The Letter H: History, Hmong, Heritage, Hardship, Hip Hop
It is that time of year where J4 2018 happened to be hosted in St. Paul, MN. We know J4 as the Hmong-hosted sports festival held every year in St. Paul established to help Hmong and Hmong Americans invest in sports for leisure or competition. It was only time before videos began popping up on social media about the violence and atrocities that happened at the event.
Soon there were videos of sports teams in altercations and perhaps other individuals who were affiliated with them involved. On to the coming days, we were constantly fed videos of other altercations that generated a lot of negativity in our community. Some called for the condemnation of gang-behavior and challenged others to do the same, while others blamed the event hosts. It was only time before a young Hmong man was murdered while attending the event; a tragedy, unfolded.
That young Hmong man, I have seen some of his pictures on social media. Perhaps he reminded me of me; a teenager, angry and confused about their experience in Hmong America and allocated energy to the wrong narrative of life; a life misunderstood by our own community’s intellectuals to be one of selfishness and stupidity. But I digressed, as I have perceived similar struggles as he, and seen many friends share the same moments of controversy.
At the same time, a prominent figure in the community had released their own rendition of another colored community’s art into my own language. The affinity of it’s measures included the art of Hip Hop. The struggle of the Black and Latino communities, which have already foreseen similar experiences and paved ways into reconstructing their own environments, were partly funded by the creation of Hip Hop. Not in the sense of money, but the amount of self-sufficiency and exhilaration of their own that they could bring forth. So the Hmong Hip Hop artist Tou Saiko Lee produced a song and a music video from his November 2018 album “Ntiaj Teb Koom Tes” that spoke about elements of Hip Hop and putting into plain Hmong what Hip Hop offers for our community and our youth. It features bboys(“break boys”) and entails that this young community of Hmong boys and girls is defined as a struggling group which is using the tools of other communities in order to authenticate their own experience through their means; such as the power that Hip Hop freely gives to it’s people.
History:
The Hmong have a history alongside the Yellow River as told by many streamlines of historians and scholars. That we were once held upon strengthened lineages of powerful warriors and matriarchal societies(used loosely) led by Chiyou(Tsiv Yawg) himself. King Chi You is thought to be a mythical being who is seen as a belligerent by his then enemies and is portrayed similar to a horned minotaur or barbaric overlord. These features were depicted to something we can only assume as “history belongs to it’s victors”. After King Chi You successfully held his people against the will of the Yellow Emperor, it was only after a fatal encounter that he finally met his defeat in Zhuolu. Chi You is known as the ancestor of the Hmong people and many stories are catered to this idea by word from generations before us. Take a moment to ask your parents about anything they have heard and they can usually conjure an interesting response to this miraculous story.
In my experience, my father made interesting conversations which I could not understand to be true or not but rather interesting to listen to. There’s reason why there is lacking academic record about Hmong history. He reinforced that only by tongue has history of the Hmong been passed around because of the persecution of all things Miao by our historical enemies. Miao is a term used for a group of peoples in the southern China region that also included the Hmong. We commonly understand our historical enemies to be the Chinese, but one thing we need to regard is that China is now a land of many minorities and peoples which were not apparent in connection with our history consistently. For example, the Miao people are now regarded as a minority group of China and are referred to by many outsiders to be generalized as Chinese. These conceptions are made possible after only a very impossible journey of survival and determination. I became curious and asked if he believed them so. He responded with that he has not made commitment to believe these stories though they have been passed on from his father, and therefore, it is important in tradition to keep it alive in the case that they may reign true to our history. It is unfortunate that I cannot grasp the resolve to agree because I have been engraved to invest in information only absolved through an academic system and literature.
I asked him, “If these stories were to be true, I’m sure they have manifested incredible curiosity. With today’s resources, why have they not been able to locate his grave after his death?”
This started yet, of course, another story by my father who was willing to say much that was told to him over forty years ago by my grandfather.
