hmong

Many Americans mistake them for Chinese or Vietnamese, but the many Hmong immigrants in our nation are from a distinct culture. Most of the adults were born in Laos and grew up as poor farmers from the hilltops of northern Laos, before they were recruited to fight a bloody secret war for the United States against powerful Communist forces.


There are roughly 180,000 Hmong people in the U.S., largely concentrated in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California. Several million Hmong people remain in China, Thailand, and Laos, speaking a variety of Hmong dialects. The Hmong language group is a monosyllabic, tonal language (7-12 tones, depending on the dialect), with features that may make it an important bridge (according to some people) between Thai, Burmese, Chinese, and other Austro-Asian languages. The written language is said by some to have been eradicated over centuries of persecution in China (though it is not certain that there ever was a unique written language for Hmong). According to some traditions, Hmong women once sought to preserve their banned Hmong writing by stitching stylized characters into their dresses. Some of the symbols may have been preserved, but their meaning was lost.
It was not until late in this century that a writing system for Hmong was introduced. Several forms were attempted, but the dominant method is a romanization system in which pronunciation seems highly nonintuitive for English and Hmong speakers alike, though it seems to be based on sound linguistic principles. (The letter "P" is pronounced as "B", "PH" as "P", "X" as "S", "S" as "SH", "T" as "D", "R" as something like "DR", etc. Tones are indicated by one of the consonants j,g,b,v,s or d at the end of each word, or no consonant for the mid-range level tone. It's terribly intimidating when first learning it, but it's pretty reasonable after all.) An increasing number of materials have been printed in the romanized Hmong language, but it is still difficult for most of the Hmong people to read.
The Asian Hmong culture is agrarian, like many cultures in Indochina, with religious beliefs based in animism (including the use of shamans for guidance, healing, and other ceremonies). Hmong culture places a great deal of emphasis on relationships between relatives and members of clans, with respect for elders and strong families. Remembering ancestors and traditional ways is important, and many efforts are made to preserve traditional ways and to keep the memory of the accomplishments and suffering of ancestors. Elaborate Hmong quilts or "flower cloths" (bandao or "paj ntaub" in Hmong) are one example of Hmong art that conveys stories from the past.


Hmong refugees in the U.S. struggle with our unusual ways, though the rising generation of youth have melted in well with American culture, even at the risk of losing touch with their heritage. For the older generation, adopting the new ways has been painful. The language is a great barrier to the elderly, many of whom have had no schooling and had no reading skills prior to coming to the U.S. Simple things like going to a store or walking through town can be terrifying experiences for the elderly.
The Hmong in the U.S. came mainly from Laos as refugees after the Vietnam War. They once lived idyllic agrarian lives in the hills of northern Laos, but that changed once many of them were recruited by the CIA to fight for us in the once-secret wars in Laos. They fought bravely and suffered many causalities, but once we pulled out from Vietnam and left them in the lurch, the North Vietnamese and their puppet government in Laos marked the Hmong for genocidal extinction. Many of the Hmong fled from invaders (and from chemical weapons, including "yellow rain" and other toxins), losing many lives as they traveled through the jungle and swam the Mekong river to Thailand.

(NOTE: the stories of and evidence for yellow rain is disputed by some. I'm in the process of examining the claims of those who still insist it was just bee feces, although the book Tragic Mountains does a pretty good job of demolishing that case in particular.)
Every Hmong family I have met here can tell of blood-chilling stories of escape or of the awful deaths of loved ones. It seems like everyone lost a mother, father, brother, sister, or spouse during the war and during the escape to Thailand and the U.S. The stories told by young people, describing what they experienced at age 4 or 5, are especially chilling.
The Hmong are different and highly misunderstood. Real bigotry exists in some quarters. of the problem is that many Americans do no realize how they Hmong got here. Many think they are just flooding our borders to get welfare benefits.
Excerpts from "Forgotten Soldiers"