Itinerant acrobatic troupes were a prominent feature of village entertainment from the earliest times in Việt Nam and during the colonial period tours of Việt Nam by professional circus companies from Europe inspired the establishment of numerous circus troupes, the foremost of which was run by the Hà Nội family of Tạ Duy Hiển.

During the post-war period, as Việt Nam developed relations with the former USSR, the adeptness of the Vietnamese in this ancient art was quickly recognised by visiting Soviet circus practitioners. The Hà Nội Secondary School of Circus Arts (Trường Trung học Nghệ thuật Xiếc Hà Nội), the Việt Nam Circus Federation (Liên đoàn Xiếc Việt Nam) and most of Việt Nam's other circus companies were originally established in the 1950s with Soviet aid, but developed subsequently in their own right. During the 1970s and 1980s, when the popularity of circus was at its height in Việt Nam, leading circus practitioners from Hà Nội in turn helped to set up circus troupes in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Vientiane (Laos).

Unfortunately during the past decade the Vietnamese circus industry has faced strong competition from television, video, cinema and the Internet. In recent years many provincial circus troupes have been disbanded and the country's nine remaining companies have fallen on very hard times due to under-funding and lack of equipment. Even in Hồ Chí Minh City, many circus performers are now reduced to performing mainly in variety shows.

Against this background efforts have been made to revitalise the art of circus in Việt Nam. In 1997 Hà Nội hosted an international circus festival which drew participation from the United States, France, China, Mongolia, Laos and Việt Nam. Since that time the Việt Nam Circus Federation has urged the government to increase its investment in the genre, with a particular focus on improving the quality of circus training curricula.