List of Vietnamese inventions and discoveries

This is a list of Vietnamese inventions and discoveries which includes technological, cultural and historical inventions. This list is incomplete.

Academia

• Phong reflection model: It was developed by Bui Tuong Phong at the University of Utah, who published it in his 1975 Ph.D. dissertation. 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 empirical model of the local illumination of points on a surface designed by the computer graphics researcher Bui Tuong Phong. In 3D computer graphics, it is sometimes referred to as "Phong shading", particularly if the model is used with the interpolation method of the same name and in the context of pixel shaders or other places where a lighting calculation can be referred to as “shading”.
• 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 was proved by Gérard Laumon and Ngô Bảo Châu in the case of unitary groups and then by Ngô (2010)
• Development of Thermobaric Weapon: Vietnamese-American scientist Dương Nguyệt Ánh is credited with developing the thermobaric weapon, a powerful non-nuclear bomb used extensively by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. This weapon utilizes oxygen from the surrounding environment to create a high-temperature explosion, increasing its effectiveness.

Arts

• Đông Hồ painting: is a genre of Vietnamese art originating in Đông Hồ village (Song Hồ commune, Thuận Thành District, Bắc Ninh Province).
• Hàng Trống painting: A genre of Vietnamese woodcut painting that originated from the area of Hàng Trống (vi) and Hàng Nón streets in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam. In the past, Hàng Trống painting was an essential element of the Tết Nguyên Đán holiday in Hanoi, but today this tradition almost has disappeared and authentic Hàng Trống paintings are found only in museums or fine art galleries. However, the art of making Hàng Trống paintings is always considered a symbol of traditional culture and aesthetic value of Vietnam.
• Vietnamese calligraphy: It 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.
• 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.
• Chú Tễu: A typical puppet in Vietnamese water puppetry. Tễu is bigger than other puppets. This character usually introduces the performance and makes humorous actions for the audience.
• Hát 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.

Food

A bowl of beef phở.

• Bún bò Huế: hails from the city of Huế in central Vietnam in the late 1500s and early 1600s, when the city was ruled by the Nguyễn Lords. This classic dish is celebrated for its harmonious blend of spicy, sour, sweet, salty, and umami tastes. The scent of lemongrass prominently features. In comparison to dishes like phở and bún riêu, its vermicelli noodles are thicker and cylindrical. In its native Huế, bún bò is typically served only in the mornings as a main meal rather than a breakfast item. However, in other major Vietnamese cities, it can be found at various meal times.
• Nem chua: A fermented pork meat dish served as is or fried, coated by fried rice (thính gạo), mixed with pork skin and then wrapped in country gooseberry leaves (lá chùm ruột) or Erythrina orientalis leaves (lá vông nem).
• Phở: Originating from Van Cu, Nam Dinh province, It is traditionally served with a variety of herbs to enhance its flavor. Nowadays, there are many different ways to prepare and flavor phở. In Vietnam, there are different names to distinguish them: Northern phở (in the North), Huế phở (in the Central region), and Saigon phở (in the South).

Language

• Chữ Nôm: (𡨸喃, IPA: [t͡ɕɨ˦ˀ˥ nom˧˧]) is 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 is an ancient Vietnamese music genre.
• Chầu văn.
• Nhạc tài tử.
• Quan họ.
• Vọng cổ.
• Xẩm.

Musical instruments

The musician on the right playing the đàn bầu.

• Bro, is a traditional musical instrument of the Bahnar, Sedang, Rhađe, Jarai, and Giẻ Xtiêng peoples of the Central Vietnam Highlands. It is a tube zither.
• Cảnh.
• Dong Son drum.
• Đàn bầu, is a Vietnamese stringed instrument, in the form of a monochord (one-string) zither.
• Đàn đá.
• Đàn đáy.
• Đàn môi.
• Đàn gáo.
• Đàn nhị.
• Đàn sến.
• Guitar phím lõm.
• Gong.
• K'lông pút.
• K'ni.
• Ngoc Lu drum.
• Phách.
• Sáo.
• Sênh tiền.
• Song loan.
• T'rung.
• Trống cái.
• Trống chầu.
• Trống cơm.

Sports

• Vovinam: A Vietnamese martial art was founded by Nguyễn Lộc (1912 – 1960) 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 colonial rule, which had been ruled by France since 1859, and from outside domination. Vovinam added elements of Chinese and Japanese systems to traditional Vietnamese martial arts, systems, which were thus partially created as a response to the French occupation, meant to promote a sense of national identity for the Vietnamese people. Hence, it is similar to taekwondo in that it is an eclectic system with combined elements of Japanese and Chinese martial arts within an indigenous framework.

Technology

• pdfTeX computer program by Hàn Thế Thành.
• NanoDragon satellite built by the Vietnam National Satellite Center .
• VNI software company by Hồ Thành Việt.

Video Games

• Flappy Bird: A 2013 casual mobile game developed by Dong Nguyen who grew up in Vạn Phúc, a village near Hanoi. Flappy Bird was created and developed by the Vietnamese video game artist under his game development company .Gears in just two to three days. The bird character, Faby, was originally designed in 2012 for a cancelled platform game. The gameplay was inspired by the act of bouncing a ping pong ball against a paddle for as long as possible. Initially the game was significantly easier than it became in the final version, but Nguyen said he found this version to be boring and subsequently tightened up the difficulty. He described the business plan of a free download with in-game advertisements as "very common in the Japanese market".
• 7554: Glorious Memories Revived is a first-person shooter video game developed by Vietnamese video game developer Emobi Games for Windows. It was released for Vietnamese markets on December 16, 2011.
• Shadow Era is a free online digital collectible card game created by Vietnamese developer Wulven Studios. The game is supported on PC, iOS, and Android, and it was released on February 24, 2011.
• Tam cúc: is a multi-trick card game popular in North Vietnam that uses a deck of 32 Chinese chess cards divided into two suits: red and black.
• Tổ tôm: The origin of tổ tôm is still unclear, but by the 19th century in Vietnam, this card game was very popular, especially among the upper class who considered it an elegant game that required a lot of intelligence.