The Hmong Are Not Mongols
By Yang Kaiyi, Kunming, Yunnan, the People's Republic of China
Translated by Jennifer Yang, Fresno, California

Yang Kaiyi is a Hmong Chinese and had the opportunity to stay in the United States for approximately six months. During his stay in the U.S., he visited the Hmong in many communities and met with many Hmong from all walks of life. This article is his point of view as well as an attempt to answer or generate answers to the many unanswered questions that the Hmong Americans have for him and for themselves.

There is no doubt that the Hmong came from China, but there are many other schools of thought that need to be explored and explained. Many of these schools of thought, may not have sufficient evidence to support them. The issue of Hmong origin was often raised during my stay in the United States. It is specially interesting to hear many Hmong brothers and sisters ask me: "Are Hmong Mongols?" Many of them also expressed to me that they want to go to Mongolia to do research about the Hmong. It seems that many Hmong truly believe that their ancestors came from Mongolia and that they are Mongols. To clear this question and generate ideas and questions, I would like to bring to discussion the origin of the Hmong and other related issues. Also, I would like to bring into the discussion my personal opinion on many of these issues. I hope this paper will help clear many myths, rumors, ignorance of our history, and generate many ideas and questions to be further explored.

The Origin of the Hmong

The history of the Hmong in China is very long. According the historical record, the ancestors of the Hmong had already lived in the large valley of Yellow River (Huang He) around 3000 B.C., or about 5000 years ago. Depending on the good geographical environment and their hard work, they became a strong nation in the East of China. They were also known as the "Nine Li" ethnic group or nation. Its leader was Chi You who once led the Hmong to fight with the "Han" ethnic group who lived in the higher reaches of the Yellow River. Two important leaders of the Han ethnic groups were mentioned as Wang Di and Yan Di. These two leaders combined their forces to fight with Chi You and his Hmong group. This war lasted a long time and at the end, the Hmong group lost the war to the Han forces. Chi You, the known Hmong leader at that time, was killed during the war.

Consequently, the rest of the Hmong people were forced to move the South, known today as the First Move or Migration of the Hmong. Later, they established residence in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. During the Yao, Shu, and Yu era, or about 2000 B.C., the Hmong again united and formed a new ethnic group unity: this is what historical documents refer to as the "San Miao."

The Han dynasties of Yao, Shu, and Yu didn't give up their hope and want to conquer the "San Miao" by force of arms. They fought a bloody war with the "San Miao" and executed any San Miao who were stubborn and disobedient to them. Because of the superior forces of the Han and their outnumbering of the San Miao, the San Miao were again forced to move southward. This move or migration is known as The Second Move or Migration of the Hmong, and they moved to the present day Shan Xi and Gan Su in the South-central of China. In these areas, they lived side by side with other western Chinese ethnic groups. These were the Hmong who moved to the west; later they moved to the south of China, and then entered the present day Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces. They lived adjacent to the Hmong who moved earlier to the areas of Pan Yang and Dong Ding Lakes. Since the San Miao period and from Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, or more than 3000 years ago, the Hmong situation didn't realize any changes. They often endured genocide, oppression and the push to move out of their own territory by Han emperors and their armies. These developments led to another migration known as the Third Move or Migration, moving from the East to the West of China.

Many Hmong of the sub-group who called themselves Hmong had already moved to Indochina more than 600 years ago. Some scholars even stated that more than 2000 years ago, there were already some Hmong living in the south of Yunan and north of Vietnam. In the 20th century, because of Indochinese political unrest, the Hmong in Indochina suffered many hardships as well as positive developments. For example, in the mid 1970s, because of the war in Laos, the Hmong of Laos began another move. This time they move to the West and all over the world. The Hmong have been through many difficulties, though they have survived. To reflect the experience of the Hmong, I recall an Australian anthropologist named Kurtis who said, there are two ethnic groups in this world that have been through many hardships but have survived to be strong: they are the Jews and the Hmong in China.

Hmong are not Mongolians

Where do Hmong people get the idea that they are Mongols? In China, there are no such historical records and among the Hmong Chinese, they have no such history. I think there are three reasons to cause this belief:

(1) Misunderstanding of history,

(2) The similarities in Chinese characters use in writing the word "Hmong" and the word "Mong" in Mongols, and

(3) The yearning of many Hmong Americans to search for their roots.

