By Saulkdi Yangh
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Introduction
Making Meaning As Hmong People: Culture and Identity Building
Conclusion
Introduction
There once was a legend that explained why the Hmong had no land to call their own. Long ago when the world was still young, the Hmong Kingdom existed in what is now current-day China. It was a big and beautiful Kingdom located by the Yellow River basin (Hebei Province) and was ruled by the first Hmong King, Chiyou, and his esteemed scholar Queen. The kingdom was known for many things: blacksmithing, beautiful clothing and quilts, music, rice, literature, and spiritual knowledge.
However, despite all of the success and wealth of the kingdom, the Hmong King was hungry for more land and wealth. He would declare war and conquer the other neighboring kingdoms, enslaving and pillaging those around them. Every time they entered battle, the Hmong would pray to their gods and ask for their blessings; but with each victory, the Hmong would take their gods for granted and stopped honoring them. Eventually, they would forget the meaning and teachings of the heavens and cause needless harm and violence to the rest of humanity. As a punishment for forgetting their ways and hurting other humans (particularly women and children), the gods decided to punish the Hmong by stripping them of their Kingdom and splitting the Hmong across the earth, forever destined to not have a kingdom or a country until they have paid for their wrong-doings and learned from their mistakes.
There are many Hmong folk stories explaining why the Hmong don’t have a land or a unified leader and why they continue to be divided. The story shared above is just one version. Some say that the reason why they’re split is because after the Hmong King was captured, his body was chopped up into many pieces and spread across Asia with each body part becoming a different branch of the Hmong diaspora.
Yet another version is that the Hmong King was foolishly seduced by the Chinese and then betrayed, causing his people to lose their Kingdom and leaving the Hmong Queen to lead their people out of China before they were all killed. There are also Hmong diasporic stories other than the fall of the Kingdom explaining why the Hmong are split, stories such as the two brothers Vaj Tawj Zeej and Lis Tawj Zeej or the story of the last Hmong leaders Tao Tie and Huan Tuo. No one can truly say whether there’s any definitive “proof” to these stories; however, all of them share the same understanding that the Hmong have always been migrational and allude to a Hmong diaspora.
So, what does diaspora mean and how does it apply to Hmong people? There can be different meanings for the word but for the purposes of this introduction, I’ll be defining diaspora as forceful migration and displacement of people as a result of violence, oppression, or struggle such as war, genocide, or colonialism. Examples of this for the Hmong include the exodus from Northeastern China to Southern China, then the eventual migration to Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos) due to persecution and anti-Hmong prejudice.
More recent examples are the events during and after the Secret War where many of the Hmong Lao population were forced out of Laos and resettled around the world–specifically the United States, France, French Guiana, Canada, Australia, and Argentina. The Hmong diaspora as a whole is larger than one would expect at first glance and continues to expand with current known Hmong populations being 2,777,039 in China (Miao-Hmong; a part of the larger Miao ethnic group), 900,000 in Vietnam, 450,000 – 600,000 in Laos, 300,000 in the U.S, 15,000 in France, 2,000 in Australia, 2,500 in Myanmar, 1,500 in French Guiana, 600 in Canada, and 100 in Argentina. (Please note that some of these counts were last recorded pre-2015 and may be inaccurate at the time of this article’s publishment due to no major global census of the Hmong in 2023.)
With Hmong people not having a country nor a consistent regional settlement, one begins to raise many questions about who they are and how they stay connected. Questions such as what does it mean to be Hmong? What is Hmong culture and Hmong American identity? How are Hmong people connected throughout the Hmong diaspora? What makes Hmong people Hmong and who gets to define it?
This article will explore these questions and attempt to better understand how Hmong people make meaning in terms of culture, practice, identity, and self-expression.
Making Meaning As Hmong People: Culture and Identity Building
Before diving into what is Hmong culture and how it’s expressed throughout the Hmong diaspora, let’s first define culture. Generally, culture can be split into two categories: tangible and intangible elements.
