This is a list of Vietnamese inventions and discoveries which includes technological, cultural and historical inventions. This list is incomplete.
Academia Brieskorn–Phạm manifold: a term for a mathematical object defined as the intersection of a small sphere around the origin with a complex hypersurface with singularities, essentially creating a "knot-like" structure in higher dimensions. Brieskorn-Phạm manifolds are important in the study of topology, particularly in the field of exotic spheres, as they can provide examples of smooth manifolds that are topologically equivalent to a standard sphere but have different differential structures. The term was first introduced in 1966 and was further studied and perfected by Vietnamese mathematician Frédéric Phạm. Circular law conjecture in random matrix theory: a conjecture, established by Terence Tao and Vietnamese mathematician Vũ Hà Văn, asserts that for large random matrices with i.i.d. entries of zero mean and unit variance, the scaled eigenvalues asymptotically follow a uniform distribution over the unit disk in the complex plane, regardless of the specific distribution of the matrix entries. Inverse Littlewood-Offord theorem: a result in additive combinatorics that addresses the structure of sets that exhibit concentration of linear combinations of elements. It builds on the classical Littlewood-Offord theorem, which estimates the probability that a random sum of weighted vectors lands in a small region. The theory was developed by Vietnamese mathematician Vũ Hà Văn and Terence Tao. Phong reflection model: an empirical model of the local illumination of points on a surface designed by the computer graphics researcher Bui Tuong Phong, who published it in his 1975 Ph.D. dissertation.Bui Tuong Phong, Illumination for computer generated pictures, Communications of ACM 18 (1975), no. 6, 311–317.University of Utah School of Computing, http://www.cs.utah.edu/school/history/#phong-ref It was published in conjunction with a method for interpolating the calculation for each individual pixel that is rasterized from a polygonal surface model; the interpolation technique is known as Phong shading, even when it is used with a reflection model other than Phong's. Phong's methods have proven popular due to their generally efficient use of computation time per rendered pixel. Phong shading algorithm: an interpolation technique for surface shading invented by computer graphics pioneer Bui Tuong Phong. Phong shading interpolates surface normals across rasterized polygons and computes pixel colors based on the interpolated normals and a reflection model. Proof of Brauer's height zero conjecture: a conjecture in modular representation theory of finite groups relating the degrees of the complex irreducible characters in a Brauer block and the structure of its defect groups. This notorious old problem, which has perplexed mathematicians for decades, was finally solved by Vietnamese mathematician Phạm Hữu Tiệp in a September 2024 paper. Proof of Fundamental lemma for automorphic forms: in the mathematical theory of automorphic forms, the fundamental lemma relates orbital integrals on a reductive group over a local field to stable orbital integrals on its endoscopic groups. The fundamental lemma, a problem that had been open for decades, was solved by Vietnamese mathematician Ngô Bảo Châu. His work earned him the Fields Medal in 2010, the most prestigious award in mathematics. Proof of Ore's conjecture: As the commutator subgroup is generated by commutators, a perfect group may contain elements that are products of commutators but not themselves commutators. Øystein Ore proved in 1951 that the alternating groups on five or more elements contained only commutators, and conjectured that this was so for all the finite non-abelian simple groups. Ore's conjecture was finally proven in 2008 by Vietnamese mathematician Phạm Hữu Tiệp and colleagues. Shamir conjecture in random graph theory: Vietnamese mathematician Vũ Hà Văn along with Johansson and Kahn solved the Shamir conjecture in random graph theory. Among others, they established the sharp threshold for the existence of a perfect matching in a random hypergraph. Solution to the Deligne-Lusztig Theory: a way of constructing linear representations of finite groups of Lie type using ℓ-adic cohomology with compact support, part of the foundational machinery of representation theory. Vietnamese mathematician Phạm Hữu Tiệp solved the problem in 2024. The breakthrough touches on traces, an important feature of a rectangular array known as a matrix. The trace of a matrix is the sum of its diagonal elements. The work is detailed in two papers. One was published in Inventiones mathematicae, the second in Annals of Mathematics. The Erdos-Folkman problem: Vietnamese mathematician Vũ Hà Văn solved the Erdos-Folkman problem in 2003, answering the following question in number theory: How dense should a set of positive integers be so that every sufficiently large integer can be represented as a subsum?
Arts Tò He: a traditional toy for children made from glutinous rice powder in form of edible figurine such as animals, flowers or characters in folk stories. Vietnamese calligraphy: includes calligraphic works using a variety of scripts, including historical chữ Hán (Chinese characters), chữ Nôm (Vietnamese-derived characters), and the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet. Historically, calligraphers used the former two scripts. However, due to the adoption of the Latin-based chữ Vietnamese alphabet, modern Vietnamese calligraphy also uses Latin script alongside chữ Hán Nôm.