The first reason can be reviewed through Chinese history. In 1279 A.D., the Mongols overthrew the Han emperor and took over China. They ruled China from 1279 to 1369, known in history as the Yuan dynasty. The Mongols or the Yuan dynasty conquered China, ruled the country for 90 years, and during this period the Yuan emperors sent Mongol soldiers and officials to every part of China, including the minority areas, to control the country. In the history of China, the winners have always eliminated the losers and their officials. Because of this practice, when the Han regained power from the Mongols (Yuan dynasty) in 1369, they not only killed officials of the Mongol emperor, but the Mongols in China. Many Mongols fled to the mountain and minority areas, claiming to be members of other minority groups. Some of the Mongols changed their own ethnic identity to avoid being executed by the Han. In 1950s and 1960s, there were some groups who came out from the "closet" and revealed their own identity as Mongols. Because of this incident, it is anticipated that there must be many Mongols who were hidden with the Hmong and claimed to be Hmong.

From the Yuan Dynasty until now, it has been more than 600 years, and according to Hmong marriage tradition, 20 years mean one generation. The period of 600 years must be 20 to 30 generations in the Hmong reality. Because there are no written records, we learn our history through oral story. When we talk about our ancestors' experience, we depend on words from mouth that transmit from one generation to another. This practice of oral story telling is not reliable. For example, most of us can only remember our ancestors from one, two or three generations, not 10 or 20 generations of the past. Also, because of the lengthy time and many generations to be remembered, no one can remember clearly about their ancestors and history. This can lead to the development of rumors and erroneous accounts that Hmong are Mongols.

Many Hmong in America told me that the Hmong came to Beijing from Mongolia, they became an empire, were later overthrown by the Han, and then they moved to Vietnam and Laos. According to written historical records, the Hmong had been living in the valley of the Yellow River (Huang He) around 3000 B.C., or 5000 years ago. There is no record that the Hmong, during this period , lived in the highland or any parts of Mongolia. When the Mongols built their Yuan Dynasty in the thirteen century, the Hmong had already lived in the south of China for several hundred years and some of the groups who called themselves Hmong had already crossed the border of China to the Indochinese countries. According to these historical accounts, the claim that Hmong are Mongols is invalid and there is no evident to support that Hmong are Mongols.

Another reason many Hmong believe that they are Mongols is the misunderstanding of the word "Hmong" in oral language and in Chinese writings. The Hmong have more than 4000 years history. There were times when the Hmong were called "San Miao, Yo Miao, Miao Ming," and so on. After several thousand years, history has changed. Hmong are now called Hmong, Ahmu, Mo, and Ga Xiong. The 1990 Chinese census indicated that the Hmong in China numbered 7,390,000. The groups who called themselves Hmong numbered 2.5 million. There is no question that those who call themselves Hmong and those who moved from China to Indochinese countries in the past many centuries, and had recently moved to many parts of the world, came from China. Their origin in China can be detected from their culture and other elements such as language, oral history, and ancestral worship. Many of their oral stories indicate their experiences along the Yangtze River (Changjiang) and the Yellow River (Huang He). Another reason that the Hmong might misunderstand that they are Mongols is the use of Chinese characters for the word "Hmong" and "Mong" in Mongol. Chinese scholars used the same characters for the words Hmong and Mong (in Mongol), although there is no relation between the Hmong and the Mongols.

