The main goal of my research is a detailed understanding of the ideas and actualities of the reformist movements in Vietnam from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. This project is concerned with determining the extent to which a Vietnamese intellectual phenomenon (the reformist movement) resembled that of other East Asian countries during the same period. Also, I examined the changes wrought by a new, emergent generation of reform-minded elites who invested themselves in ‘New Learning’ (tân học). In an attempt to clarify the reasons for the development of a view of East Asia among traditional elites, it seemed appropriate to analyse their exile in Japan and in China. From this, Vietnamese social Darwinists had a new sense of group identity, bringing a value for innovation to their collective involvement in international politics and political discussion. The ideas and the reformist movements for the concerned period also leaned on the intellectual networks. These networks, set up from the end of the XIXth century, entailed a progressive and growing solidarity between the reformist men of letters of Far East. To explain it, it was necessary to take into account the development of this factor in the point of view of the international networks, that is the formation of the united political organizations. Then, to understand best, it was necessary to ask to us what was the character of these Asian unions? From a more political point of view, we also wondered about the degree of solidarity between the diverse groups of men of letters as well as about the nature of this solidarity among the Vietnamese intellectuals fed of the social Darwinism and the "modern" nationalism.