Assoc.Prof. Dr. Bui Xuan Dinh is an ethnologist with over 30 years of research. Since 1997, he started to teach at many training institutions such as: Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (now known as Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration), Institute of Anthropology, Faculty of History of Hanoi University of Culture, Hanoi Open University, Haiphong Private University. From 2007 to present, he has taught the subjects: Culture of ethnic groups in Vietnam; Method of cultural operational research for students of faculty of Vietnamese studies of Hanoi National University of Education.
The book Ethnic groups in Vietnam compiled by him is the result from the ethnological research and teaching process. The training practice at the faculty of Vietnamese studies at Hanoi National University of Education shows that the lectures in this book are really a syllabus that is very necessary and suitable to the branch code of Vietnamese studies, receives the warm reception from the lecturers and students, helps to apply a lot of knowledge of culture of ethnic groups to the tour guidance practicing, to Vietnamese cultural research. Accordingly, the book has become the teaching syllabus at university, built into 3-4 credits with 45-60 periods (depending on the demand of the training institutions), divided into 8 lessons according to the principle: in addition to the lessons about the general issues of the Ethnology and Vietnamese ethnic groups, there are the lessons about the Vietnamese and about the regions of ethnic groups. In five lessons about the regions of ethnic groups, besides the general characteristics, the syllabus also focuses on introduction about the some ethnic groups having their own position, role, large influence on such region, specifically as follows:
Lesson 1: General issues of Ethnology (4 periods);
Lesson 2: Overview of ethnic groups in Vietnam (6-9 periods);
Lesson 3: The Vietnamese (9-12 periods);
Lesson 4: Ethnic groups in the Northeastern region (4-6 periods);
Lesson 5: Ethnic groups in the Northwestern region (6-8 periods);
Lesson 6: Ethnic groups in Truong Son region – Central Highland (5-6 periods);
Lesson 7: Ethnic groups in the Central and Southern coastal region (5-7 periods);
Lesson 8: Ethnic groups in the Southern region (5-6 periods).
It can be affirmed that the compiled contents inherit systematically a lot of important contents in some syllabuses of Ethnology, the research results of Ethnology have published in combination with the own knowledge of the author through the actual trips in many ethnic groups in all parts of the country from 1979 to now.
Pham Vinh Ha
