guy making
observations because I just came back
from a trip from central Vietnam. I'm in
Hoan. I'm in Hanoi. I'm in Halong Bay.
I'm in Ninben. And I'll tell you this,
there's [music] a lot. Growing up in the
US amongst your VIA friends, you have
such an interesting spectrum because
some of your friends are via, some of
them are partially Chinese, and some of
them are just full-on Chinese, have
better Chinese than you, but their
family's been in Vietnam for like a
hundred years. So, what are they? I
mean, this is just the nature of being
southern Chinese, you know? Um, I'm half
myself and I just know we've been in
Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines,
literally every single part of Southeast
Asia for like 400, 500 years. So, it's
like the lines get pretty blurry at
[music] some point. Listen, guys. I
don't want anybody to take this the
wrong way, but here are seven ways that
Vietnam just feels more Chinese than you
think. And this is just based off my
travels. This is not based off any
particular agenda or anything like that.
I'm just saying. Point number one, some
Vietnamese food, not all, feels very
Chinese. So, I just finished a gigantic
bowl of kao. And gao means like upper
ceiling, right? But it also in Cantonese
is gao. But I read that it also could be
gone low because
from Hoan, Hoan is a Chinese Vietnamese
trading city in central Vietnam. Could
actually be like a dry noodle. And so it
could basically the word could be just
from Cantonese or trio, whatever. And um
yeah, it's just really interesting cuz I
was having it and I was just like, wait,
how Chinese influence is Vietnam?
Because, you know, you see it in a dish
like fur kind of, but I could see how
you could, you know, almost more lean
French with fur a little bit, just cuz
of the bullion or whatever and the beef.
[music] But really, for a dish like kao
or uh bandakua from Hiong, which are
both traditional like Sino Vietnamese
trading hubs for many centuries, those
are just like very Chinese dishes. A lot
of soy sauce, you know, just the type of
noodle that they're using. It's very
interesting. So, you know, Vietnam is
such an interesting place. There's such
a mix of different influences.
Obviously, more by the Meong Delta,
you've got like bonam and you've got
papaya salads and you've got a lot more
foods that remind me almost of Thai,
Cambodian, maybe cham, you know, um
foods. And then, of course, you've got
the the stuff in the middle like a fug,
you know what I mean? Bunme almost a
little bit more French influence. So, I
don't know. I guess what I'm saying is I
just didn't expect there to be haka for
dim. You can find dim sum at the
supermarkets. You can find dim sum
everywhere in Vietnam. And this, you
know, it's the same thing in Bangkok
because Bangkok has a lot of like
southern Chinese Cantonese, specifically
Dio influence. You can just find like
tantat, like egg tarts, fried egg rolls,
haka, si everywhere. I mean, honestly, I
found them in Japan, too. Like Japan
actually got way more one tons and summ
than you think too and chashu but they
call it chashu and in Vietnam they call
it sashu um buncoun especially the hanoi
style buncoun even more than the
southern style buncoun is super like
churning fun. Of course, if you go to
Jalan, Chinatown D5, you're just going
to find a straight up Cantonese style
churn fun with a hot churn. But like
maybe they I noticed Chinese viet Kanto
is like put a little bit more like fried
lard on top just to add a little little
on top. You know, lap chur lapsung um
bun ba being baoza, you know, there's
just a lot of stuff, man. So basically
what I'm saying is of course every
region is unique. I'm not even saying
the via I think the via version of the
fried rice, the Chinese via version, the
kamch is even better. You know what I
mean? Especially with the lap chur in
it, the lapsung is even better than the
kanto yung taan, you know? So, it's like
of course there's influences and
learning this way and learning that way.
But it's just like, you know, even if
you take away like [music] the different
regional ingredients, the techniques,
especially in central, but particularly
northern Vietnam with a lot of the soy
brazes and a lot of the uh stirfries, it
just felt very Chinese on a food level.
Pop these up. Anyway, point number two,
guys, northern Vietnam, and very few
people will ever go there cuz most
people are just going to come party at
Bam Bam in Saigon. I don't blame you,
but I'm just saying you guys are going
to live at the Galleria, Metropole,
whatever. getting a little Airbnb. Uh,
northern Vietnam looks like Wayin and
it's got the same carst carst which is a
material from the earth limestone. You
know what I mean? It actually
like Ninben shares the same limestone
ridge as Guin [music] like Ninben Halong
Bay. Dude, we're talking about this
super watercolor misty watercolor brush
like East Asian mountain fantasy, you
know, like where kung fu masters would
be fighting and floating on clouds and
throwing all types of needles out of
their hair and pins and things like
[music] that. It's just like only China
and North Vietnam really do it. Like
yeah there might be car mountains in
like Thailand, Laos, Malaysia but they
just don't got that same
full just misty like moonlit look you
know pagotas just pagotas everywhere you
know
which is like the avatar mountains in
China trust me listen guys until you go
to northern Vietnam and see it for
yourself you're just not going to know
it until you feel it point number
[music] three there are Chinese
characters written all over Vietnam both
in modern and in ancient ways. But I
think the ancient ways are the most
significant because if a lot of you guys
don't know, Vietnam's primary language
was using Chinese characters for the
longest time. Whether it was classical
Chinese chuhan or then they
transliterated version to the more kamay
language that they speak here which is
chun nam to obviously the more latinized
version of chunam that they have today.
