<P> Due to a millennium of Chinese rule, Vietnam was heavily and remarkably influenced by Chinese culture in terms of politics, government, Confucian social and moral ethics, and art . Vietnam is considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere . </P> <P> Following independence from China in the 10th century, Vietnam began a southward expansion that saw the annexation of territories formerly belonging to the Champa civilization (now Central Vietnam) and parts of the Khmer empire (modern southern Vietnam), which resulted in minor regional variances in Vietnam's culture due to exposure to these different groups . </P> <P> During the French colonial period, Vietnamese culture absorbed various influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of the Latin alphabet . Prior to this, Vietnamese had used both Chinese characters and a script called Chữ nôm which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese words . </P> <P> In the socialist era, the Vietnamese cultural life was deeply influenced by government - controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs . For many decades, foreign cultural influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others . Since the 1990s, Vietnam has been exposed to other Asian, European and American culture and media . </P>

The culture of vietnam is one of the oldest