The third reason that Hmong might believe that they came from Mongolia can be developed from the desire of many Hmong to search for their roots. The Hmong in the United States become stronger in many aspects and are presently in the stage of wanting to know who they are. As such, many of them are eager to search for the path of their ancestors. In the past, the Hmong, not only in China but in many other countries faced many hardships, especially in terms of discrimination, prejudice, and oppression. For example, many non-Hmong often use the word "Miao" or "Meo" to tease or harass the Hmong. Thus, the word "Miao" became a symbol of labelling barbarian, uncivilized or stupid people. After the proclamation of the new China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party adopted a policy of equality among all nationalities in China. In Indochina, the political situation was unstable, especially in Laos. This instability led to the involvement of the Hmong in the war conflict. As a result, the Hmong paid a heavy price for participation in the war; it is said that nearly half the Hmong were lost in the war. Simultaneously, many Hmong were exposed to new opportunities and changes. Many of them had the opportunity to attend and receive an education, especially the Lyfoung brothers and later Dr. Yang Dao. They wrote books and educated others (non-Hmong) that the Hmong called themselves "Hmong" not Miao or Meo. Also, in the 1960's, Vang Pao became a powerful General in Laos, influencing other people of the general perception of the Hmong in Laos. Other people began to perceive the Hmong in Laos in a positive light and the Hmong continued to promote their positive image. Because of the change from Miao to Hmong, many Hmong became motivated to move forward. Notably, many Hmong went to the cities to attend school, including those who attended school in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and in foreign countries. In 1975, many Hmong of laos began to leave the country and many of them suddenly appeared in many parts of the orld. It took just a little more than one decade for the Hmong in America to become a force and voice for others. Although Hmong Americans number a little over 100,000 people, they are becoming a powerful force and voice. In the field of education, Hmong Americans have done quite well; approximately 2 out of every 100 Hmong Americans have college degrees, and about 19 people hold doctoral degrees. This does not include those who live in Canada and other countries. There are also many thousands of Hmong college students who will soon graduate and pursue higher education. The number of Hmong college students has increased rapidly; many already study high technology and other scientific fields. Hmong Americans also do well in other areas; a few of them have already become millionaires. Opportunity to achieve upward mobility, accessibility to resources, and the American free market system work well for many Hmong entrepreneurs, although these successful Hmong entrepreneurs are few.

Because of many reasons, in addition to the voice and name of Hmong Americans, many anthropologists and researchers have turned their interest to the Hmong and their experiences. Consequently, many books and written materials about the Hmong are now available in the United States. More is now known about Hmong Americans and the Hmong of Laos.

Differences in Culture and Customs: Hmong and Mongols

There are many differences in culture and customs between the Hmong and Mongolians. A brief comparison will be made here for us to review the similarities and differences between the Hmong and the Mongols.

Hmong belong to the Mongoloid or Mongolian race, and do so the Han and other Asians. Thus, we can say that Hmong belong to the Mongolian race; although Hmong is not the same ethnically as the Mongols. Hmong and Mongol are two different ethnic groups, with many differences in culture and customs.

The Mongolians, in general, are herders (many of them are nomadic herders). They are good equestrians (horse riders) and archers. The Hmong, on the other hand, are farmers (and had practiced agriculture for many centuries). The Hmong are not equestrians, but are excellent in their own mountainous environment. The Hmong adapt well to hardship, are independent and not willingly submissive to anyone, including many Han emperors. The food staple of the Mongols are meat and dairy products. The Hmong consume rice and vegetable products grown by themselves. The musical instrument that symbolizes the Mongols is the Ma To Shin or Mongolian violin, and for the Hmong, it is the Lu Sheng or Qeej. In contrast to the Mongol, the Hmong are not direct people. They keep their opinions to themselves and often express their thoughts and perceptions indirectly. Physically, the Mongols are tall and robust, but the Hmong are short and small. There are also many other differences in other customs, such as funeral rites, marriage activities and others. These differences can be interpreted as indications of the difference in ethnicity between the Hmong and the Mongols. As such, we should not confuse the Mongolian race or Mongoloid and with the ethnic Mongol and ethnic Hmong. From these accounts, we can say that the Hmong and Mongols are not of the same ethnicity. They belong to two different ethnic groups: Hmong and Mongol.

In concluding this paper, I would like to say that the Hmong's origin is China, and there is much evidence to support this claim. Also, in daily life, Hmong and other ethnic groups are different which makes the Hmong a distinct ethnic group. There is, of course, need for further study of Hmong's origin, culture and other aspects to fully understand the Hmong and to answer many other questions. Many studies have already begun. Some anthropologists and scholars of other disciplines have already begun to study the group who call themselves Hmong, including Hmong Americans. In China, too, there are many studies which attempt to research the Hmong. The results of these studies are not yet conclusive, and differences of theory and thought are often found. Some studies say that the Hmong originated from the North, other scholars indicate that the Hmong came from the East or the West, and still many more researchers have their own interpretation of the Hmong's origin and history. These many schools of thought might lead the Hmong to believe that they came from Mongolia or elsewhere.

I am not a scholar or a researcher but I am a Hmong, and have concerns about the Hmong. I want the best for the Hmong, especially in learning more about ourselves and in working toward bringing our economics, social, and political status to be paralled with others. I contribute this paper in anticipation of continued efforts to know more about ourselves and for generating further discussion.