ABSTRACT
Being a neighboring nation with China, Vietnam has developed its own special characteristics in research on China. Under the influences of Chinese culture and the complexity of the bilateral relationship between the two nations, Sinology in Vietnam has been one of the most crucial disciplines for a long time. However, due to its specific historical experience as a formerly divided nation and the special political environment, the development of Vietnamese Sinology has gone through two diverse routes. The North Vietnamese Sinologists have experienced more systematic training and shoulder more tasks and pressure from political authority, whereas their Southern counterparts’ training process is more freestyle and has had less intervention from political authorities. This chapter introduces the different yet equally remarkable developing processes of North and South Vietnamese Sinology; it especially focuses on comparing the training styles of Sinologists in the North and the South by adopting two factors as the analytical framework: the impacts of cultural heritage and systematic training.
