Lecture on Vietnamese village’s customs at L’Espace

A free lecture on the evolution of village customs will be presented by Dr. Bui Xuan Dinh from the Institute of Anthropology, a branch of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, and Dr. Dinh Khac Thuan from the Sino-Vietnamese Institute at 6:00 PM on June 20, 2025, at L’Espace (24 Trang Tien, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi).

The lecture will be divided into six parts: Part 1 discusses the chief causes contributing to the creation of village customs, Part 2 covers their inception, Part 3 examines various forms of these customs, Part 4 addresses their content, and the final part explores the role and impact of village customs in both historical and contemporary contexts. The lecture will be conducted in Vietnamese with simultaneous French translation available.

During the feudal period in Vietnam, village customs operated alongside the law and served as a crucial management tool in ancient Vietnamese society. An unspoken rule was that “The King’s law yields to the village’s customs.” Today, these customs continue to play an essential role in the development of Vietnam’s villages, reflecting the cultural heritage and communal values of local populations.