Hmong New Year, 2010
SubjectPortrait of
May Xiong
(Hmong, died 2015)
SubjectPortrait of
Shawn Moua
Date2010 November 20
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.428.1-.9
Description2015.196.428.1-.3: Images showing detail views of traditional reverse applique and an embroidered belt worn at the 2010 Hmong New Year celebration.
2015.196.428.4-.5: Images showing Jasmine, the grandaughter of Boua Tong and May Xiong wearing traditional dress of the Miao - Hmong people in China; probably made by May who is pictured in (.5).
2015.196.428.6-.7: Images showing Shawn Moua wearing traditional Hmong clothing.
2015.196.428.8: Image showing performers from Fitchburg, Massachusetts in the Culture Show held after dinner at the 2010 Hmong New Year.
2015.196.428.9: Image showing Hmong cultural leaders from Rhode Island and Connecticut being honored at 2010 Hmong New Year.
NotesSubject Note: CCHAP documented Hmong New Year many times, as part of fieldwork with this community. The 2010 celebration was held in Enfield at the Elks Lodge on North Maple St. 2015.196.428.4-.5: Images showing Jasmine, the grandaughter of Boua Tong and May Xiong wearing traditional dress of the Miao - Hmong people in China; probably made by May who is pictured in (.5).
2015.196.428.6-.7: Images showing Shawn Moua wearing traditional Hmong clothing.
2015.196.428.8: Image showing performers from Fitchburg, Massachusetts in the Culture Show held after dinner at the 2010 Hmong New Year.
2015.196.428.9: Image showing Hmong cultural leaders from Rhode Island and Connecticut being honored at 2010 Hmong New Year.
Subject Note: The Hmong community in Connecticut, around 300 in number, is based mostly in the Enfield and Manchester areas. They work in factories and service occupations, as well as skilled manufacturing, often in aerospace industries. The Hmong came to the United States as refugees from the Indochina wars in the 1970s after the Communist takeover of Laos, sponsored by the American government because many Hmong assisted the military and the CIA. At that time the Hmong were persecuted in Laos, and this still continues today with considerable fighting going on. The Hmong are a tribal group originally from Mongolia who migrated to Laos where many still live today. There are also Hmong communities in northern Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and China (where they are called Miao).
Connecticut Hmong people are both traditional and contemporary. Older women used to make the gorgeous applique and embroidery work known as paj ndau, and they still create traditional costumes for women and men, albeit with modern shortcuts (traditional dyeing techniques are replaced by printed cloth, for instance). Men who are traditional community leaders, such as Boua Tong Xiong, still perform wedding and funeral rituals, as well as conflict resolution according to time-honored practices. Hmong traditions practiced in Connecticut include embroidery and story cloths, funeral and wedding songs, music on the bamboo instrument qeej, ballads and courtship songs kwv ntxhiaj, and social dancing. Hmong leaders started the Hmong Foundation of Connecticut as a way to keep the community together and continue to provide many kinds of needed assistance. The Foundation, which is led by a Board of Directors, is open to all Hmong living in the state. Members provide services such as translation, transportation, family relocation to Connecticut, assistance with finding jobs and access to health care, Hmong language classes, and traditional Hmong advising and dispute resolution. The Hmong Foundation of Connecticut became a separate organization in 1996 after the Connecticut Federation of Refugee Assistance Agencies, an umbrella service group, disbanded. The group sponsors Hmong New Year in November and a celebration for Hmong high school graduates in June.
The Hmong have a number of sub-cultural groups; one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Blue Hmong is their custom of batiking cloth with blue indigo. One specific kind of textile that the Hmong have become known for are the “story cloths”. These are a comparatively new genre first made in the Thai refugee camps around 1975. In these embroidered pieces, direct figurative references are made to folk tales, myths, personal family stories, and scenes of village life. These story cloths also depict the turbulence and hardships of the war years in Southeast Asia. Hmong textile works also include many references to the natural world, to the plants and animals, which are native to the hills of Laos. (Winifred Lambrecht, Ph.D (CCHAP project partner); July 2006)
Subject Note: Hmong New Year, Nyob Zoo Xyoo Tshiab, is the Hmong community’s most important annual festival. The New Year festival, always held late in the year, includes the ball toss, a game between young people that is a courtship ritual; a fashion show of different tribal costumes; a cultural presentation of dance and song; and a community-prepared feast with traditional foods. The spiritual connotation of the festival is for thanksgiving and new beginnings, and to honor ancestors. Hmong participants wear traditional dress, make speeches, and sing songs appropriate to the celebration. New Year also serves as a reminder and practice of traditions, as well as a gathering of cultural and social leaders.
