The article generally describes bad habits of the Vietnamese people recorded in books and newspapers, including the analysis of causes and proposed solutions to overcome. In addition, the book "The Ugly Chinaman" by Bo Yang, a Taiwan writer and journalist, is summarized to help readers compare to the case of Vietnam. According to the author, cultural reform requires a long-term period, and in obtaining breakthrough in order to foster the process of changing, the prerequisite conditions must be the daring to admit bad habits/defects of the Vietnamese people and point out basic reasons causing these habits. Among solutions to surmount bad habits of the Vietnamese people, the most importance is to set right the education and reinforce the law. However, political reform itself is the premise of cultural and educational reform, as well as other reforms. Thus, the urgent matter is to carry out institutional reform, and expand civil rights and democracy as a way to give the society a new lease of life with great efforts, similar to the "Renovation" movement in Vietnam in the early 20th century.