But basically, yeah, like you know,
there all the oldest buildings in Saigon
or Hanoi, they're all written in
Chinese. Dietsuki is written in Chinese.
Um, I'm not saying that that obviously
their history is their own. Their
culture is their own. I love the
Vietnamese identity. I'm not saying
anything like by it. You know, like I
said, some people are going to take it
the wrong way. It is what it is. But I'm
just saying Chinese characters are just
scattered everywhere around Asia. The
Sinosphere was gigantic. ancient Korean
history books written in Chinese,
ancient Japanese books written in
Chinese, you know, temples, Buddhist
things, just, you know what I mean?
Like, and I just think for a lot of
decades in Vietnam, from what I've been
told by my Vietnamese local friends, is
that it was kind of frowned upon because
of like modern wars or maybe how people
perceived the Ming dynasty's invasions a
thousand years ago, etc., etc. But I
just noticed in like 2026 I started to
see this one restaurant called Nook Nuke
restaurant right next to me. They almost
leaned into a ancient Sinoviet aesthetic
with like the Chuhan characters all
around the restaurant. So it seems like
you know maybe because relations are
stabilizing people can more like own up
to the very real Chinese influence that
exists in a very deep ancient way. But I
get it, you know, people felt some type
of way about it due to recent [music]
misgivings. Point number four, guys. Old
Vietnamese buildings can look straight
up sino. You know, like we said, it kind
of goes back to the language thing. It
kind of goes back to the limestone
carstin
look. You just see this Indo-China
shininoa like sort of like it's like
sino Southeast Asia look you know pinang
with the perernicans or mala just like
you see this colonial layer stacked on
top of like a certain era of like
ancient southern Chinese style and it
looks really dope. People love that
aesthetic. Crazy Rich Asians has that
aesthetic. Um, you know, but like I
said, a lot of these things you could
argue that the Vietnam version is
better. You know what I mean? Because
maybe it would lean more heavily on the
French influence and their version of
she, you know, Indo-China. You know what
I mean? Like I know a lot of people love
Malaysia and Singapore's version of it
the most, too. You know, I'm not saying
like, oh, just because Chinese is
[music] this shared element and it's
automatically the best. Like I like the
jay the the Vietnamese fried egg [music]
rolls the most out of all of Asia. I
think that that's like by far the best
one and it's not even close regardless
of where that original idea came from.
Who cares? I'm just saying [music] I
didn't know. Like, you know, I knew that
there was a lot of Chinese culture in
Southeast Asia, but [music] you don't
really, you know, you don't see it until
you see it and then you're like reading
the Chinese characters on the temple and
you're just like, "Oh." Point number
five. I think that there are so many
different looks in Vietnam, but
particularly there is a lot of people
that could pass as, [music] you know,
Chinese, even like Korean. That's like a
new new trend that I noticed is that
like a lot of Vietnamese people, they
can look Korean and they get they will
become a pop star or like a a Vdrama
star or a Vpop star if they do. Of
course, provided they can sing and
they're focused and they're probably
from a good family and you know they
bribe their way into the industry or
they got a powerful family backing them.
That's the same way it is in the US
guys. Poliola, all that stuff. It's
still around. It's a lot of politics.
But anyway, I'm just saying that Korean
look it helps a lot, you know. Shout out
to Sunong and all these other people.
But yeah, I was really struck like when
I was in Hanoi or when I was in uh
Halong Bay and stuff like that, there
was a lot of people had shops from Hanoi
there and I was just like, "Oh man,
these people look more Asian than I do."
And of course, Vietnamese people are
Asian, so that's obvious, right? But I'm
just saying that they have a really wide
range of looks within Vietnam due to the
long skinny latitude nature of uh the
multilatitude nature of Vietnam. Like
I've met I have Vietnamese friends in
America that literally get banged on by
Mexican cholo sometimes for being like,
"Hey, what? What's up, fool? Are you El
Norte or Elsir?" And they're just like,
"Bro, I'm Asian." So, I'm just saying
they got a wide range. Point number six,
I feel like Vietnamese families kind of
feel similar to southern Chinese
families. There is some differences for
sure. I noticed they love being around
each other more. there's more
emotionality, there's more
expressiveness, there's higher desire
for EQ um to [music] accumulate EQ
points yourself, but also holding other
people to higher EQ patterns. That's
something that's very different. If you
guys know about Chinese, as long as you
deliver the grades and the money, you
can kind of have like little cringe
behaviors. Uh which is different than a
lot of other Asians to be honest. That's
a Chinese [music] thing. the the the
lack of like smooth, you know, the lack
of care about not like not wanting to be
awkward or weird. Chinese are cool with
that as long as you got the money in the
grades. We're just the most overindexed
on prioritizing those things. So Viet
definitely care about the smoothness,
the suave, you know, a little bit more.
