Ethnic Chinese in Saigon (nowadays Ho Chi Minh City) are categorized into five groups including Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainan and Hakka. Nowadays, although most of them us e Vietnamese to communicate, some still can speak Mandarin Chinese or their mother tongue. The maintenance of the language of ethnic Chinese is influenced by many factors. In particular, the historical context under French domination and the Saigon regime had had a great impact on the language education of this group. This paper used the method of document analysis to analyze the documents on Chinese language education of French government and Ngo Dinh Diem president. And then combined with the interview method to answer some problems: 1. The use of language and education of the Chinese community under the Saigon regime and during the French colonial period; 2. How did the ethnic Chinese transform their identity? The results of the article show that under French colonial period (1862-1954), the language education of ethnic Chinese was also affected. But, in the Saigon regime (1955-1975), the Ngo Dinh Diem showed lots of leniency in the policy of language education towards ethnic Chinese. So that, at that time the majority of Chinese people only spoke Mandarin Chinese or their native language in district 5. Also, this period played an important role in maintaining the national language of the ethnic Chinese in Southern Vietnam.
西貢華人(胡志明市華人)分為五個幫,包括廣東、福建、潮州、海南與客家。目前,該族群幾乎都使用越南語做為交際語言,但還有一部分會講普通話或他們的母語。有很多因素影響到該族群維持使用普通話和母語。其中,法國殖民政府與南越政權的語言政策對華人的語言教育有很大的影響。針對此一問題,本文試圖以分析方法與採訪方式去了解。首先,研究者使用分析方法去分析法國殖民政府與南越政權對華人的語言教育的一些公文;然後,再透過拜訪一些華人了解:一、在法屬時期與南越政權時期之下,西貢華人的語言使用狀況如何;二、在法屬時期與南越政權時期之下,西貢華人如何轉換他們的認同?研究結果顯示,於法屬時期(1862-1954),因為法國政府推動了拉丁系統以及採取廢除漢語的政策,因此,越南華僑的語言教育也受到影響。但是,至西貢制度時期(1955-1975),吳廷琰政權跟中華民國政府有良好的關係,因此,在語言教育方面,吳廷琰總統對華人採取比較寬容的政策。當時,在華人社區,華人主要使用中文或是各幫的語言做為交際語言。可以說,這階段對南越華人維持族群的語言有一定影響力,並且延長了越南南部華人的本土化過程。