Subject Note: The Hmong Foundation of Connecticut became a separate organization in 1996 after the Connecticut Federation of Refugee Assistance Agencies, an umbrella service group, disbanded. Hmong leaders started the Foundation as a way to keep the community together and continue to provide many kinds of needed assistance. The Foundation, which is led by a Board of Directors, is open to all Hmong living in the state. Members provide services such as translation, transportation, family relocation to Connecticut, assistance with finding jobs and access to health care, Hmong language classes, and traditional Hmong advising and dispute resolution. All activities and services are on a volunteer basis with a small budget based on dues from members of the community. Cultural leader Boua Tong Xiong is a past president, as are Cha Lor, Heu Lee, and Shawn Moua. The group sponsors a Hmong New Year celebration in November and a celebration for Hmong high school graduates in June. The Foundation has received its non-profit status and developed by-laws. In the early and mid 2000s, the Hmong Foundation organized students from the community’s families to participate in language and culture classes as part of a Southeast Asian After-School Project that CCHAP developed in partnership with several communities with NEA funding. The Hmong Foundation provided teachers for the classes, presented the students’ work, and participated in project meeting with other partners. As part of this project, Hmong comedian/educator/activist from Minneapolis Tou Ger Xiong visited the community’s classes. The Foundation continues to serve Connecticut Hmong.
Biographical Note: Boua Tong Xiong came to Connecticut in 1979, after fleeing from northern Laos with his family to Thailand, as so many Hmong had to do after the Communist takeover of Laos. Tong played an important role during the Vietnam War by assisting the U.S. government as part of the Special Guerilla Forces fighting in Laos. Because they were farmers in Laos, many Hmong chose to live in Enfield, a small town north of Hartford rather than settling in a larger urban area. The Hmong community consider Tong to be an important culture bearer, and many of his extended family members followed to live near him in Connecticut. Hmong communities throughout New England ask Boua Tong Xiong to preside over funerals and weddings, because of his experience, his beautiful voice, and his knowledge of the ritual songs, a necessary skill within this very traditional community. He also serves as a counselor to the community, helping to resolve disputes and lead diplomatic outreach to other Hmong families and communities especially in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. Because the men who understand the complete rituals (which take days) are so few, Boua Tong is committed to passing on his knowledge, teaching young men to play the ritual bamboo instrument qeej and sing the wedding and funeral songs. He has participated in CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program for several years. In the early 2000s, he held regular weekend classes attended by between twelve and sixteen young men, either in his house (wedding songs) or in a nearby park - because the funeral rituals are traditionally performed outside. He also knows the joking and courtship songs sung by men and women. Tong regularly visits relatives in larger Hmong communities in California and Minnesota to refresh his knowledge of the rituals and songs. He worked with other veterans including Maj. Sar Phouthasack to establish a memorial in Middletown dedicated to Special Guerilla Unit veterans (including several Connecticut Hmong) who fought for and supported the United States in the Vietnam War. As a result of their efforts to pass the Hmong Veterans Service Recognition Act in Congress in 2018, Lao and Hmong veterans are now entitled to a military burial in Connecticut.
Biographical Note: May Xiong was a remarkable and talented seamstress and embroiderer of traditional Hmong textiles and needlework of all kinds: paj ndau, skirts sewn entirely by hand, reverse appliqué, cross stitch, hats, making the entire costume in the different Hmong styles. Like many older Hmong women over 40, their mothers taught them traditional textile skills around the age of 14, in their Hmong villages in northern Laos. First they learned how to make the cross-stitched collars for the back of the shirt, then they learned the rest of the outfit, with the embroidered apron last. They also learned the paj ndau-story cloths from mothers and female family members. May and other women make whatever clothing Hmong people need, especially for the New Year celebration in November. May was involved as a teacher in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program with other Hmong embroiderers from Massachusetts and Connecticut, from 2006-2008. She was the wife of Boua Tong Xiong. May passed away in 2015.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this community and its artists.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
