Research on the Image Shaping and Motivation of China in Vietnamese High School History Textbooks

As a cultural carrier, history textbooks not only undertake the educational mission, but also have a far-reaching impact on a country’s national values and historical view, and are also the mainstream cognition of a country to other countries, including a country’s cognition of other countries’ history, culture and bilateral relations, thus profoundly affecting the exchanges between the two peoples. As a neighboring country connected by mountains and rivers, related by history and similar in culture, how do Vietnamese history textbooks understand China and position the relation between China and Vietnam is of great significance. However, Vietnamese history textbooks have problems in selecting materials on China-related narratives and focusing on portraying the negative image of China’s “aggressors”, which is not conducive to Vietnamese youths to understand China correctly. The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the image of China in Vietnamese high school history textbooks and explore the shaping motivation behind it.