“You see, in history, the Chinese have always been our sworn enemies. There isn’t much written about us because our history has been erased. Our people have been discriminated and infringed upon. We were pushed constantly by our oppressors south until eventually leading us to habitat the mountains of Laos. Our people have lost that opportunity to symbolize any of our history or peoples. In a very hasty effort to hold our heritage, King Chiyou’s body was entombed with one gravedigger who buried his body in a discrete location. This was supposed to keep his grave at a disclosure to save the last we have of his authenticity and our people. He dug a total of seven graves and some have been found. These graves consisted of incredibly valuable things and a tomb dug only fit for a king. They are supposed to serve as impersonations of the real tomb to throw off Chi You’s enemies hoping to erase his history. As we lose our humanity, our oppressor aggressively searched for the authentic body of King Chiyou and ravaged the graves in order to destroy our people. The gravedigger is not formally known in order to protect him and his knowledge of the location. It is understood that to this day, the locations of King Chi You’s real grave has been passed on from son to son until today.”
I was overtaken and blown away. I always saw my father as a story teller with too many stories that were supposed to cause me to re-evaluate my authenticity as a Hmong man. In some terms, that’s exactly what it did. Something resonated with me and I spoke to him for hours until the sun went down. I started writing and researching and noted that there was some correlation between my people, our oppression, and lost history.
Hmong:
The Hmong eventually told their stories sewn in heart and buried in cloth. The coming millenniums of history were packed with deprivation, vast colonization, and eternal marginalization. In the 14th through 18th centuries, the Hmong were pushed southward towards what is now known as Southern China. As powerful coalitions of dynasties formed a more unified Chinese state, the necessity for more lands and resources called for the Chinese state to push their boundaries. This expansion included the colonization of southern lands which were inhabited by the Miao peoples. Such events led to the creation of the Miaojang Great Wall in the 17th century, or in other names, the Southern Great Wall of China. Though it did not match the Northern Great Wall we know in strength, it introduced the idea that such a wall was necessary in order to contain the region of southern China.
In time, the state of the Qing Empire reigned over the peoples of southern China. The Miao peoples were under colonization, not directly under control of the Chinese state(not all, at least). They were rather distinctive regions which had heavy taxes implied on them due to the constant border wars and expansions the Chinese were involved in. Visually, you can see the Miao peoples as people who were ensnared subjects of their foreign overlord. This sort of oppression consistently caused strong resistance against the unified state of China. Miao tusis who were set in place by the Qing state served only as representatives by name, their people subjective to Qing taxation and levies. There are a few official counts of the major timelines in which the Hmong rebelled against their Chinese invaders, each one resulting in drastic defeat. There are two important works of art that reflect such a timeline should someone feel the curiosity to visualize such an era. The Qianglong Copper Battle Prints were more than sixty commissioned works of art by European Catholic artists, who were instructed by Emperor Qianglong of the Qing dynasty of the later 18th century, depicting the imperialist campaigns of the Qing forces. Specifically, the Zhong Miao Battle Prints, which exists about four pieces, depicted the campaign against the Miao peoples to eradicate their resistance against the imperialist regime. In such similarities, the imperialist state of China also triggered other minority groups in the region to quell uprisings that resulted in the Taiping Rebellion, gesturing in an estimate of tens of millions of casualties. The Taiping Rebellion, one of the bloodiest wars in China’s imperialist history, were thought to have included the Hmong people.
Interestingly, Qianglong had written poems about the campaigns against the Miao peoples titled A Choral Song of Harmony for the first part of the Spring translated later by a European clergymen along the name of Stephen Weston. Such works were all provided to indicate the power and hierarchical status of the Qing Empire to the Miao peoples. Hmong peoples were under internal dispute in their community toward their invaders. Those who were loyal to their homeland in terms of nativeness and those who surrendered their sovereignty in the order of peace, never truly found their prosperity with their choice of action from their oppressive invaders. This constant hate-oppressive relationship is the eventual destruction and migration of Hmong peoples from China to the lands of Southeast Asia.
