What are some indigenous cultural aspects of Korea and Vietnam not imported/influenced by China? (people, culture)
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These countries were strongly influenced by China in almost every respect due to long periods of occupation, probably Vietnam moreso, but I'm interesting about aspects of the culture there - aside from obvious things like language and cuisine....
I think some form of Shamanism was practised in Korea before the introduction of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. I have a feeling the culture was similar to Manchuria, Mongolia and maybe Siberia. Were the Korean people originally nomadic? Did they have any written language before Chinese? Probably not, I mean the Japanese did not.
The Vietnamese civilisation is very old, from the Dong, but seems fairly intertwined with kingdoms/nations that existed in Southern China before the southward expansion of the Qin/Han. Of course Vietnam became a vassal state by the Han for a whole millenia. I heard the Vietnamese might have even have their own script, and it's hard to know what the language spoken there was like. Animism was a thing, well just like in Korea to some extent, yet I'm curious just how much of this survives in the culture of modern Vietnam?
We tend to think the Ondol (floor heating system) is a traditional Korean thing. But I don't fully know as other things that have been brought over by Chinese kingdoms have been stated to be Korean inventions.
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