Kalia Lee Nov. 10, 2008 4th Presentation Audience: My audiences are adults, college students, and others who are interested about Hmong people. Setting :My presentation will take place in a classroom. This will run at 10am. Interactional Goal(s): My interactional goals are articulating a perspective Hmong history 1. They came from Southern China up in the high mountains 2. There are 18 clans I.
Main Point 1: Hmong history a. Sub point: Came from southern China up in the high mountains b. Sub points: 18 Clans
II.
Main Point 2. Hmong traditional customs
a. Sub point: Girls wear skirts, sewed shirts and coins b. Sub point: Boys wear sewed pants (slacks) a vest with dangling coins hanged on.
III.
Main point 3: Hmong New Year a. Sub point: Held during Thanksgiving expect in California where it’s held during Christmas. b. Sub point: Hmong ball tossing
Of course many have asked what is Hmong. Where are they from? Hmong Land? Well I am here today to share with you about the Hmong people’s history, their language, and traditional custom/celebrations.
Hmong people were originally from Southern China up in the high mountains. According to Chinese historians, the Hmong people were called “Meo” meaning barbarians; the name soon evolved into the current “Hmong” which mean “free people” Legend records says Hmong people were very powerful due to the leadership skills and construction of large communities. Five to six thousand years ago, Hmong people lived around Hebei province. The leader for the Hmong people was Chiyou. The Hmong tribe was known as “Jiuli Tribe”. Due to the population growth of Chinese people, it expanded into the Hmong territory which caused a war. According to folk songs and legends, Hmong won nine battles but lost on the tenth one. Since they’ve lost, they had to migrate up north and reunited to form a new kingdom. Soon the history repeated itself and Chinese people expanded into their new utopia territory which caused another war. In 1960 the CIA sent an agent name Colonel Billy to find the renowned Hmong Soldier name Vang Pao who fought for the Royal Lao Army. Vang Pao agreed to help American stop the communist advance in Vietnam, if the CIA promised to support the Hmong if they win the war, or if they lose the war, US would find them a new land. So the Secret War began in Laos. By the end of the war about 17,000 Hmong soldiers died and about 50,000 civilians. After the war, about 100,000 Hmong people were killed. Since US lost the war, they split the Hmong people into different places such as America, Australia, Frances, Canada, and other countries.
The Hmong culture has 18 clans: Chang, Cheng, Chute, Fang, Hang, Her, Khang, Kong, Kue, Lee, Lor, Moua, Pha, Thao, Vang, Vue, Xiong and Yang.
Regarding to the Hmong history, the Hmong language has a history of its own as well. Hmong is one of many unique languages in the world. The Hmong language came from SinoTibetan (the family of tonal languages spoken in eastern Asia). The Hmong language uses seven tones; each syllable has a different pitch when speaking. The dialect is comprehensible but has difficult verbalization. In early 1950s, Catholic and Protestant missionaries used the Roman alphabet to create the Hmong alphabet. Now that a movement had begun developing the Hmong alphabet, more and more Hmong parents are teaching basic Hmong literature skills to their children.
Speaking about the unique dialect that Hmong people have, it’s the same as their type of clothing as well. Hmong people have different kind of clothing. Depending where you are originally from, that type of clothing is what you represent. Each custom have a unique name for it. For most girls, they wear lots of coins and cloth that wraps around their waist. As for the men, they were coins that are sewed into a vest. The coins represent folktales that parents would tell to their kids. Most of what they wear represents something that has happen to the Hmong people or it just symbolizes where they were originally from. Hmong traditional custom for girls would be sewed shirt and a long piece of cloth that covers her legs in the middle. Depending on what kind of ethnicity you are, you wear a white skirt or a colorful skirt. Then you would have a pink and a green cloth that wraps around her waist and then adding the coins after the cloth. There are many different types of hats for the girl to wear,
depending on her custom. For a guy he would wear white collar shirts with a hand sew black pants. Then he would put over a vest that has coins on it, and also a pink cloth for his waist as his belt.
In additional to the Hmong custom, they would wear it to the Hmong New Year. The most popular holiday for Hmong people is the Hmong New Year. It is celebrated during the month where the moon darkens and the rice begins harvesting. The festival is held to show appreciation to all gods and ancestors who had guide them throughout the year. During New Year, there would be different kind of foods being sold, games being played and dances being shown. A traditional game held every year for older Hmong boys and girls is ball tossing. Boys and girls would line up facing each other tossing a tennis ball or a sewed black leather ball. Whoever drops the ball gets to sing a traditional Hmong song or give a belonging to the winner. This ball tossing game represents finding their companion or just meeting new people.
In final consideration it is important to learn what Hmong people are like and where they are originally from. Hmong people have lived a hard life in the past. Coming to America has open more opportunities for them and their kids.