Many realize good deeds that others have done in the past for the greater good of the world. So why are the sacrifices and deeds that the Hmong people did in the past are not being recognize? For example, there is no mention of them aiding the United States during the Vietnam War and also the Laotian Civil War (also known as the Secret War) in typical high school texts and foremost if a typical person is asked who the Hmong people are they will usually respond “what is that or who are they.” So the question of all is who are the Hmong?

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            The Hmong ancestral origins will be considered difficult to trace, but they are related to many ethnicities, mainly the “Miao” who are from China. According to Gary Yia Vue, the Miao is a classification that is imposed by the Chinese. Because of this classification or affiliation the Miao has been broken up to four groups which the Hmong is one of those four groups. Though they are known as Miao in China the Hmong outside of China believe the word “Miao” or “Meo” is a derogatory term that associates with barbarism and prefers not to be associated being called that term. 

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            The Hmong migrated out of China into Southeast Asia during the 19th century. Since the Hmong do not have any written records of their origins it is difficult to know their origination. Many have writers believe that the Hmong’s origin has always been in the south China because of their similarity in religion, language and culture between the Chinese and Hmong. This is supported by oral tradition that the Hmong actually originated from the area close by the Yellow River in China. The Hmong always ongoing conflicts with Imperial China which led to uprisings.” China defeated by the British during the first Opium War, the Chinese government was forced to pay compensation to the British. Due to this compensation, the Chinese government taxed heavily to the locals, including the Hmong, leading to conflicts between the two ethnicity, with the Hmong waging a series of wars or uprising against the Chinese government known as the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) which then sparked the Miao Rebellion (1854-1873). Their uprising and rebellion were unsuccessful and so the Hmong lead a mass exodus into Southeast Asian, mainly in the mountain of Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand.

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            Settling in the mountains, the Hmong became known as a hill tribe. Knowing as hill tribe people they also did not have a good relationship with the lowlanders, especially with the arrival of French colonists in Laos. In the mid-1800s, France began colonizing Southeast Asian countries and established a control over these countries in the 1890s. The Hmong once again faced oppression, but this time with the French. The Hmong faced the same problem as they did with the Chinese government, taxes. The Hmong at the time known for their exclusively cultivated growth of opium were to pay the tax from the French in the form of opium. They did not only pay taxes to the French but also were required to pay local Lao and Tai taxes also, with the outcome of unfair taxes at the time, tripling the normal taxes needed to be pay. Not only did the Hmong had to pay taxes, they were also forced by the French to build roads which then lead to another Hmong rebellion known as the “Madman’s War.” The rebellion was led by a Hmong idealist by the name of Pa Chay Vue. Vue was not only battling the French but he was also battling the Lao and Tai and also Hmong people who benefited from the French patronage. Vue led the Hmong to many victories in the rebellion with the advantage of using the jungles as a way to defeat the French. The rebellion came to an end after the assassination of Vue by his own people who were bribed to assassinate him.

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            After the war, in order to make peace with the Hmong, the French allowed the Hmong to partake in self-government in an established sovereign by the French. Although this gave independence to the Hmong it also caused internal conflicts between the Hmong. In the district where the Hmong located, there was competition between the Fong and Bliayao family (whom at the time were the two prominent families in the area). To settle the feud between the families, the French head an election on who to be the chief of the district. Touby Lyfong, of the Fong family, won the election against Faydag Lobliayao of the Bliayao family. Because of this election between these two Hmong officials, it lead to the political separation of Hmong in Laos. Lyfong allied with the French and eventually the Americans while Lobliayao joined forces with the Lao nationalists who wanted independence from France. Lobliayao would then become an important leader of the Lao Communist forces. Touby Lyfoung and his younger brother would become the very first Hmong politicians in the Lao government and served in World War II allying with the French.

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            After the World War II, French continue to take control over former colonies in Southeast Asia that they had control over with but faced against a new enemy, the Communist forces in Vietnam and Laos. French with the aid of the Hmong battled the Communist party but eventually surrendered and thus ended the French regime over Southeast Asia. After the French left, the Hmong leaders allied themselves militarily and politically with the Lao government.

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            Even with these significant history of the Hmong they weren’t known historically until the separation of Vietnam thus leading to the Vietnam War where the Hmong will allied themselves with the United States of America which will eventually led them to become known as “the forgotten allies.”

 

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Sources:

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Yia Lee, Gary. (2008). Diaspora and the Predicament of Origins: Interrogating Hmong Postcolonial History and Identity. Hmong Studies Journal. 8.

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Tapp, Nicholas. "Cultural Accommodations in Southwest China: The "Han Miao" and Problems in the Ethnography of the Hmong." Asian Folklore Studies 61, no. 1 (2002): 77-104. doi:10.2307/1178678.

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"Hmong Timeline." Minnesota Historical Society. Accessed February 3, 2019. http://www.mnhs.org/hmong/hmong-timeline

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Bankston, Carl L., III. "Hmong Americans." Countries and Their Cultures. Accessed February 3, 2019. https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Hmong-Americans.html.

 

Filene, Eliza. "The “Mad Man’s War”–Hmong Resistance to French Colonialism." Colonialism and Post Colonialism 2018. February 21, 2018. Accessed February 5, 2019. http://anth461spring2018.web.unc.edu/2018/02/the-mad-mans-war-hmong-resistance-to-french-colonialism/.

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