Collectively, these centuries concluded with massive rebellions against the unified state of China and continuous events unfolded time and time again. In number, Hmong retaliation and rebellion against the Chinese state is something that is difficult to account for, but we can say it involved the deaths of millions. It is comfortable to say that throughout all our history, whether the time was in peace or skirmish, the Hmong people were constantly in military and political war with the northern invaders.
Heritage:
The 20th century was, consistently, more tragic events. The Southeast Asian countries where the Hmong resided had went through several political revolutions. Several Hmong individuals rose to become powerful leaders who made critical marks in this time period in history. These revolutionary individuals set the course for transition of the Hmong into the modern diaspora.
Notably, there are a vast number of military and political heroes that are named in the Hmong community today. Most, if not all of them, reside from the Indochina Wars that displaced the Hmong to international migratory directions. During the Vietnam War, the entire region had it’s political revolution that implied dramatic changes through military means. Vietnam was split horizontally along the narrow middle residing geographically east of Laos. Therefore, the NVA supplied the Vietcong through the Ho Chi Minh trail which runs through Laos and past border fortifications. This is where the story starts for some of our forefathers where they recount their days farmer-turned-military to fight aganist the NVA, Vietcong, and Pathet Lao forces.
The Secret War is something that is quite talked about by word in the Hmong community today. The difference is that most Hmong children growing up consumes the idea that the Secret War is a happening directly consistent with the timeline of the Vietnam War. Though they are related due to the political era, the Secret War takes place in Laos with it’s own political interactions later in result to official American retreat from Vietnam. This “official” retreat takes American grunt boots off of Laos but unofficially establishes a bombing campaign in the war-torn Indochina region which had just seen dozens of years of wars and destruction due to political reform.
Even in these years of intense loss of Hmong origin, the Hmong founded incredible feats of survival including; story cloth by Manichan Xiong, a writing system named Pawhawh Hmong by Shong Lue Yang, and even achieving the first known Doctorate given to a Hmong individual named Dr. Dao Yang.
During May 14, 1975(before the Secret War) the last flight flew out of Long Cheng and transported General Vang Pao from Laos. Many Hmong men and women were left behind and some were received in other countries. This unforgettable climax led to the implementation of Hmong-American society and a coerced modernization of Hmong society.
Hardship:
Hmong families who migrated to the United States experienced severe culture shock. Not accustomed to 21st century establishments such as doctor’s appointments or taxes, the Hmong American immigrants were subject to heavy restitution that contributed to a loss of Hmong identity. The transition into the modern American lifestyle was hugely difficult for Hmong refugees across all aspects of life. Most Hmong refugees took habitation in largely poorer neighborhoods and attained one of the highest poverty rates among Asian Americans(even today). During this time where the Asian American stigma of the model minority myth was enforced, this caused even deeper barriers in the young Hmong American community and their new lifestyle. Hmong migrants who came early, tried to find ways to employ other Hmong immigrants in order to offer a smoother transition for this new wave of refugees.
Hmong refugees were formed in different areas of concentration in the United States but mainly in two areas. The West and Midwest regions of the United States hold the majority of the Hmong American population. The Hmong tend to live closely associated in population because of social and cultural values. This traditional sense is changing as Hmong Americans become more involved with their American counterpart and come to adapt to modern American Society.
More importantly, Hmong youth developed strong resistance against Hmong traditions, in both social and religious aspects. Yet, their development to American culture was hesitantly accepted by themselves nor Americans. This entailed a bittersweet effect of Hmong Americans to become both great leaders and subjects of poverty. Hmong boys and girls had similar identity struggles at home though they shared different tales of experiences.
