Index

Hmong Culture Expedition Index:

Intro

History

Homeland

World of the Hmong

Cosmos

Birds

Neighbors

Migrations

Interview

Cultural Survival

References

References

Books:

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Yang

A People's History of the Hmong by Paul Hilmer

 Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora (Asian American Experience) by Chia Youyee Vang

Websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people

http://www.jefflindsay.com/Hmong_tragedy.html

http://www.hmongnet.org/


Academic Journals:

Lee G, Tapp N. Culture And Customs Of The Hmong. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood; 2010. Available from: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 16, 2014.

Tapp N. The Hmong Of China [Electronic Resource] : Context, Angency, And The Imaginary / By Nicholas Tapp [e-book]. Boston : Brill Academic Publishers, 2003.; 2003. Available from: East Stroudsburg University Library Catalog, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 14, 2014.

Tapp N. The Hmong Of China : Cultural Surivival [e-book]. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers; 2005. Available from: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 14, 2014.

Kou Y. Commentary: Mis-Education in K-12 Teaching about Hmong Culture, Identity, History and Religion. Hmong Studies Journal [serial online]. December 2012;13:1-21. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 18, 2014.

Interview

Below is a transcript of the interview i had with a American person of Hmong decent via Facebook. Her family moved to the United States in 1992 and she was born in the United States in 1993. Her name is Mai Yang and she currently live in Los Angeles California:

When did your family come to the United States?

My family came to the United States from Laos in 1993. When i was growing up, my family did not speak much English but today my parents speak English because of work.

What is some of your favorite food from your culture?

My favorite food is my mothers Sweet Pork and Eggs.

How many brothers and sisters do you have? Do you have a large family?

I have two brothers and two sisters that live with me. My Aunt and Uncle who are also from Laos live with me and they have two boys.

What is some of your favorite Hmong events that you still celebrate?

Hmong New Year is my favorite holiday. It is basically like Chinese New Year. We wear traditional Hmong dress and eat all of the native food.

What are some of your favorite things or hobbies?

I'm really into all different types of music. I am actually learning to play guitar which I'm pretty excited about!

Hmong Cultural Survival

The Hmong people have maintained there way of life while adapting to the main cultures in which they live. The Hmong people are now located all over the globe and have maintained strong cultural and ethnic heritage while living in these "new" lands. Because of this adaptation to the main culture, the Hmong have remained a strong ethnic group throughout the world.  The Hmong have a strong family based society and a clan based society as well.

Today the Hmong are located all over the globe due to many migrations of these people. In previous blog posts, i have gave more info on to where these people are now located. Check them out!

 Image Source: Coco Kelly

Hmong Migration

The Hmong are regarded as one of the earliest groups in Eastern Asia, originally inhabiting the area north of the Yellow River in China  as early as 3000 B. C. Hmong legend contends that the two earliest groups in this region were the Hmoog and the Suav (both now forms of the Ancient Hmong people).

The Hmong have gone through various attempts at genocide, oppression and multiple migrations because of incidents with governments of the countries in which they lived. Hmong culture and tradition has remained today because of the strong will of the people within the culture. The initial migration, called "The First Move" began with early Han Chinese tribes forcing the Hmong out of their ancestral lands to areas further south in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Valley around 2000 B.C. This would not be the first time that this group would be forced to leave their native lands.

Second and third forced migrations spread this group out even further into various parts of China, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. As a i found from different readings and books i have stated in my references, there is now said to be Hmong influence in Japan as well. Recent migrations have created different Hmong communities throughout the world, including groups in Australia, Canada, France, South America and the United States. The Hmong people are now located throughout the world and still remain true to their cultural heritage.


Source: Wikipedia

Hmong and their Neighbors

Like is stated in a previous blog post, the Hmong people are known to adapt the the main culture in the regions in which they live. Because of this adaptation to the main dominant culture, the Hmong people usually fit in quite well in the countries that they migrate to and live in today. Below is a list of the current Hmong population throughout the world:

(source: Wikipedia)

During the first and second Indochina Wars, France and the United States governments recruited thousands of Hmong people in Laos to fight against invading military forces from North Vietnam and communist Lao insurgents during the Vietnam War and the Laotian Civil War (known to Hmong as "secret" wars).

Hmong people were singled out by the Marxist Lao and Vietnamese Army when they took over the Laotian government in 1975. This incident was one of the major incidents that the Hmong people had with neighbors. Also, they originally migrated due to political unrest in China and racial hatred toward their people. Over time, the Hmong have migrated numerous times do this political unrest.

