Growing Up Sexually

VIETNAM

Index → Asia → Vietnam

Featured: Vietnamese; Hmong

Vietnamese (Annamese)

Jacobus X ([1893] 1898, I:p21)[1] stated that the hymen in Annamite girls is often wanting at age ten, while before it is seen to be intact. An explanation might be that “[…] the little Annamite girls are deflowered, after ten years of age, by little boys with whom the play, and repeat together the lessons which their parents have unconsciously taught them, on account of the forced promiscuity of the family in a little thatched house […]”. In the villages around Saigon [now Ho Chi Mihn City], prepuberal (ages 7, or 8, to 15, apparently in contrast to “boys”, ages 15-25) boy prostitutes, Nays (“basket”, basket carriers), take care of the homosexual urges of foreigners during the day (ibid., p108-11, 137, 171); the practice of choice is said to be fellatio. Nays were said to be nonexistent, or exceptional, in Cambodia (p214, 210-1)[2]. Matignon (1883:p161)[3]: “In Hanoi, it is not uncommon to be stopped on the main promenade at night […] by little boys, who speak French- and what kind of French, dear God- “M’r cap’tain! Come with me- me titi really piggy!” is the invitation”. As Proschan[4] footnotes, “The English word boy was taken over into French and even Vietnamese as the word for male domestic servant regardless of his age (in the same way the term was once applied to African Americans of any age). Most were between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five but could be younger or much older”.

Among the Sedang (Vietnam), according to Devereux[5], “lovemaking short of actual intercourse is permissible and routine during childhood and adolescence”. Vietnamese childrearing practices have been characterised by permissiveness, freedom, and sensuality[6]. The tie between mother and child is less important than in American families, and the Vietnamese mother delegates childcare to the extended family, especially older female siblings. In contrast to the Western Oedipal culture, Vietnam is a sibling-oriented culture. After early permissiveness, the child enters the years of latency at school age. Cultural obligation devolves upon the child, accompanied by sexual segregation and repression.

Dr. Nguyen (2000) writes[7]: “In contrast to what is popularly portrayed in American movies and television shows, in Vietnamese culture there is no tradition of a coming-of-age “birds and the bees” talk between parents and their children. Because explicit discussions about sex are taboo even within close-knit Vietnamese families, most Vietnamese adults learned about sex when they were growing up from peers and not from their parents, school, or the media. For this reason, parents who are less acculturated may be more resistant to public school-based sexual education”.

Rydstrøm (2002:p4-5)[8] notes for local Vietnamese:

“The fact that a son is bound up with significant symbolic meaning, is inseparable from a local recognition of a boy’s body in biological terms, that is to say, his genitals (i.e. the Phallus). In Thinh Tri, the body of a little boy is generally a matter of common interest and concern. For example, a little boy is usually fondly called a thang cu, which means ‘penis boy’ (lit. male penis). The genitals of small Thinh Tri boys receive a great deal of attention by being commented on, joked about, or even grasped. The local ways in which boys’ genitals are paid attention to are in sharp contrast to the fact that girls’ genitals do not receive any special attention[9]. The widespread concern in Thinh Tri with respect to boys’ genitals is related to the symbolism of blood, which does not mean the same with regard to females and males. Despite blood being acknowledged as a ‘vital life force’ (khi huyet) of both the female and male body, it is basically perceived of as a female energy. Its complementary male vital life force is ‘semen’ (khi), which is said to be the substance of male energy. This energy is thought to guarantee the continuation of the blood of a male’s patrilineage […]”.

Pastoetter (2001)[10] (read in full: IES):

“Vietnam never produced sex education books like the Indian Kama Sutra or the Chinese and Japanese pillow books. Most young people get married without the least elementary knowledge […]”.(read in full: IES)

Indeed, in a 1998 study[11] it was found that

“[m]others rarely told their daughters about menstruation so many young women were terrified the first time they menstruated.  Because of the restricted education most girls received at the time, they were in a constant state of fear.  Some people thought that it was possible to get pregnant from kissing or from swimming in lakes and ponds with men, since sperm could swim into a woman.  Interviews with men show that families played no role in the sex education of men and that everything they knew was through friends or older acquaintances (Interview No. 1, male, born 1960).  Unequipped with the necessary knowledge about sexual relations, love and sexuality, girls were often confused and worried as they entered into their first love relationship.  One woman told of breaking up with her first boyfriend because when they were together he wanted to open her blouse”.

Also: Hmong

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volume I. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Sept 2005