Research Notes from the Field - Hmong Studies Internet Resource ...

Research Notes from the Field:Tracing the Path of the Ancestors – A Visit to the Hmong in China by Kou Yang, EdD,
Hmong Studies Journal, 2005, 6: 1-38.
The Miao in China
The Miao are the fifth largest of the fifty-six Chinese nationalities, following the Han, Zhuang,
Manchu, and Hui. The term minority in this paper is defined as “a subordinate group whose members have
significantly less control or power over their own lives than do members of a dominant or the majority group”
(Schaefer, 2000: 6). There are four major groups that are lumped under the name, Miao, and they are
Goshiong/Guoxiong, Hmu, Ah Hmao, and Hmong. According to Gu Wenfeng, Chinese linguists classify the
Miao into three major language groups: Eastern or Western Hunan, Central or Eastern Guizhou, and Western
or the Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan languages. What follows are discussions of each one of the four major
groups.
The Goshiong or Guoxiong is probably the most educated and economically stable of the other Miao
subgroups. They live mostly in Hunan province. Song Zhuying, one of the most well-known Chinese singers,
is from Hunan and a member of the Goshiong subgroup. Song Zhuying is one of the most recognized faces in
today’s China as she sings patriotic songs in almost every major national event in China. Wu Xiaoping, who
has visited the Hmong in the United States many times, is also from Hunan. In general, Qoshiong or
Guoxiong speak in the eastern or western Hunan branch, and the central branch of the Miao language.
In the past, Chinese documents distinguished between the cooked and raw Miao. For example,
Chinese literature from the Qing Dynasty refers to raw Miao as those Miao who live in western Hunan. Gu
Wenfeng suggested that the cooked Miao had been mostly assimilated. For example, there are many villages
in Mayang County in the Hunan Province, who call themselves “Miao”, but retain few aspects of the Miao
culture and language. Quincy (1995:16) describes the cooked Miao as those “who had assimilated into
Chinese culture and settled in the lowlands, and were living among the Chinese. The raw Hmong [Miao] live
up in the mountains and had never accepted Chinese ways.” Although Hebei has only a small population of
Miao, one of its Vice-Governors is a Miao. Long Zhunagwei, a Vice-Governor of Hebei, is a Miao and native
of Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province.
The Hmu live mostly in southeast Guizhou in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Prefecture. They
have well known and admired costumes. Professors Li Jinping, who belongs to the Hmu, explained to the
group during his lecture about Miao history that silver ornaments of the Hmu can cost up to three thousand
US dollars or more. Many Hmu girls wear the silver buffalo horns during their major festivities. Many of
today’s leaders in Guizhou, such as Wang Chaowen, the former Governor of Guizhou, are Hmu. Generally,
the Hmu speak the Central or Eastern Guizhou branch of the Miao language family.