Birds of the Hmong

In my findings on the Hmong culture, i could not really find much related to birds and the Hmong culture. The only thing that i came across (but could not find more info on) was Hmong embroidery and birds. The Hmong people love to embroider all different types of pillows and other objects around the home. In my findings, i have found some of these items have birds and other scenes from nature on them.





Source: Ebay

Here is a picture of one of the embroidered Hmong pillows with the image of a bird on it. I could not find what exact bird is pictured above but this obviously shows the importance of birds and nature in the Hmong culture.

Hmong Cosmos

Contemporary Hmong people cannot be characterized as subscribing to a single religion. Missionaries to Southeast Asia converted many Hmong people to Christianity beginning in the 19th-century and many more have become Christian since immigrating from Southeast Asia to the West. However most Hmong people today continue to maintain traditional spiritual practices that include Shamanism and Christianity.

Shamanism is one of the most practiced religions by the Hmong people.  These Shamanistic spiritual beliefs are combined with their beliefs related to health and illness. In traditional Hmong spiritual practices, one does not separate the physical well-being of a person from their spiritual health. According to these beliefs, everything possesses a spirit, both animate and inanimate objects. When doing my research on the Hmong, i found this to be quite interesting. . The spirits of deceased ancestors are thought to influence the welfare and health of the living as well. Hmong perform rituals which include the offering of food and spirit money and burning incense to appease the dead and living spirits and earn their favor in the real world.

World of the Hmong

The Hmong people originally were farmers, most living in small villages high in the mountains. They lived in these small villages  and farmed all different types of crops as well as cattle and other animals. The Hmong were said to have originally came from Yangtze river basin in China. After moving from this area and migrating more south in China, they adapted to the mountain areas of Southern China and adapted to this area. After moving, the Hmong really started to become a more agriculturally based society.

Today, the Hmong have adapted to the country's society in which they live. Although they adapted to the main culture, they still maintain strong cultural bonds to their heritage and ethnicity by engaging in various ethnic activities. Doing this allows for the cultural survival of the Hmong throughout the world and the countries in which they live.

Although the Hmong have kept various aspects of their culture, they have acquired many other various jobs and traits. Handbag making has became a large source of the Hmong income in China and Laos. Hmong handbags have become very famous and are known throughout the world.
 

 
Source: Asian Venue Magazine

Hills and Mountains of Southern China: Homeland of the Hmong

In China the majority of the Hmong today live in Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan. This group of people originally came from this part of Southern China and still reside there today. The Hmong population in China is estimated at about 3 million people.  The majority of Hmong live in the three cities that I listed in the first sentence of this blog post.

(Source: Info Please)

The area in Southern china that the Hmong originally came from is a very mountainous region. The region that these people call home is known for farming and other different agriculture methods. Below is a picture of the Yunnan region where many Hmong reside today.

(Source: Yunnan Wikipedia)

The Yunnan province, where many Hmong come from and are located today, is located in the very far southwest in China (view map above). The region is very mountainous Most of the Hmong people live in eastern part of the province. Yunnan is very rich in natural resources and has some of the most diverse plant life found anywhere in the world. This region also has the highest number of reserves of aluminum, copper, and various other metals. 

History of the Hmong

 Hmong people generally came from the hill and mountain area just south of China. According to different sources, Hmong people lived in China for 2000 years before generally migrating south in the 1700s. They moved to escape the oppressive Qing Dynasty.

 (Source: Coco Kelly)

Members of the Hmong ethnic group have lived in this mountainous and hilly region of Southern China and Southeast Asia for thousands of years, though the Hmong have never had their own country. In the 1970s, many Hmong were recruited by the United States to help them fight the Laotian and Vietnamese Communists. Hundreds of thousands of Hmong have since left Southeast Asia and brought the intriguing Hmong culture to distant parts of the world. About 3 million Hmong remain in China, 780,000 in Vietnam, 460,000 in Laos, and 150,000 in Thailand. Hmong people also reside in various other parts of the world as well but these areas are the most notable.

The Hmong people have a history of conflict between them and the Chinese government. Because of this, they have migrated to various parts of China and the world (such as places in above paragraph). Today they have adapted to the various countries in which they live. I will discuss more of this in a later blog post on this group and cultural survival.

Introduction to the Hmong People

The Hmong people are an ethnic group from from the mountainous regions of Vietnam, China, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China. Hmong groups began a gradual southward migration in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land. Hmong people are known to be fiercely independent and rich in their culture, art, religion, family life and martial history, and are distinguished by their dress.

Here is the current populations of the Hmong people throughout the world:

Source: Wikipedia

Below is a picture of a girl in traditonal Hmong dress which is a huge part of their culture:



Source: Wikipedia