Hmong

Member of a Southeast Asian highland people. They are predominantly hill farmers, rearing pigs and cultivating rice and grain, and many are involved in growing the opium poppy. Estimates of the size of the Hmong population vary between 1.5 million and 5 million, the greatest number being in China. Although traditional beliefs, which have many Taoist elements, remain important, many have adopted Christianity. Their language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family. The names Meo or Miao, sometimes used to refer to the Hmong, are considered derogatory.

The Hmong of Laos, because of their strategic location, were cultivated by the US Central Intelligence Agency as a buffer against the neighbouring Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. After the US defeat in Vietnam 1975, the new government in Laos set out to exterminate the Hmong for their pro-American stance, employing chemical weapons, and Hmong refugees from Thailand were forcibly repatriated; around 100,000 Hmong perished.

The Hmong wear distinctive costumes and elaborate silver jewellery. Their villages are endogamous. They are relatively recent arrivals on the Southeast Asian peninsula, many having moved south in order to avoid harassment by Chinese imperial authorities. Today the Hmong live in China (Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan), Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Burma).

There are also a small number of Hmong migrants in the USA, where Amish farmers have hired them as farmworkers and embroiderers.