Hmong boys were not the model minority that America was now used to. Their intense separation of understanding from their parent’s generation did not provide them the proper survival skills for urban America. They lacked resources both institutionally and at home for their academic success. The wall of segregation between what is expected of them at home and in the desks of urban education created a devastatingly, lost generation. Comparably to other Asian American groups, the Hmong had their own unique struggle that were not directly impacted by policies or means made to help those communities. This led to organized groups of young Hmong males to further create a structure that was supposedly to protect and serve their misguided communities, gangs. Their parents generation did not approve of their improper organizations that soon became lost to urban America. The visions of temporary wealth and power broke this young generation and started yet, another war for survival like their forefathers, just now in the streets of urban America.
In contrast to the experience of Hmong boys, Hmong girls had their own experience that challenged their perceptions of both traditional and modern ideas of what they are. The roots that entangle Hmong women in blood are so powerful. These roots are the exact reason as to why the survival of Hmong lineage is possible, yet, they are the powerful oppressive patriarchy that submits them to their degrading chains. This is not to reason the patriarchy that definitely exists to approve that it is the reason for Hmong perseverance, quite rather the opposite; but to acknowledge that Hmong girls hold the key to the freedom that the Hmong people are searching for, for millenniums. This obscure, abstract existence runs in the veins of Hmong women who have, for too long, not been able to voice their leadership and take the hands of a dying people to the land where we are free. Appropriately, as Hmong women engage and are able to reach new incredible climaxes in the modern world, the Hmong coincidentally thrives. As actors in this community, we can no longer hesitate to recognize this. Those who refuse to acknowledge these gender conditions, generally, have improper social values and are patriarchal beneficiaries.
The modern era soon plays out to show that Hmong boys and women would soon drive the Hmong to the land where we truly can be free. Hmong boys would reconfigure their ideals passed from hierarchical histories to enable the advancement of all of our peoples, men and women, using the tools provided by other communities and institutions to set the path for our future. Hmong women would set the new standard that challenges our traditional sense of confinement to others, taking on incredible roles that destroys the flimsy, timid bridges built by our oppression, and in it’s place — create an unbreakable bridge where our people can live on forever.
Hip Hop:
Here we reach the climax of the article where we define our Hmong American identity. Perhaps, there were other tools of survival that had existed in which accounted for our survival. Those stories would soon be told by their owners, but now, we must acknowledge the role of Hip Hop that had already lifted communities from Urban America before us. The complexities of those communities cannot be told from my point of view. But they can be viewed indefinitely by my community and serve to be prime examples of finding our lost confidence and faith.
Stories of survival from the slums of California entails that not all who wander are lost. Some wander to find exactly what they were looking for. Hmong youth found their way through movement and music. At first, the movement seemed hip and ‘cool’. Then they participated, and soon, came the introduction of Hmong bboys. Hip Hop has its way of reaching those who need it. It serves as a powerful weapon against our oppressors. It enables strength, resilience, and confidence. Soon we had rappers, writers, dancers, and activists.
The poverty stricken Hmong community originally was hesitant to Hip Hop as they did not understand the complex fashion of segregated America. Coming from a foreign land as farmers and hunters, the message of Hip Hop in Urban America did not speak to Hmong elders. The brutal hierarchical force that drove the Hmong community did not elect to give their youth the option to invest in their newfound strength. The only connections they made with Hip Hop was that it somehow ‘associated’ itself with gangs and drugs, unwilling and unable to understand the message constructed by pioneers who had experienced similar identity struggles. Such disconnection with American culture were also possible due to a lacking intellectual Hmong community who could advise the direction for it’s people. Nevertheless, this was the exact beginning to Hmong youth starting their traumatic, yet newfound stories.
