History of Hmong Clothing Hearing the guns shooting and running quickly through the forest with love ones trying to escape the Vietnam War, the Hmong people flee to cross the Mekong River. When crossing the river, many of the Hmong people died trying to save lives of others due to the battlefield the people were on. As the war ended in 1975, families that had escaped the war started their new life here, in the United States. Many Hmong people today still embrace their culture (“Hmong Needlework”). Hmong people around the world are known for many things, such as their help with the Vietnam War, culture, language, clothing, etc. Life now in the United States compared to life in Laos was different. In Laos, life of the fathers and sons would …show more content…
Most weaving technique that is used are the reverse applique quilting method. One major material that the clothing is made from is hemp. Hemp is a very important plant and the fibers of the hemp stalk are stripped, spun into fiber threads and woven into cloth (“Hmong Embroidery"). The continuation of the hemp weaving tradition is negatively correlated with an increased standard of living, improvements in infrastructure and exposure to market goods. Hemp continues to play an important role in the traditional ceremonies (Clarke). As the Hmong clothing evolve, synthetic fabrics were preferred over hemp. Traditionally, Hmong embroidery is used as a form of decoration on clothing to make it bright and beautiful. Hmong embroidery includes bright colors: pinks, reds, greens, as well as blues, and these are sometimes used to contrast with the colors of yellow and brown overlaid with white. “Today, many of the Hmong outsiders use sewing machines to make their embroideries” (Moua). Hmong women later adapted traditional motifs and developed new styles and decorations on the clothing (“Hmong …show more content…
For example, to prepare for one's passage into the spirit world, they must be buried in their type of Hmong clothing either if they are white, green, stripe, etc. For the Hmong men, they are usually buried in a suit. While the Hmong women are to be buried in a traditional Hmong white or pleated skirt, wearing the shirt of their type along with a turban hat of their kind. It is traditional for the dead to wear Hmong clothing when buried in Laos because it show respect and it shows guidance for the soul to enter Heaven. Lengths of traditional Hmong funerals in Laos lasted up to almost a week, but here in America today, it lasts three days (Yang 254). Hmong funerals last long because it is to choose a good day for the dead to be buried. In the Hmong community, Hmong clothing is also used for traditional Hmong weddings. As the daughter of a family gets married, the mother in law is to prepare traditional Hmong clothing of their type for the daughter in law to wear as she goes back home for the wedding that is held at the daughter in laws house. The best man and the maid of honor will be dressed exactly the same as the newly wedded couple. After the wedding ceremony at the daughter in laws when the daughter is given away to the new son in law, the daughter is to wear the clothes that her mother had prepared for her to represent what type of Hmong her family is to
One of the things I found was The clothes worn by the men included loincloths or short kilts which were made from a long rectangular piece of animal skin or cloth which was worn between the legs and tucked over a belt. The men started to wear cotton shirts and shorts, and a headband They wore moccasins made of soft leather. The type of clothes worn by the women of the Hopi tribe were cotton dresses called mantas which were fastened at a woman's right shoulder, leaving her left shoulder bare. Early women’s clothes included a dark blue woollen blanket that was fastened above the right shoulder and tied with a belt at the waist. When Hopi girls reach womanhood, their hair was dressed in two large whorls at the side of the head in a squash blossom.
What are the most important aspects of Hmong culture? What do the Hmong consider their most important duties and obligations? How did they affect the Hmong’s transition to the United States?
...hese materials were used because they could be easily found at a low price compared to Hemp fiber and silk. Hemp fiber and silk were used at first but then the Chinese realized there are greater uses for this material. Therefore they started to use the worn fishnet, bark and cloth.
The Hmong people are well known for their survival antics from their silent war with China and their migration from the Vietnam War. Hmong is a term many have never even heard of but their culture it is known as "free people." Hmong textiles has survived just like their whole culture. The attractive handcrafted designs have been in their history for over two centuries, and their embroideries are popular among the Asian countries as well as the United States. Hmong textiles includes a variety of embroideries on their Flower cloths, story cloths, and their New Year dress. All fabrics have powerful importance in their customs to bring prosperity and good fortunes. Needlework is a substantial skill in their community that can not be forgotten, symbolizing work ethics and preservation of their culture.
Vietnam was a highly debated war among citizens of the United States. This war was like no other with regards to how it affected people on the home front. In past war’s, the population of the United States mainly supported the war and admired soldiers for their courage. During the Vietnam War, citizens of the U.S. had a contradictory view than in the past. This dilemma of not having the support of the people originates from the culture and the time period.