Entertainment & Theatre Cải lương: a form of modern folk opera that blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, hát tuồng (a classical theatre form based on Chinese opera), and modern spoken drama. It originated in Southern Vietnam in the early 20th century and blossomed in the 1930s as a theatre of the middle class during the country's French colonial period. Cải lương is now promoted as a national theatrical form. Unlike the other folk forms, it continued to prove popular with the masses as late as the 1970s and the 1980s, although it is now in decline. Mekong Delta nostalgic for cai luong's golden days. 21 July 2007 Beyond remedy for Cai luong. VietNamNet Bridge. 21 August 2008 Chèo: a form of generally satirical musical theatre, often encompassing dance, traditionally performed by Vietnamese peasants in northern Vietnam. It is usually performed outdoors by semi-amateur touring groups, stereo-typically in a village square or the courtyard of a public building, although it is today increasingly also performed indoors and by professional performers. Chèo has been a popular art form of the Vietnamese people for many generations and has fostered the national spirit through its lyrical content. Tuồng a form of Vietnamese theatre. Hát tuồng is often referred to as classical "Vietnamese opera" influenced by Chinese opera. However, the first one to lay the foundation for the art of tuồng in Vietnam is Dao Duy Tu. Under the Nguyen dynasty which he served for, tuồng reached its highest point and was favored by Nguyen kings. Many great playwrights including Đào Tấn were also in this time. Water puppetry: (Vietnamese: Múa rối nước) a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century, when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta, in the north of the country. Vietnamese water puppetry is a variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition.
Language
Chữ Nôm: (𡨸喃, IPA: [t͡ɕɨ˦ˀ˥ nom˧˧]) a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters (chữ Hán) to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented by new characters created using a variety of methods, including phono-semantic compounds. This composite script was therefore highly complex and was accessible to less than five percent of the Vietnamese population who had mastered written Chinese. Vietnamese Language: an Austroasiatic language spoken primarily in Vietnam where it is the national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by around 85 million people, several times as many as the rest of the Austroasiatic family combined. It is the native language of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a second or first language for other ethnic groups in Vietnam, and still used by Vietnamese diaspora in the world. It belongs to the Vietic branch and is closest to the Mường language.
Music and instruments Folk music Ca Huế. Ca trù, an ancient Vietnamese music genre. Chầu văn. Nhạc tài tử. Quan họ. Vọng cổ. Xẩm.
Musical instruments Bro, a traditional musical instrument of the Bahnar, Sedang, Rhađe, Jarai, and Giẻ Xtiêng peoples of the Central Vietnam Highlands. It is a tube zither.
Bronze drum The Dong Son drum is an iconic artifact of ancient Vietnam from the Dong Son culture (roughly 7th century BCE to 1st century CE). Skillfully cast in bronze using the lost-wax technique, these large drums feature a distinctive tympanum decorated with geometric patterns, concentric circles, and motifs of birds, frogs, boats, and dancing figures. Beyond serving as musical instruments in rituals, they symbolized power, prosperity, and spiritual connection, acting as important status symbols for chieftains in early Vietnamese society.
Đàn bầu a Vietnamese stringed instrument in the form of a monochord (one-string) zither. Đàn đá is a lithophone played by ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, in the provinces of Lâm Đồng, Đắk Nông, Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum. These provinces are also home of the space of Gong culture listed in UNESCO's World Heritage Site. Đàn đáy The đàn đáy dates back to the 15th century and became especially popular during the Mạc Dynasty. Its original name is “đàn không đáy” (literally “bottomless lute”), written in Chinese as 無題琴, because the instrument has no back or bottom. Đàn gáo. Gong. K'lông pút. K'ni. Phách. Sênh tiền. Song loan. T'rung. Trống cơm.
Sports
Vovinam: a Vietnamese martial art founded by Nguyễn Lộc in 1938 with the intent of providing practitioners with an efficient method of self-defense after a short period of study. Nguyễn believed martial arts would contribute to freeing Vietnam from French colonial rule and from foreign invasions. Vovinam added elements of Chinese and Japanese systems to traditional Vietnamese martial arts systems, which were partially created as a response to the French occupation and to promote a sense of national identity for the Vietnamese people. Hence, it is similar to Korean taekwondo in that it is an eclectic system with combined elements of Japanese and Chinese martial arts within an indigenous framework.
Technology
ATM: the co-inventor of the ATM is Vietnamese-born inventor Do Duc Cuong. Biological pest control: The first report of the use of an insect species to control an insect pest comes from "Nan Fang Cao Mu Zhuang" (南方草木狀 Plants of the Southern Regions) (c. 304 AD), attributed to Western Jin dynasty botanist Ji Han (嵇含, 263–307), in which it is mentioned that "Jiaozhi (modern Northern Vietnam) people sell ants and their nests attached to twigs looking like thin cotton envelopes, the reddish-yellow ant being larger than normal. Without such ants, southern citrus fruits will be severely insect-damaged". The ants used are known as huang gan (huang = yellow, gan = citrus) ants (Oecophylla smaragdina). The practice was later reported by Ling Biao Lu Yi (late Tang dynasty or Early Five Dynasties), in Ji Le Pian by Zhuang Jisu (Southern Song dynasty), in the Book of Tree Planting by Yu Zhen Mu (Ming dynasty), in the book Guangdong Xing Yu (17th century), Lingnan by Wu Zhen Fang (Qing dynasty), in Nanyue Miscellanies by Li Diao Yuan, and others.