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Hmong people
The Hmong people (RPA: Hmoob, CHV: Hmôngz, Nyiakeng Puachue: 𞄀𞄩𞄰, Pahawh Hmong: 𖬌𖬣𖬵, IPA: [m̥ɔ̃́], Chinese: 苗族蒙人) are an ethnic group from East and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. The modern Hmong reside mainly in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. There are also diaspora communities in the United States, Australia, France, and South America.
The term Hmong is the English spelling of the Hmong's native name. It is a singular and plural noun (e.g., Japanese, French, etc.). Very little is known about the native Hmong name as it is not mentioned in Chinese historical records, since the Han identified the Hmong as Miao. The meaning of it is debatable and no one is sure of its origin, although it can be traced back to several provinces in China. However, Hmong Americans and Hmong Laotians often associate it with "Free" and/or "Hmoov" (Fate); it serves as a reminder to them of their history of fighting oppression.
Before the 1970s, the term Miao or Meo (i.e. barbarians, wild, seedlings, and even "Sons of the Soil") was used in reference to the Hmong. In the 1970s, Dr. Yang Dao, a Hmong American scholar, who at the time was the head of the Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Planning in the Royal Lao Government of Laos, advocated for the term "Hmong" with the support of clan leaders and General Vang Pao. Yang Dao insisted that the terms "Meo" and "Miao" were both unacceptable as his people had always called themselves by the name "Hmong," which he defined as "free men". Surrounding countries began to use the term "Hmong" after the U.S. Department of State used it during Immigration screening in Thailand's Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. In 1994, Pobzeb Vang registered the term "Hmong" with the United Nations, making it the proper term to identify the Hmong people internationally. Soon after, there was a political push from Hmong American politicians and activists to replace the term Miao with the term Hmong in China with little to no success.
Historically, the term "Hmong" is not featured in any Chinese text, only the term "Miao". However it is uncertain if all mentions of Miao people referred to the Hmong people. According to Ruey (1962), the way in which Miao was used in Chinese can roughly be divided into three periods: a legendary period from 2300 BC to 200 BC, then a period when the term generally referred to southern barbarians until 1200 AD, and then a modern period during which the Hmong were probably included. Although the term appeared before the Qin dynasty (221 BCE), throughout history Miao was used as a loose and general term by the Han to refer to southern barbarians. Only since the Tang dynasty did more evidence of its association with the Hmong become more apparent. In the 20th century, Western missionaries called the Hmong and Hmao the "Big Flowery Miao" (Da Hua Miao) and the "Little Flowery Miao" (Xiao Hua Miao). Another source states that the Green and White Miao were the Hmong, the Flowery Miao were the Hmao, the Black Miao were the Hmu, and the Red Miao were the Xong. According to She Miaojun, the Miao only existed as an exonym in the imagination of outsiders all the way up to the Qing dynasty. It did not refer to any self-defined ethnic group united by either territory or language. Others believe that Miao identity emerged during the rebellions of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Today, the Hmong in China are categorized under the umbrella term Miáo (苗) along with three other indigenous cultural groups, which include non-Hmong peoples such as the Hmu and the Xong of southeast Guizhou. The Chinese Miao minority was created in 1949 as part of the ethnic identification project in which members of the ethnic groups that now comprise the Miao umbrella group campaigned for identification under the name Miao—taking advantage of its familiarity and associations of historical political oppression. The push to appropriate Miao as the official name of their minzu nationality received significant contributions from three Miao intellectuals, however none of them were Hmong. The various Miao sub-groups freely identify as Miao or Chinese while reserving their specific ethnonyms for intra-ethnic communication. According to Jacques Lemoine, "Chinese Hmong have the Miao nationality but Hmong ethnicity" because the People's Republic of China doesn't recognize ethnicity.
The Miao minority group has been described as extremely heterogeneous. The four main groups classified as Miao in China are the Hmong, Hmao, Hmu, and the Xong. Despite speaking related languages belonging to the Hmongic language group, these four ethnic groups have little in common and their languages are mutually unintelligible. Even the group closest to the Hmong, the Hmao, speak a language that is as different from Hmong as Italian is to French. They diverged significantly as early as a thousand years ago, after which they may have had no relation to each other at all. Without their official classification as the Miao minority after 1949, it is unlikely that they would be able to recognize any affinity with each other. However none of the four groups have obtained official status as distinct minorities in China. Their names are generally unrecognized by the Chinese and are only used as part of the local vernacular language. As a result, only a small portion of the modern Miao people initially identified as Hmong.
The cumbersome umbrella term "Miao" refers to a number of disparate groups totaling 7.5 million people as of 1990, speaking three mutually unintelligible dialects and scattered over seven provinces in southwest China... These multiple sub-groups have been variously divided into large aggregates such as the Black, Red, Blue, White, and Flowery groups, or later the Eastern, Central or Western dialect groups. It was only in the Maoist period, with the national implementation of identification policies... that the diverse Miao in China came to recognize each other as co-ethnics and to identify with and operate under the ethnonym "Miao." Only a portion of those identified as Miao—the ones distributed over western Guizhou and parts of Yunnan, particularly the border areas—call themselves "Hmong" in their own language.
