News Highlights

Hundreds celebrate Hmong New Year at MSU festival

2006-04-09

By Robb Murray, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN]

Photo by Pat Christman

A fashion show was among the many events at the Hmong celebration at MSU Saturday.

MANKATO — Several hundred people who showed up at the annual Hmong celebration at Minnesota State University Saturday spent the day immersed in ritual and culture.

The scent of traditional Hmong food warmed MSU's Centennial Student Union, the sounds of bells on ceremonial outfits filled the ballroom, and the bright colors and shiny sequins made you wonder why everyone doesn't dress like that.

"A Hmong Among Us: The Rituals of Our Lives," the annual showcase put on by the Hmong Student Association, packed more than 300 people into the ballroom. The three-hour event featured a fashion show, folksinging, a qeej (wind instrument) performance, modern Hmong dance and food for everybody.

The Hmong are an ancient tribal people with a complicated and somewhat mysterious history. Much of their history was kept orally. Chinese history shows the Hmong populated southern China as early as 4,000 B.C. Eventually they migrated to Laos, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand. During the 1970s and 1980s, many came to the United States. Many of those settled in Minnesota.

Today, Minnesota has one of the largest Hmong populations in the country. MSU has about 50 Hmong students, 30-40 of whom are active members in the Hmong Student Association.

Interspersed throughout Saturday's event was a theme of rituals, specifically marriage rituals.

Early in the program, two couples took the stage and, with all dialogue spoken in both Hmong and English, they talked through a concept that, while foreign to westerners, has history for the Hmong people that goes back centuries.

One couple, the scene showed, was letting the other know that their daughter would be available to their son until a certain time, after that, they would allow other suitors as well. The actors later portrayed a courtship scene, and later, a scene depicting what organizers call a "kidnapping."

This "kidnapping" is, as its name implies, a forceful taking of a woman by a man who, after several days, can demand of her parents that a marriage be allowed. In modern times, however, the "kidnapping" is all for show, and marriage had been the plan all along.

"It doesn't really happen very often," said Mee Yang, one of the event's coordinators. "Most of the Hmong people are adapting more and more to American culture. Even my parents' generation cannot understand the meaning behind it."

Organizers were happy with the turnout. Although, with most of the crowd being of Asian ethnicity, organizers say they'd hoped to attract more non-Asians.

"We had a really good turnout, which is great," organizer Bettsy Yang said. "There are a lot of faculty, a lot of students. But not as many (non-Asians) as we'd like."

A Hmong celebration has been an annual event at MSU since the early 1990s. Each year, Yang said, they try to put on an event that will give people a taste of Hmong culture, including food, fashion and a list of speakers.

This year's keynote speaker was Toob Vaj Lee, a professor at California State University, Santa Clara.

Lee, whose talk was in both Hmong and English, told the crowd to rejoice in the Hmong New Year.

"For the young, it is a time for a new beginning, for looking for love and companionship," he said. "And no matter where everyone has gone, New Year's is a time to welcome them home."

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