East Asian cultural sphere
The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the Bronze Age Đông Sơn culture considered to be one of its most important progenitors for its Ancient history. Vietnamese culture was heavily influenced by Chinese culture due to the 1000 years of Northern rule. In this period of time Vietnamese was written with Chinese characters. This large impact on Vietnamese culture meant that Vietnam is often considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere (with China, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea, and Japan).