— Louisa Schein
Hub AI
Hmong people AI simulator
(@Hmong people_simulator)
Hmong people
The Hmong people (RPA: Hmoob, CHV: Hmôngz, Nyiakeng Puachue: 𞄀𞄩𞄰, Pahawh Hmong: 𖬌𖬣𖬵, IPA: [m̥ɔ̃́], Chinese: 苗族蒙人) are an ethnic group from East and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. The modern Hmong reside mainly in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. There are also diaspora communities in the United States, Australia, France, and South America.
The term Hmong is the English spelling of the Hmong's native name. It is a singular and plural noun (e.g., Japanese, French, etc.). Very little is known about the native Hmong name as it is not mentioned in Chinese historical records, since the Han identified the Hmong as Miao. The meaning of it is debatable and no one is sure of its origin, although it can be traced back to several provinces in China. However, Hmong Americans and Hmong Laotians often associate it with "Free" and/or "Hmoov" (Fate); it serves as a reminder to them of their history of fighting oppression.
Before the 1970s, the term Miao or Meo (i.e. barbarians, wild, seedlings, and even "Sons of the Soil") was used in reference to the Hmong. In the 1970s, Dr. Yang Dao, a Hmong American scholar, who at the time was the head of the Human Resource Department of the Ministry of Planning in the Royal Lao Government of Laos, advocated for the term "Hmong" with the support of clan leaders and General Vang Pao. Yang Dao insisted that the terms "Meo" and "Miao" were both unacceptable as his people had always called themselves by the name "Hmong," which he defined as "free men". Surrounding countries began to use the term "Hmong" after the U.S. Department of State used it during Immigration screening in Thailand's Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. In 1994, Pobzeb Vang registered the term "Hmong" with the United Nations, making it the proper term to identify the Hmong people internationally. Soon after, there was a political push from Hmong American politicians and activists to replace the term Miao with the term Hmong in China with little to no success.
Historically, the term "Hmong" is not featured in any Chinese text, only the term "Miao". However it is uncertain if all mentions of Miao people referred to the Hmong people. According to Ruey (1962), the way in which Miao was used in Chinese can roughly be divided into three periods: a legendary period from 2300 BC to 200 BC, then a period when the term generally referred to southern barbarians until 1200 AD, and then a modern period during which the Hmong were probably included. Although the term appeared before the Qin dynasty (221 BCE), throughout history Miao was used as a loose and general term by the Han to refer to southern barbarians. Only since the Tang dynasty did more evidence of its association with the Hmong become more apparent. In the 20th century, Western missionaries called the Hmong and Hmao the "Big Flowery Miao" (Da Hua Miao) and the "Little Flowery Miao" (Xiao Hua Miao). Another source states that the Green and White Miao were the Hmong, the Flowery Miao were the Hmao, the Black Miao were the Hmu, and the Red Miao were the Xong. According to She Miaojun, the Miao only existed as an exonym in the imagination of outsiders all the way up to the Qing dynasty. It did not refer to any self-defined ethnic group united by either territory or language. Others believe that Miao identity emerged during the rebellions of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Today, the Hmong in China are categorized under the umbrella term Miáo (苗) along with three other indigenous cultural groups, which include non-Hmong peoples such as the Hmu and the Xong of southeast Guizhou. The Chinese Miao minority was created in 1949 as part of the ethnic identification project in which members of the ethnic groups that now comprise the Miao umbrella group campaigned for identification under the name Miao—taking advantage of its familiarity and associations of historical political oppression. The push to appropriate Miao as the official name of their minzu nationality received significant contributions from three Miao intellectuals, however none of them were Hmong. The various Miao sub-groups freely identify as Miao or Chinese while reserving their specific ethnonyms for intra-ethnic communication. According to Jacques Lemoine, "Chinese Hmong have the Miao nationality but Hmong ethnicity" because the People's Republic of China doesn't recognize ethnicity.
The Miao minority group has been described as extremely heterogeneous. The four main groups classified as Miao in China are the Hmong, Hmao, Hmu, and the Xong. Despite speaking related languages belonging to the Hmongic language group, these four ethnic groups have little in common and their languages are mutually unintelligible. Even the group closest to the Hmong, the Hmao, speak a language that is as different from Hmong as Italian is to French. They diverged significantly as early as a thousand years ago, after which they may have had no relation to each other at all. Without their official classification as the Miao minority after 1949, it is unlikely that they would be able to recognize any affinity with each other. However none of the four groups have obtained official status as distinct minorities in China. Their names are generally unrecognized by the Chinese and are only used as part of the local vernacular language. As a result, only a small portion of the modern Miao people initially identified as Hmong.
The cumbersome umbrella term "Miao" refers to a number of disparate groups totaling 7.5 million people as of 1990, speaking three mutually unintelligible dialects and scattered over seven provinces in southwest China... These multiple sub-groups have been variously divided into large aggregates such as the Black, Red, Blue, White, and Flowery groups, or later the Eastern, Central or Western dialect groups. It was only in the Maoist period, with the national implementation of identification policies... that the diverse Miao in China came to recognize each other as co-ethnics and to identify with and operate under the ethnonym "Miao." Only a portion of those identified as Miao—the ones distributed over western Guizhou and parts of Yunnan, particularly the border areas—call themselves "Hmong" in their own language.
— Louisa Schein