Hmong New Year, 2018-2019
SubjectPortrait of
My Yang
(Hmong)
SubjectPortrait of
Mai Sia Thao
(Hmong)
SubjectPortrait of
Ching Thao
(Hmong)
SubjectPortrait of
Heu Lee
(Hmong)
SubjectPortrait of
La Kue
(Hmong)
Date2018 November 17
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.430.1-.24
Description2015.196.430.1-.2: Images showing women in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019. The clothing on the left is Blue Hmong, and on the right is White Hmong.
2015.196.430.3: Image showing traditional women's hats worn at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.4: Image showing a woman in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019. The woman is the wife of Blia Kao Yang from Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
2015.196.430.5: Image showing traditional women's hats worn at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.6-.9: Images showing Hmong food served at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.10: Image showing attendees at Hmong New Year celebration 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.11-.12: Images showing My Yang in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.13: Image showing a “Happy New Year” banner.
2015.196.430.14: Image showing sticky rice in banana leaves served at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.15: Image showing young girls dancing at the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year Culture Show. They are the daughters of Train Vu from Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
2015.196.430.16-.17: Images showing women in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.18: Image showing young girls from a Providence dance group dancing at the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year Culture Show.
2015.196.430.19: Image showing a Hmong couple at the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year celebration. The woman is Mai Yia Thao, the sister of Boua Tong Xiong, and her husband Ching Thao.
2015.196.430.20: Image showing Mai Yia Thao in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.21: Image showing Heu Lee speaking on stage on the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year celebration.
2015.196.430.22: Image showing La Kue in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.23-.24: Images showing My Yang from Vernon, Connecticut wearing traditional dress with a hat called Moos Pheeb. Her clothing is in the Black Hmong style from Viet Nam. She gave Lynne Williamson permission to photograph her.
NotesSubject Note: CCHAP documented Hmong New Year many times, as part of fieldwork with this community. The 2018-2019 celebration was held in New Britain at the VFW hall on Veterans Drive. 2015.196.430.3: Image showing traditional women's hats worn at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.4: Image showing a woman in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019. The woman is the wife of Blia Kao Yang from Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
2015.196.430.5: Image showing traditional women's hats worn at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.6-.9: Images showing Hmong food served at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.10: Image showing attendees at Hmong New Year celebration 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.11-.12: Images showing My Yang in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.13: Image showing a “Happy New Year” banner.
2015.196.430.14: Image showing sticky rice in banana leaves served at Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.15: Image showing young girls dancing at the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year Culture Show. They are the daughters of Train Vu from Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
2015.196.430.16-.17: Images showing women in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.18: Image showing young girls from a Providence dance group dancing at the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year Culture Show.
2015.196.430.19: Image showing a Hmong couple at the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year celebration. The woman is Mai Yia Thao, the sister of Boua Tong Xiong, and her husband Ching Thao.
2015.196.430.20: Image showing Mai Yia Thao in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.21: Image showing Heu Lee speaking on stage on the 2018-2019 Hmong New Year celebration.
2015.196.430.22: Image showing La Kue in modern-style traditional dress attending Hmong New Year 2018-2019.
2015.196.430.23-.24: Images showing My Yang from Vernon, Connecticut wearing traditional dress with a hat called Moos Pheeb. Her clothing is in the Black Hmong style from Viet Nam. She gave Lynne Williamson permission to photograph her.
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: Heu Lee (txawjthaiv), White Hmong, has served as the president of the Hmong Foundation. He came to the US in 1976 at the age of 15 as a refugee from the Viet Nam War; his father had fought with the US forces against the North Vietnamese. Heu Lee lives in Stafford Springs and is an aviation/aerospace machinist at Paramount Machine Company in Manchester CT.
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