The Hmong, an Asian ethnic group, came from an oral culture, where they did not have any written form until the 1950s (McCall, 1999). The Hmong lived an agricultural lifestyle in the hill and mountain areas in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand (McCall, 1999; Tatman, 2004). They focused on physical labor to provide food for the family and lacked formal education, as it was not essential (Lee & Green, 2008; McCall, 1999).
The Hmong people, an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam and Laos, greatly value their culture and traditions. The film “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America” documents the seventeen year journey of the Hmong Shaman, Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America. This film shows the struggle of Paja Thao to maintain their 5000 year-old shamanic traditions as his children embrace the American culture. Moreover, the film shows that one of the major problems refugees like Paja Thao and his family face upon their arrival to the United States is conflict with the American medical system. Despite the dominant biomedical model of health, the film “The Split Horn” shows that
As a young teen, she huddled in a bomb shelter during intense artillery shelling of her hamlet, escaping out a rear exit just as US Marines shouted for the “mama-sans” and “baby-sans” (women and children) to come out the front. She got as far as the nearby river before she heard gunfire. Returning the next day, she encountered a scene that was seared into her brain. “I saw dead people piled up in the hamlet. I saw my mom’s body and my younger siblings,” told Ho Thi Van. She lost eight family members in that 1968 massacre. In all, according to the local survivors, thirty-seven people, including twenty-one children were killed by the Marines. She then joins the guerrillas and fought the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies until she was grievously wounded, losing an eye in battle in
The Hmong culture is firmly rooted in their spiritual belief of animism, ancestral worship and reincarnation. These beliefs connect them to their sense of health and well-being. They view illness as having either a natural or a spiritual cause. A spiritual cause results in a “loss of souls” or is an action or misdeed that may have offended an ancestor’s spirit (California Department of Health Services, 2004, Purnell, 2013, p. 317). The soul escapes the body and may not be able to find its way back home. The Hmong also believe that a combination of natural and supernatural cause’s results in illness, and spells or curses, violation of taboos, accidents, fright, and infectious disease are other causes for illness (Centers for Disease Control
The Hmong Culture of South Asia is a very interesting ethnic group. Between 300,000 to 600,000 Hmong live in Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. About 8 million more live in the southern provinces of China. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia have settled in Australia, France, Canada, and the United States. The largest Hmong refugee community lives in the United States with a population of about 110,000. The U.S. Department of state has tried to spread Hmong refugees out across the country to reduce the impact on any one region. Because Hmong families tend to be large in numbers, the community grows rapidly.
Many Vietnamese fled their country after the Vietnam War when Saigon fell and the Communist Party took over. Many of them began to leave their homes in 1975 and continued to escape in the late 1970s and the 1980s. They left their home, their country, because of the violence in Vietnam and their fear of the Communist Party. During the war, there were a lot of bombs and gunfire, causing many deaths. Then when the communist troops came down to the south, “they shelled the city, causing fires in certain neighborhoods, destroying houses and creating a deep uproar among the already scared Saigonese” (Vo 65). People felt trapped under the new regime. In the book, Voices of Vietnamese Boat People, many immigrants share their family’s stories. Ai-Van Do writes about how his father was sent to a camp in the mountains to be reeducated and had to do hard labor. His
Hayslip, Le Ly, and Jay Wurts. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace. New York: Plume, 1990. Print.
Weaving is a common thread among cultures around the world. Weaving is a way of producing cloth or textile. Today we have machines that weave large-scale textiles at cheap prices. Production of cloth by hand is rarely engaged in today’s Westernized societies. Not many people are thinking about how the fibers are actually constructed to make their clothes. However, in other cultures across the world the tradition of weaving still exists. By comparing three cultures that continue weaving as a part of their tradition we can see similarities and the differences between them. The reasons that each culture still weaves vary, as do the methods and materials. The desired characteristics of the cloth also vary around the world as each culture values different aesthetics.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as
We see stories Social media has more stories of girls being sent home because of dress code violations. Maybe the problem isn’t the students, but dress codes in general. Dress codes ultimately disrupt the pursuit of knowledge for the students, encourage gender bias, and can be dangerous. If we want the younger generations to succeed in the education system, we should utilize school uniforms. Uniforms in schools from elementary to high schools, will promote gender equality and facilitate student safety.