Abstract:

Introduction:
Belonging to the Indochina region, both Philippines and Vietnam have undergone
multiple colonisations from other regional strongholds notably the Europeans who had a
civilizing mission that promoted unequal distribution of resources, destruction and violation of
human rights, cultural destruction and elimination and other activities that will be mentioned.
In the pretext of post-colonialism and its influence on Philippines and Vietnam, the
researchers will discuss about the human consequences of external control and economic
exploitation of a native people and its lands. Furthermore, in lieu of this, given how the
colonizers controlled the countries, the researchers would like to do a comparative study on
how the decolonised people develop a postcolonial identity from the cultural interactions
among the types of identity (cultural, national, ethnic) and the social relations of sex, class,
and caste; determined by the gender and the race of the colonised person; and the racism
inherent to the structures of a colonial society. The purpose of this comparative study is to
explore how each country both Philippines and Vietnam integrated the cultures that was
introduced to them by their respective colonizers and how did each of the country
assimilated it into their own self cultures and traditions. Even more so, whether the
colonizers of the Philippines and Vietnam were able to change our country for the better or
making it instead worse of the people native to the country. Although both countries have
managed to attain independency and freedom from their respective colonizers, the
development and repercussions following the colonization are different from each country,
and these same development an repercussions could be one of the notable signs whether
the colonization that happened in both countries had a positive effect to counter the
oppression faced by the natives of each country.
Post Colonial influence on Religion of Vietnam and Philippines:
Originally, Vietnamese folk religion has been historically structured under the
doctrines of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism brought upon by the Chinese conquest
(Taylor, 2013). Although Confucianism was initially weak, Confucianism eventually
superseded Buddhism in Vietnam. Beyond its mass appeal, Confucianism was especially
attractive to the rulers because its theory stated that only superior men were to act as state
diviners or worship the gods. When applied to Indochinese society, Confucianism
emphasized respect for elders, equals, and authority, and this emphasis fit well into the cult
of ancestors, which is the adherence to the folk religion that remained the core of religious
life (Burlette, 2007). Around the 1700, Father Alexander Rhodes arrived at the region of
Indochina and resided in Hanoi to begin his attempt of converting the Annamites which are
the present day Vietnamese today (Herbermann, 1913). Among other achievement, he had
made a significant and lasting contribution to Vietnamese culture and help formed what the
identity of Vietnam is today. Rhodes help French and Portuguese missionaries develop an
alphabet based on Latin characters for the Annamites, and by the 19 th century, the
Annamites had fully adopted this language in order to separate themselves from the
Chinese culture and language (Burlette, 2007). This language used by the Vietnamese today
is known as Quoc Ngu, and its the present day language being spoken in Vietnam (Burlette,
2007). Language and dialects will be further discussed in the language section of this paper.
In the present, although73.3% of the population is atheist, or follows a Vietnamese folk
religion; the colonialism of China and the French has put a number of followers to convert
them to their religions (Vietnam: Religious minority groups, 2014). Buddhism, which
composes 12.2% of the population, came into Vietnam as early as the second century AD
through trade routes from India and become a state religion of the Dynastic Vietnam for
while. On the other hand, Christianity, which composes 8.3% of the population, was first
introduced in Vietnam when Roman Catholicism first entered the country through
Portuguese Catholic missionaries in the 16th century and strengthened its influence during
French colonial rule (Vietnam: Religious minority groups, 2014).

