How to Do Business in 12 Asian Countries 24. What will you need to know in 2010 or 2020 to work in Asia? As Hans Koehler pointed out in his Preface, we live in changing times. In this century China and India are changing the economic balance of the world. But many of the cultural tenets presented in Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: Asia took hundreds or thousands of years to develop. These stable precepts help us understand why people behave differently around the world, and they will help you to avoid global marketing faux pas | 188 Kiss Bow or Shake Hands Asia The Vietnamese View The constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam guarantees freedom of religion. The country s diverse population follows many religious beliefs. Confucianism which is a philosophy more than a religion has had a great effect on Vietnamese thought and tradition. Historically the largest and most important religion in Vietnam was Buddhism. Although the Communist government describes Buddhism as currently in decline it acknowledges that 70 percent of Vietnamese are strongly influenced by Buddhist tradition. Many other religions are represented in Vietnam. Also as is common in Asia religious beliefs often overlap. Vietnamese Catholics also may go to Buddhist temples Vietnamese Muslims also may engage in ancestor worship. The current breakdown of religion in Vietnam is Buddhist Roman Catholic 10 percent Catholicism entered Vietnam in the seventeenth century and was supported by the French colonials. Cao Dai approximately 2 million Hoa Hao over 1 million Protestant less than a half-million Islam approximately 50 000 Islam is concentrated among the Cham ethnic minority near the coastline in Central Vietnam. As you would expect views on Vietnam vary between groups. Anti-Communists and supporters of the defeated South Vietnamese government view today s Vietnam rather critically. Many of these Vietnamese left around the time Saigon was overrun in 1975. The so-called Boat People who fled after the Communist absorption of all South Vietnam in 1976 may have cynical views of both Communist governments and the West because many Boat People were left to languish in refugee camps for years by Western governments. For example some spent years in camps in British-ruled Hong Kong. Cultural Note Avoid carrying proscribed drugs or narcotics into or out of Vietnam. As in Malaysia and Indonesia drug smugglers are subject to the death penalty. Vietnam 189 Finally some of the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam may also dislike the .
