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Hmong Identity Archives - Green Card Voices
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Tag: Hmong Identity

Unit 1: Identity and Language – Hmong Identity and Language

Time Frame

  • 1–2 class periods

Materials

  • Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a St. Paul High School – Iya Xiong’s story and video
  • Paj ntaub images – pick one

Connections to the 7 Cs of Ethnic Studies

  • Cultivate: learning about the Hmong history, people, and language to provide opportunities for identity affirmation and healing
  • Celebrate: using Hmong counter-stories and community narratives through storytelling

Instruction (ICCR)

Ignite: Language or Visual

Option A: Language

Write on the board: 
Nyob zoo. Kuv lub npe hu ua . . . 
(Hello. My name is . . .)

Ask students if anyone recognizes the language or can read it. Call on a few to guess or read it out loud. Ask students to raise their hands if they speak a language other than English at home. 

Turn and Talk

Imagine if you were to move to a new country where no one speaks, reads, or understands your language. How would you tell them who you are? How would you tell your story?

  • Ask a few students to share out loud with the class.

Option B: Visual

Show an image of an older traditional paj ntaub clothing piece. 

Ask students to discuss what language or words the designs may convey. Explain that the Hmong believe that their original language was widely written or sewn onto Hmong clothes and paj ntaub as a secret message to warn others of threats and danger. However, over a period of time, the language was lost; all that is left now are symbols and designs. 

Chunk: Oral Tradition

Introduce the Hmong people as an ethnic group from China with a rich culture, who migrated throughout Southeast Asia and eventually migrated to the United States due to their involvement with the CIA in during the Secret War in Laos. Today, Hmong live throughout the United States, with the biggest populations in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and the Twin Cities as home to the largest concentration of Hmong. The Hmong identity has been shaped by a fight to retain their language and culture. 

Explain that for centuries, the Hmong were primarily an oral culture. The Hmong had no written history due to Chinese persecution. They fled from China into South China before migrating to Southeast Asia, and along the way, they lost their written language. 

However, oral tradition has been the primary method of instructing and passing along Hmong history, values, beliefs, cultural knowledge, and stories. Hmong have been able to pass along their rich culture and history through storytelling and oral stories. Stories share life lessons, glimpses of the world, and a sense of identity and community. Storytelling was also the main method of record-keeping of ancestral origins, migration patterns, and life experiences, including major wars and conflicts.

Chunk: Hmong RPA

  • Explain Hmong RPA (Romanized Popular Alphabet), the most common Hmong writing system today. It was developed in the 1950s by Western missionaries and Hmong advisors in Laos: Txiv Plig Nyiaj Pov (Father Yves Bertrais), Dr. Smalley, and Dr. Barney, along with some local Hmong villagers. 

Turn and Talk

How does it influence identity when a foreign power helps structure your written language? 

  • Ask a few students to share out loud. 

Chunk: Hmong Language and Tones

  • Briefly explain that Hmong is a tonal language with eight tones. The final letter in a written Hmong word is usually not pronounced; it indicates the tone or vocal pitch, and each word has its own meaning. 
  • Hmong words are mostly monosyllabic and short. Each word consists of a consonant, a vowel, and a tone. 
  • Consonants can range from one to a blend of four. Vowels are either single or double, and tones are always single. 

Turn and Talk

How does one pass on their oral tradition or history if they don’t know the language?

  • Ask a few students to share out loud. 

Chew: Iya Xiong’s Story and Analysis

  • Provide an excerpt from “Iya Xiong” from Green Card Voices: St. Paul, from the top of page 3 to page 4 (see below, starting with the first full paragraph).
  • Have students read the passage of Iya’s experience in America.

Group Task

  • Read: Read the excerpt together.
  • Discuss: How did Iya’s story help to preserve her identity? How was she able to assimilate into the American culture?
  • Analyze Identity: How does the author maintain and celebrate her Hmong identity despite writing in English?

Guided Questions for Class Discussion

  • In the text, how was language a bridge or a barrier? 
  • How did Iya show that she belonged and affirm her Hmong identity?
  • Compare and contrast Iya’s narrative to yours. How can we celebrate or appreciate the differences?
  • With over 90,000 Hmong people in Minnesota, why do you think Hmong history is often left out of standard American history textbooks?
  • How is language important to the Hmong identity? Can one truly be Hmong without knowing the Hmong language? Why or why not?

Review: 3-2-1 Exit Ticket

On a slip of paper (regular notebook paper or sticky notes) or a digital form, students must write and turn in:

  • Three specific facts they learned about Hmong history or the language
  • Two ways that language and culture influence Hmong identity
  • One question they still have about the relationship between language and identity

Multilingual and ELL Support

  • Provide sentence stems for class discussion and discourse.
  • In the text, how was language a bridge or a barrier?
    • Language was a bridge because . . .
    • Language was a barrier because . . .
  • How did Iya show that she belonged and affirm her Hmong identity?
    • Iya felt she belonged because . . .
    • Iya felt she could be herself more because she could . . .
  • Compare and contrast Iya’s narrative to yours. How can we celebrate or appreciate the differences?
    • Iya and my experiences are similar in that . . .
    • Iya and my experiences are different in that . . .
  • With over 90,000 Hmong people in Minnesota, why do you think Hmong history is often left out of standard American history textbooks?
    • I think Hmong history is left out because . . .
  • How is language important to the Hmong identity? Can one truly be Hmong without knowing the Hmong language? Why or why not?
    • Hmong is important because . . .
    • One can/cannot truly be Hmong without the Hmong language because . . .

Vocabulary and Definitions

  • Diaspora: the spreading of a group of people from their original home to other countries
  • Paj ntaub: traditional Hmong art that is made by stitching a needle onto a fabric cloth
  • Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA): the Hmong reading and writing system that uses the same letters found in English
  • Oral tradition: the practice of passing down Hmong history, culture, and language by telling stories rather than writing
  • Assimilation: the process of fitting into a new culture

Resource List