Tu Luc van doan is a literary organization that has made many important contributions to the modernization of Vietnamese literature in the first half of the twentieth century. This article provides an initial analysis of the contextual factors promoting the birth of Tu Luc van doan. These include the national renovation needs which are in the context of East-West cultural contact, the task of national liberation, and the requirement of literary modernization. These analyzes aim to contribute to understanding the relationship between the activities of this literary organization and the cultural and literary life of Vietnam in the first half of the twentieth century.