But um yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like I
think that a lot of you know Vietnamese
families that kind of remind me of
Cantonese families but they're more
pingfilled and then they're probably
less institutional formally focused and
more just like hustle go [music]
you know what I mean cuz I think they
believe in larger institutions less uh
which is true for I think it's for all
Southeast Asia in general but like it
makes more sense too because of the
history and stuff like that. And you
know, the interesting thing is that
all-in instinct means that I have some
Vietnamese friends that got super rich
in America. Like I know a lot of
southern Chinese that went to America
and did well, but like my Vietnamese
friends was like doubling down every
time at the casino table. Like and and
I'm not just saying like at the casino.
I'm saying like in life throwing all
their capital into their next project.
So that allowed some of them, you know,
the ones that were calculating and smart
to really be like the richest out of all
my friends. But yeah, guys, you know,
there's so many points to cover on this.
I know there's entire YouTube channels
like Nation Faces that are dedicated to
this topic, figuring out the racial
cultural composition of Vietnam solely,
you know, and they have a ton of videos
on this. I'll just link them right here.
But my last point is that I just noticed
that Vietnam is very interesting in the
sense that North Vietnam has a lot more
like trading hubs, like ancient trading
ports with China. So like the native
local culture there is kind of like
feels more Chinese. But then in South
Vietnam because there were so many like
Cantonese and Chua people that came here
like you know 100 years ago for trade
like Jalun which is Chinatown D5 is like
the most Chinese part of Vietnam
explicitly in the sense that like
they're still speaking Chinese with each
other. But then northern Vietnam almost
felt like more organically Chinese if
that makes sense. you know, like almost
more like, you know, you see that Bayou
like larger before there was nation
states and border maps and like all
these lines drawn like I can see the
Bayou circling of like Guangshi and some
parts of Guangong with [music] Hanoi and
with like Halong Bay and you know what I
mean like you could just draw that
circle. So I see it the Bay theory
that's real for sure and there's a ton
of Chinese tourists up there too because
like I know when I was in Shenzhen
everybody was talking about how they go
to Hanoi like [music] often times you
know so that was crazy and yeah I think
the rest of the south outside of like
Jalan obviously or Saigon feels a lot
more Meong Delta more Kai more tropical
Southeast Asia um I think central
Vietnam probably feels more Ch or Myan
or Mong obviously Kin being the dominant
ethnic group, you know, but um yeah,
it's a very very interesting country
because if you guys know about culture,
culture tends to travel laterally
because people don't like to uh shift
climates that often. Um and if they do,
they go north to south. Uh typically
that's like a human development pattern.
But yeah, like a lot of cultural travels
laterally in Vietnam, it doesn't have a
lot of width, but it's just like a very
vertical looks like a it looks like
Japan. Japan is pretty different like
from you know Kyushu to Tokyo too and of
course modern day 2026 Saigon it's just
a blender of everything man like I think
everybody in Asia absorbed a ton of
Japanese and Korean influence through
the pop culture but if you guys know
about Japanese and Korean people they
tend not to really mix with people
they'll sell them products or sell them
the music and the culture but they're
not going to mix with people generally
they're going to stay within themselves
I would say that they have a pretty
strong ingroup preference but Chinese.
Well, really, everybody got a Chinese
grandma or grandpa somewhere, man. In
Southeast Asia, it's I'm not saying
everybody, but you know what I mean. I'm
just It's really common. Anyway, guys, I
am not saying that Vietnam is secretly
part of China. They don't owe anybody
anything just because there's some
cyanospheric influences across the
country. You know what I mean? like it's
just dope to see the cyinosphere fade
into Southeast Asia because it is a real
ancient thing and it talks a lot about
history and it talks about a lot of
things and just you know it's dope to
see and I didn't really know until I
started traveling and you know on my
mom's side they're from Shandong I've
got relatives on that side that grew up
in Japan grew up in Korea all in that
region and on my southern side you know
I have people who grew up in Malaysia um
people who almost moved to Vietnam 100
years ago in my own family. So I could
have been a D5 Jillun Saigon Chinese
Viet Hoa person too. So anyway guys, I'm
just talking about what I noticed. Tell
me if you guys think it's significant
and do you think it's more common to
talk about the Chinese influence in
Vietnam in 2026? Maybe it was viewed as
a taboo for several decades for a
variety of reasons. Let me know what you
guys think in the comments section
below. Let me know what you think about
my points. Let me know if if you think I
left anything out or I'm sure if you
want to debate me, you'll leave it too.
Anyway, guys, AI exists and it's getting
better by the day in 2026. You can look
up all this stuff or as much or as
little as you want in the exact tonage
and metaphors and simileies and
analogies that you want. Check out the
Global Next Show. This [music] is going
to be a crazy show where we explore
businesses between the East and the
West, China and America. I'm super
excited for that. And uh yeah, all this
from one bowl of kowo from Hoan. It's
what just popped into my head. So anyway
guys, I'm out.