ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the contemporary structure and the traditional conception of education to cover the necessary background. It discusses in more detail the history of the Vietnamese nation as narrated in official textbooks and embodied in the main regime symbols. The chapter addresses the question of the changes that Doi moi has brought about, and the successes, limits and challenges to this official construction of the Vietnamese mindset. The best symbol of Vietnam is now, without doubt, the Temple of Literature, Van Mieu, whose construction was begun in 1070. These dynasties have an unquestionable importance in the official history of the nation. Vietnamese national identity is built on the history of the battles against the invaders. Vietnam may still be a member of the declining ‘communist club’, but Vietnamese see themselves first and foremost in primordialist, ethno-cultural terms, as descendants of the Dragon and the Fairy.
