Who are the Hmong people?
In late May I spent a week at a Vietnamese farm school teaching English, and it was here that I first learned of the Hmong people. On the first day we were harvesting pineapples and I was helping a young French boy called Ali, we started chatting and I asked where his family lived, he said him and his Mum live in Hanoi, but he doesn't have a Dad. Later on he comes up in conversation with one of the teachers, who tells me that Ali’s Dad belongs to the Hmong people, and lives in Sa Pa. The Hmongs originated in China, later migrating to Thailand, Vietnam and Laos due to conflicts with the Han dynasty, despite living in peace together for many years. As the populations of both groups increased, the volume of fertile land was not enough to support them both, resulting in disputes. The Han Chinese believed that the Hmong should adopt their culture, and so attempted to force the Hmong to change their way of life. The lack of surrender from the Hmong resulted in disputes, eventually leadi...