Historically, before the colonization started in the Philippines, the original religion of the
early Filipinos was Animism. The Spanish Colonial Era that began in 1521 with the arrival of
Ferdinand Magellan to 1989 that marked the beginning of the American Colonial Era had
subjected the Philippines with heavy influence from their colonizers given that the Philippines
was under the Spanish rule for almost 300 years. Under the American colonizers, although
the Filipinos then were free to pick a religion, the Protestant religion was introduced to us
and more than 300,000 converted to a protestant during that Era. An estimate of 90% of the
population today is Christian, 87% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church while 3%
belonged to the Protestant related churches. Islam constitutes to 5% of the population while
the rest constitutes a mix of religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Animism.
The researchers would like to discuss post- colonial influence in context of religious
freedom and democracy that has been significantly affected given the several religious
assimilation and oppression from the phases of war and reform in Vietnam. To give an
overview of the religion assimilation and oppression between its colonizers and Vietnam, in
1802, the Nguyens, who became the final rulers of the region before the French conquest,
regulated and suppressed religions other than Confucianism (Burlette, 2007). Then come
the period where Rhodes attempted to convert the Annamites into Catholicism, Tolerance for
Christianity and the West depended upon the current emperor and his personal beliefs
(Burlette, 2007). Other rulers did not welcome Catholicism in the country, so by the turn of
the 19th century anti-western rulers had managed to undone centuries of conversion by the
previous missionaries (Burlette, 2007). On the side note, during the discourse of the Vietnam
war from 1954 to 1975, Buddhist discontentment with Ngo Dinh Diem because of his
devotion to Catholicism and Mother Mary has lead to violent government crackdowns and
has led to severance of his ties with the United States, and ultimately led to the
assassination of Diem at 1963 (Tucker, 2011). Because of these events that lead to religious
turnovers, religious democracy and freedom has been a cause for concern. The U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended reinstating
Vietnam on the watch list of Countries of Particular Concern in violating the democracy of
people regarding their religions. There are strict laws regarding how they should practice
their religion. The government issued a new Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions in 2004.
Anyone could observe that the ordinance was meant to increase the governments control
over religious organizations. The government reasoned that this will prevent religion from
becoming a rallying point for anti-government forces (Gillespie, 2014). The ordinance
includes the following:

Citizens have a right to follow religious beliefs (He Thong Van Ban Quy Pham Phap
Luat, 2004).
Religious organizations require annual licenses to teach, conduct rituals and
services, and represent their followers (He Thong Van Ban Quy Pham Phap Luat,
2004).
State authorities can veto the appointment of high-ranking religious officials (He
Thong Van Ban Quy Pham Phap Luat, 2004).
Fundraising and charitable work conducted by religious organizations require state
approval (He Thong Van Ban Quy Pham Phap Luat, 2004).
The Ministry of Education must approve both the students and curricula taught at
religious training centres (He Thong Van Ban Quy Pham Phap Luat, 2004).
Contact between religious organizations and foreign students (He Thong Van Ban
Quy Pham Phap Luat, 2004).

For decades, Vietnamese leaders have treated human rights in a semi-mystical, political,
and moral discourse about national sovereignty and identity called i on Kt (DDK).
(Burlette, 2007). The Vietnamese government selects the religion to be licensed based on
the DDK. They reject the notion of universal human rights and instead have their own human
rights in the DDK that defines what it to be a Vietnamese is.

All of the religions in Vietnam are state-managed (Burlette, 2007). Furthermore, a

