The long history of Sino-Vietnamese relations was marked by significant Vietnamese absorption of Chinese culture both through imposition and willful adoption. Historically, Vietnam was the only country in all of Southeast Asia with close political and cultural ties to China (SarDesai 8).
While the Vietnamese admired some Chinese traits, they were opposed to being suppressed by them politically, and still maintained pride in their own culture. Summarizing the complex Sino-Vietnamese relationship, King Chen noted: "Sino-Vietnamese relations in the past were an enterprise of mutual interest. Politically and militarily, China was for Vietnam an administrative tutor as well as an aggressor; economically, China was a promoter and an exploiter; and culturally, Chinas was both teacher and indoctrinator" (SarDesai 16). .
The Vietnamese never allowed their culture to be totally overwhelmed by the Chinese, taking care periodically to review, rearticulate, and maintain their identity as a people distinct from the Chinese, sharpening a militant nationalism against any alien rule. As Joseph Buttinger put it: "The more they absorbed of the skills, customs, ideas of the Chinese, the smaller grew the likelihood of their ever becoming part of the Chinese people. In fact, it was during the centuries of intensive efforts to turn them into Chinese that the Vietnamese came into their own as a separate people, with political and cultural aspects of their own" (SarDesai 17). .
The birth of freedom or nationalism in Vietnam began in A.D. 39 when two widows of local chieftain's, the Trung sisters", led an uprising against China's rule. The revolt was briefly successful, yet established Vietnam as an independent state; establishing encouragement and pride of nationalism in Vietnamese. Chinese military revolted against the independence of Vietnam and later attacked and conquered Vietnam in A.D. 43. .
After the revolts and uprisings of the Vietnamese, China's rule was punctuated by several violent expressions of hostility towards the Vietnamese.