Tangible elements typically refer to material objects or artifacts that can be physically touched or produced like musical instruments (i.e: qeej, nraus/drum, xim xaus/urdu, raj/flute), clothing and quilts, food, books, tools, or artifacts. On the other hand, intangible elements tend to be immaterial or non-physical which include but aren’t limited to ceremonial or ritual chants (typically said during weddings/zaj tshoob or funerals/txiv xaiv), language, history, folk stories and myths, religion or spirituality, and community ideals. These tangible and intangible elements are not innately cultural but become culturally important as they are given value and meaning by specific groups or people. For example, Hmong patterns and textiles are culturally relevant because Hmong people continue to commemorate and give value to them via story, history, and appreciation. If they were to stop giving symbolic and communal meaning to it then it would no longer be culturally relevant to them and simply become another piece of fabric or a random design pattern without any cultural importance. Overall, it is the combination of these three things (tangible, intangible, and collective meaning) that help create a sense of “culture.”
Culture is constantly changing due to how groups negotiate and reform their relations to tangible and intangible cultural markers. Depending on who and where you look, Hmong culture can also look extremely different for a variety of reasons and factors such as geographic location, country of origin, type of Hmong, demographics, and so on.
Food is a perfect example of how Hmong people have adapted other cultural foods and cuisine into our mainstream diet. Many well-known “traditional” Hmong-American foods were actually incorporated from other Southeast Asian cuisines such as Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese. Some examples include papaya salad, khao poon (curry noodle), pho, khao piak (udon-style noodle soup), and kab yaub (eggroll).
Language is also another great example of how intangible elements can look and sound differently based on group and region. For example, Hmong Dawb (Hmong White dialect) is primarily spoken in the US and parts of Laos and Thailand; whereas the majority of Hmong people around the world mainly speak Mong Leeg (Hmong Green/Blue dialect). Because of this, Hmong Dawb speakers may have a harder time communicating with Hmong people from other countries.
In addition to dialect, words and languages from different cultures have also been integrated into Hmong vocabulary. A lot of Hmong-Americans and Hmong-Lao speak a Hmong-Lao and Hmong-Thai version of Hmong, making it different from Hmong people in China, Myanmar, or Vietnam. Similar to how we speak a version of Hmong-Lao or Hmong-Thai, they speak their own versions of Hmong-Chinese, Hmong-Myanmar, or Hmong-Vietnamese. This phenomenon of language integration is also happening here in the U.S. as we develop a language version of Hmong-English (popularly referred to as Hmonglish).
Interestingly, the Hmong have also adapted other cultural customs to community events or ceremonies! Did you know that the practice of handshaking as greetings and farewells actually comes from the French during the French colonization of Southeast Asia in the 1900s? The practice of khi teb (white string-tying on the wrist or ankles) also originated from Lao customs and is actually only practiced by Hmong-Lao, -Thai, and -Americans.
All the examples above go to show that Hmong culture and identity is constantly being reformed and renegotiated so that we can imagine and create new ways of being Hmong. In this practice of cultural exchange and recreation based on geographic region, intercultural mingling, resources, and diaspora, the Hmong have been able to both retain feelings of communal belonging and expand Hmong identity.
There are many cultural differences within the Hmong diaspora but what remains unchanged is how meaning and value is given to these tangible and intangible cultural elements as Hmong people despite displacement. Like the story clothes that emerged during the refugee camp years to record Hmong-Lao migration histories and heartache during the Secret War, the changing nature of Hmong culture and identity is a testament to our evolving resistance and humanity.
Certain Hmong scholars and historians believe that the word Hmong means “free” or “free people.” The diaspora is a testament to this sentiment. The diversity of Hmong cultural and identity expression is not a weakness or a symbol of disunity but rather a celebration of Hmong life and the determination to be free to create meaning and community as a people who choose to be Hmong.
Conclusion
Diaspora, culture, identity, and expression. There is no singular way to be or express Hmong identity and culture. The complexities of Hmong diasporic histories and relations are things to find pride in. The Hmong are not defined by being nationless or by the tragedies of war and forced displacement. Instead, they are defined by their ability to find humanity in love, life, culture, and community–regardless of borders.
References
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Morales, J. (2018, February 26). Researcher who studies Hmong refugees was a child refugee herself. UWM REPORT. https://uwm.edu/news/hmong-history-refugees-and-immigration/#:~:text=Today%2C%20only%20about%20100%20Hmong,of%20the%20Hmong%20Argentine%20community
National Geographic Society. (2022, May 20). Cartographic Quilt: Hmong story cloth tells of a 20th-century migration. National Geographic. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/hmong-story-cloth/
Tap, N. (2007, December 3). Hmong. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hmong
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Contributing Editor: Yia Vue
Illustrator: Alex Yang
