Hmong New Year starts today
Submitted by jarah on Tue, 12/26/2006 - 11:33.
One of the Valley's biggest festivals, Hmong New Year, begins today at the Fresno Fairgrounds. It runs through January 1st, 2007 and features all your Hmong favorites: food, music, dancing, and tennis ball throwing. The nice new Hmong International New Year web site is full of great info. For example, did you know
By correlation archeological and anthropological evidence, oral tradition, and Chinese imperial records, scholars have traced the Hmong to central Asia, possibly as early as 5000 B.C. Hmong folktales describe a place having six months of light and six of dark, where snow lay on mountains and ice covered lakes.Over many centuries, they migrated eastward descending through northeast Tibet into southern China. There, the Chinese referred to them as Miao(Meo in Southeast Asia), sometimes translated as "barbarians", but actually a variation on the word "man". Their name for themselves Hmong, means "free people"(Credit: Chippewa Valley Museum. Hmong In America/Journey From A Secret War. Copyright: Chippewas Valley Museum Press 1995)
These following are just claims of what might have happened.
(keyword: "might have happened")
Also to be explored: Are the Hmong one of the lost Hebrew tribes? Did they come from Mongolia? Were they in China before the Chinese? At the time, it was not called China, but was called after the Hmong emperor's name. Then one day, the Chinese started to appear. Check it out.
Interesting facts
Yeah... really interesting facts.
Nice article
Thanks for the nice history article. The Hmong history is interesting.
Interesting thread....
I spent ALL day yesterday out at Hmong New Year (I have an informational booth for my day job-agency). I'm missing it today due to the rain, but intend to be out tomorrow for the rest of the week.
I saw a lot of Caucasian friends of mine out there, some, the last people I'd ever expect to see there! It was a lot of fun, and different now compared to when I last went in High School (15 years ago). The Hmong people are a friendly family oriented culture. It's also true that even if you don't speak the same language as someone, a smile has an international meaning.
It's also true White-Eye: they DID save many fallen US soldiers in Vietnam, and continue even today to be murdered by the communist Lao for their alliance with the USA.
-s
Thank a Hmong for saving your daddy...
The Hmong's didn't 'migrate' from China: the Chinese THREW them out, several times.
FYI: the Hmongs saved the USA's ass (as well as some French ass) in Vietnam. I mention this because I'm really tired of hearing the typical Fresnod-out attitude that they are here to steal our cars and take our wallets. When I here people bitch about the Hmongs, I tell 'em they outta bow down and THANK the Hmongs for saving their daddys…
Hmong experience
Great post, Jarah! For those interested in more reading, there are three great books I've read that speak wonderfully to the Hmong experience in California. They are:
* I Begin My Life All Over, by Lillian Faderman;
* The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman;
* Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans, edited by Mai Neng Moua.
The Fresno Bee also did a powerful special report on suicide among Hmong teens in Fresno County called "Lost in America." I was one of two copy editors for the series, which earned national honors for reporter Anne Dudley Ellis and photographer Diana Baldrica for their nearly three years of immersion reporting. With the Bee's recent redesign, though, I can't seem to find the link.
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