The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the ancient Bronze age culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors. Due to a millennium of Chinese rule, Vietnam was heavily 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.

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.

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 Ch? nôm which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese words.

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been 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 seen a greater re-exposure to Asian, European and American culture and media.

Some elements generally considered to be characteristic of Vietnamese culture include ancestor veneration, respect for community and family values, handicrafts and manual labour, and devotion to study. Important symbols present in Vietnamese culture include dragons, turtles, lotuses and bamboo.

The Vietnamese artists in the collection range from established and mid-career artists, whose works feature in significant exhibitions and notable private collections and public institutions worldwide, to young emerging artists who continue to tackle issues with fresh and new interpretations. RMIT University is at the forefront of creative education and this collection allows bothstudents and the wider community to experience the artistic expression of an important generation of contemporary Vietnamese artists. The art collection is managed by the RMIT Library Vietnam.