So what are the connections we can make with Hmong youth and Hip Hop? In truth, the Hmong community still lacks proper communication with Hip Hop and it’s truths. The young Hmong American identity is complicated to understand. The sound of rustling leaves in the wind and the chiming of a mountain morning awakening with the sun reflecting it’s eyes is embodied within our ancestors and speaks to us in visions, but instead we stroll through apartment ghettos and are always accumulated to first-world poverty. We awaken to the sound of our ailing fathers strolling through the hallway outside our room playing Luj Yaj songs on the radio and preparing to go to their minimum wage janitorial jobs that provides. Our mothers are up early cooking breakfast for our younger siblings on five hours of sleep, probably uninformed about the politics that will cut our welfare check in half and push her to four hours of sleep. The entailing morning produces something vastly different from the visions of our ancestors as we make our routine on the way to school and work. At work, we constantly dream about the jungles and herbs we can hopefully someday see with our parents as they did in their childhood again, but we are stuck with the polluted smells of exhausts from the streets and the smell of the sewers by which we live. Our inner being, the one that is bred from mountain men and women who loved their mornings, unable to connect hand in hand with our reality. We are supposed to conform to society and abandon our histories, that all of this is is supposed to bring us closer to where we need to be. Despairingly, we face this tribulation day after day; destroying our mental health and colliding with our academic pursuits.
So, Hip Hop tells us we are doing amazing. When I speak and write about my affairs with life, it empowers me to speak against my oppressors. When I dance, the embodied history of my ancestors come out of me in waves and I dance with them another song. When I draw, the pain that comes from my visions come to life, and I can make sense of the strength that my past has tried to hide. So amazing it is, it makes me humble to breathe another day and live another day to love those around me.
When Kendrick says, “we gon’ be alright.”
I am driven by his story of survival and I, too, know that I will come out in the end a stronger man. Urban America has had it’s difficulties but we are the creators of this story now. I think of that boy who was shot at J4 and I wished he could’ve seen the beauty after the storm. Perhaps we should share a beer and talk about our people’s suffering and problems. The stories we have were not so different, though I’ve never spoken to him. The young Hmong man who disappeared while setting path in the hills of Northern California in order to feed his brothers and his mother, I only wish the world wasn’t so cruel so you would have not had to endanger your life just to survive. Your story is one of many that is the suffering of our people — we are constantly in the subject of others, risking it all just to live. Perhaps if policies weren’t repressive and our nation stops criminalizing affairs of people in poverty, you would not have been endangered. Your story is Hip Hop in Urban America. If one day my community learns to understand the beauty of Hip Hop and it’s messages, then we can arise to express our anger in different ways.
The Hmong brothers who never made it to twenty, I cannot tell you how beautiful life is. It is awakening in the meadows with sobriety while the sun acts like the perfect lover; smiling, peaking at your sleepy eyes. The grayish blue sky always brings a smile to my face while I’m caressed by the light breeze reminding me of my mother’s hold when I was younger. Getting up from my slumber, I make my way out of the dew covered meadow and start my walk down the pummeled dirt path. I am finding my way back to the car, holding the answers that my visions and dreams had just given me. I gather my backpack and boots and imagine myself in the sandals of my forefathers who took similar walks down their hills in Southeast Asia. The emotions of these visions that I get from all my senses, I wonder if my ancestors felt the same in their time. I constantly get reminded of our misfortunes and it makes me feel heartbroken for my people and our past, but nature impresses to inspire my growth and foster my pain. As I make my way into the car, I start my drive and head back to town where I can work with my community again. Playing on bluetooth is Kendrick Lamar’s “I”, to remind myself to love myself and accept my struggles. I find my confidence that already exists but now unlocked by my discovery. I can tell that my forefathers feel my yearning spirit and they come to me to share their strengths. I am home.
Video Links(these are not my work):
Rap, Bboying
Tou Saiko Lee
“Txuj Ci Txom Nyem Hip Hop”
Spoken Word
Sunnyside High School (2015)
”Being a Hmong American”
Spoken Word
Chilli Lor
“Ciaj Ciam Hmoob Meskas”
Rap, Bboying
Hilltribe
“Do It Again”