persons religion must be licensed by the government or else the practicing of such religion
will be prohibited (Burlette, 2007). The government uses this ordinance to manage the
formation and operations of religious activities and ensure that these religious wont get in
the way of the government. Furthermore, religious activities that doesnt support the DDK or
encourage superstition or rituals are prohibited to practice (Burlette, 2007). The Vietnamese
government suppresses the persons right of freely practicing their religion and also their
basic human right to express themselves. This in turn increased the number of protests
concerning religious freedom within the country and demanding human rights (Burlette,
2007). Universal human rights might be able to flourish in Vietnam when the DDK, their
basis of human rights and religion worship, is to annulled or at least modified to augment
unity within the people, and reduce protests and rallying within the country representing their
religion.
Philippines being a secular nation, the constitution guarantees separation of church
and state, and requiring government to respect all religious beliefs equally. Anyone could
easily observe that there is a tremendous difference between the religious democracy of
Vietnam and the Philippines. Understandably, since Vietnams colonization period included
multiple conversions of religion and religion aggravated battles and wars, the rules for the
governing of religions is much authoritarian compared to the Philippines, which had about
300 years to adapt to the religion of Roman Catholicism and gaining independence. To give
a few insights regarding the difference between their religious democracies, Long-term
colonialism and short-term colonialism might have two different negative adverse effects to a
country. Talking about long-term effects with its subject being the Philippines, culture
assimilation of the Spaniards given their 300 year long stay has stayed ingrained in the
Filipinos even after years of independency. Furthermore, having a few cultural defences to
the Filipinos of their cultural heritage, the Philippines began to acquire what we now call
colonial mentality. Furthermore, the researchers believed that the Filipinos under the 300
year Spanish rule develop an inferiority complex under the Spaniards, because only those
who are Spaniards or does who has he blood of Spaniards may assume office under the
colonization. Comparing the rather shorter years of French Colonialism, the assimilation of
Catholicism by the French gave no chance for the earlier Vietnamese to adapt to the
religion, and given that there were a few catholic converted Vietnamese who sided with the
French to install catholic emperors, it is understandable that the government of Vietnam in
the present fears uprising caused by religions uprooting for democracy.
Post colonial influence on language
Vietnam and Philippines has been the subject of cultural imperialism from their
colonizers. Dwelling on the linguistic side as part of cultural imperialism, it refers to the
transfer of a dominant language to other people. The origin of Vietnamese language has not
yet been fully classified due to the Vietnamese borrowing languages from multiple foreign
countries. However, the lasting change on the Vietnamese writing system is the Quoc Ngu
(Burlette, 2007). Quoc Ngu is the modern writing system for the Vietnamese language that
originated from French missionaries that developed an alphabet for the early Vietnamese
using Latin (Burlette, 2007). The Vietnamese language was primarily influenced by the
Chinese when they came to colonized Vietnam in the 2 nd century, and the modern
Vietnamese consists of some borrowings from Chinese and French terms, such as
m (dame, from madame) and ga (train station, from gare (Hoa)). This has become the
linguistical identity of the Vietnamese which they modified from the cultures that colonized
them, the Chinese and the French.
In the Philippines, before the Filipinos were colonized by the Spanish, they were
using Baybayin, which is an ancient Philippine Script originated from the Brahmin Scripts of
India 2000 years ago (Morrow). Although there were no recounts that the language is that
old, theory states that the language originated from the kavi script of Indonesia or the
Borneo (Morrow). During the colonial period of the Spanish, Spanish has become the official

language of the Philippines for more than 300 years. Following the events of the American
occupation and the imposition of English, Spanish language gradually declined especially
when Tagalog was chosen as the base language in 1937 (Quezon, 1937). Tagalog, instead
of being written in Baybayin, are now written today in Latin Script because of the Spanish
and American colonial experience
Language being a part of culture, the two counties post-colonial cultural identity was
modified during the colonization years. Philippines national language in the present includes
Tagalog and English, with Tagalog written in the modern latin script and words of Spanish
origin. Resulting from the Spanish dominance for over 300 years in the islands that is now
the Republic of the Philippines, a number of places in the country have names of Spanish
origins. As with Filipino surnames and other aspects of Filipino culture, they too have a great
degree of Spanish influence. Given that the Philippines were colonized before its own
society can develop on its own, the Filipinos has easily accepted the Spanish and American
culture and make it their own that is evident with todays pop culture, colonial mentality and
language. Vietnamese too uses the Latin script in written language, and has words of French
origins. Furthermore, colonialism produced a physical transformation on Vietnamese cities.
Vietnamese names of cities, towns and streets were changed to French names (French
Colonialism in Vietnam), and modern Vietnamese language makes use of rods of Frech
origins as aforementioned before. When cultural imperialism taht goes hand in hand with
colonization happens, language will no doubt be influenced too, as language is part of
culture too. To conclude, when the culture of one country changes, language will most likely
change too as culture reflects the origin of words in language and how language describes
its own culture.

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