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The Hmong, also known as Miao, are an Asian ethnic group whose homeland is in the mountainous regions of southern China (especially Guizhou) that cross into northern Southeast Asia (northern Vietnam and Laos). The term “Miao” is offensive some Hmong people. It probably has a history even longer than that of the Han Chinese. Today, they form the fifth largest of the 56 nationalities officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China.
Nomenclature: Miao or Hmong
Two terms, Miao and Hmong, are both currently used to refer to one of the aboriginal peoples of China. They live mainly in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and Hubei. According to the 1989 census, their number in China was estimated to be about 7 million. Outside China they live in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma, due to migrations starting in the 18th century, and also in the United States, French Guiana and Australia, as a result of recent migrations in the aftermath of the Indochinese wars. Altogether there are approximately 8 million speakers of the language. This language, which consists of 30-40 mutually unintelligible dialects, belongs, together with the Bunu language, to the Miao branch of the Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) language family.
Western researchers do not treat the terminological problems in a uniform way. Early writers used Chinese-based names in various transcriptions: Miao, Miao-tse, Miao-tsze, Meau, Meo, mo, miao-tseu etc., but due to the influence of the Hmong of Laos (a sub-group of the Miao people) some contemporary researchers have adopted another terminology.
The Miao themselves use various self-designations and the Chinese traditionally classified them according to the most characteristic color of the women’s clothes. The list below contains the self-designations, the colour designations and the main regions inhabited by the four major groups of Miao in China:
Ghao Xong, Red Miao west Hunan.
Hmu, Gha Ne (Ka Nao), Black Miao southeast Guizhou.
A Hmao, Big Flowery Miao northwest Guizhou and northeast Yunnan.
Hmong, White Miao, Green (Blue) Miao, Small Flowery Miao south Sichuan, west Guizhou and south Yunnan.
Thus only one group out of four uses the term Hmong. Furthermore, it is only this group which has speakers living outside China. It is these non-Chinese Hmong who advocate that the term Hmong be used not only for designating their dialect group, but also for the other groups living in China. They generally claim that the word Miao is a derogatory term which should not be used at all. Instead the term Hmong is to be used to designate all groups of the people. However this can also be a result of confusing denotation with connotation. The Chinese expeditioners and invaders gave to the Hmong the appellation “Miao”, which later became “Meo” and “Man”. Latter term means the southern “barbarian” – an expression formerly used, in Europe, by the Romans to designate other peoples. The word ‘miao’ has been taken over by other peoples in southeast Asia, Vietnamese, Lao, Thai etc. in the form Meo. Though many of the speakers of those languages (and of Chinese) undoubtedly consider the Miao to be barbarians, this by no means proves that the word itself has that denotation. It is, of course, also possible that the speakers of Lao, Thai and Vietnamese, who have taken over the word ‘miao’ from Chinese, have lost the original meaning “seedling” and use it only to designate a people whom they consider to be barbarian. If pronounced with the wrong tone in Thai or a high tone in Cantonese the word means “cat”. This might explain the strong resentment against the term ‘miao’ among the Hmong groups in southeast Asia.
In China, however, the situation is different for two main reasons. The Miao groups have different self-designations and only a small proportion use the word Hmong. The rest have no feeling that Hmong is in any way preferable to Miao as a common designator. Since the official classification of the minorities in the 1950s some minority groups have complained about the word used in Chinese to designate them and have asked for the government to change the official usage. The Miao groups of China have, to my knowledge, voiced no such concern. The second reason is purely pragmatic: it is impossible to introduce the word ‘hmong’ into Chinese as this syllable does not exist in the Chinese language. As a matter of fact, this is also the case for the English language, as few speakers are able to pronounce an unvoiced nasal. However, in English, unlike Chinese, it is at least possible to write the word Hmong.
Many Hmong living in the West believe that every people should have the right to choose their own self-designation in other languages. At first this policy might seem reasonable, but it would result in numerous problems of spelling and pronunciation if implemented universally.
The Hmong write their name for themselves Hmoob. Doubling a vowel indicates that it is nasal, and several consonants are used at the ends of syllables to denote tones. Thus “America” is written Asmeslivkas in Hmong.
The term Hmong was proposed as the designation of the Miao groups speaking the Hmong dialect in China and for the Miao outside China. This usage is by now well established in Western literature. Some consider that it is best to use Miao as a general term, especially as this is in accord with tradition and is also practical for making the situation clear to persons not specializing in the study of Miao. Many persons have already been confused by the present terminological state and see no connection between the Hmong and the Miao. Perhaps not much can be done about this now but hopefully some people will understand the relation between the words Miao and Hmong better, if they are used in a more logical way.
