Lesson 4: Preserving the Hmong script and the pao throwing festival

(Baonghean) - Young people in ethnic minority communities have been deeply influenced by modern culture. However, for young Hmong people, modern life seems to have had little impact on their lifestyle. The Hmong script, the pao throwing festival, and traditional clothing are still present in their daily lives...

Like many other young people in Hop Thanh village (Xa Luong - Tuong Duong), Li Ba Chia (born in 1991) received a relatively basic education. After finishing 12th grade, his parents sent him to "Vinh village" (Vinh City) to study electrical engineering. Being practical-minded, Mr. Khu, Chia's father, chose electrical engineering for his son, thinking that even if he couldn't find a job, he could still return to serve his family and village. Many parents in this small village, less than 20km from the district center, consider their children's education very important, and the young Mong people in Hop Thanh village today no longer drop out of school as often as before. They have also had more contact with other communities and are as knowledgeable as the Thai and Kinh people when they go out. However, when interacting with other communities, they are still recognizable by their distinctive way of speaking and life philosophy...

The pao throwing festival of Hmong boys and girls.

From the time he learned to read and write in the Vietnamese language at primary school, Li Ba Chia began to be taught the Hmong language by his parents and elders in the village. As a Hmong person, everyone knows that their ancestors have long used the Latin alphabet to record their spoken language. When they established Hop Thanh village more than 20 years ago, almost all the beautiful cultural aspects from their time in Nam Can and Muong Long (Ky Son) were preserved by the villagers. The younger generation today is also very conscious of preserving community culture. Young parents in the village seem to only teach their children to speak Hmong, unlike other communities where children are taught to speak the common language from birth. The Hmong language remains an indispensable part of the modern lives of young people. Li Ba Chia said that in the early days of studying far from home, before using telephones, he still wrote letters to his parents in Hmong. Nowadays, with mobile phones becoming commonplace, young people in the village still use the Hmong script to communicate via text messages. The Hmong script is easily popularized because it uses entirely Latin letters for phonetic transcription. Even the tone marks are represented by letters. Not only Li Ba Chia, but most young Hmong people in Tuong Duong and Ky Son that we have had the opportunity to interact with can use the Hmong script.

For young Hmong people, not only is writing important, but the pao-throwing festival is also crucial to their spiritual lives. The pao-throwing festival usually takes place only once a year, during the Lunar New Year. In the past, before the traditional Hmong New Year was abolished, young men and women in these high-altitude communities would hold pao-throwing events around the 11th lunar month. The pao balls were sewn by Hmong girls using pieces of colored cloth, filled with rice husks or cotton seeds. Nowadays, durable and beautiful tennis balls are used instead of cloth bags. Hmong boys and girls stand in two rows, boys on one side, girls on the other. The pao ball is tossed from the girls' hands to the boys', and then the boys toss it back. In this way, lively conversations take place. Normally, young boys and girls would feel shy passing each other. But after participating in the pao-throwing festival, everyone becomes confident and friendly. Initially, the distance between the rows of pao throwers was about a few arm lengths. As the conversation became more friendly, the boys proactively shortened the distance, allowing their girlfriends to move closer. By the time the pao throwing game was ending, the distance between them was only about an arm's length, and many couples had already struck up a pleasant conversation. After parting ways, the young couples felt a sense of longing, reluctant to let the fun end. They arranged to meet again the next day at another pao throwing game...

At the pao-throwing festival in Huoi Son village (Tam Hop commune, Tuong Duong district) during the Lunar New Year of the Year of the Horse (2014), Vu Y Dia, a young girl, confided: "Thanks to pao-throwing festivals like this, many people have found their spouses. As a hardworking community, apart from important holidays, most Mong boys and girls are in the fields and on the farms; some go to school or work far away. The pao-throwing festival is a rare opportunity for young men and women to meet and get to know each other. Thanks to that, many have found their partners!"

Vừ Y Dìa also said that young Hmong people today have become more "open-minded" in their lifestyles. Most girls in the village have gone to school. Many also know about mobile phones, although they have to go near the commune center to make calls. The pao throwing festival is no longer the only way for Hmong boys and girls to meet. Young people have become more proactive in contacting and finding partners. After busy days, Hmong boys have also "learned the way" of their Thai friends, going to their girlfriends' houses to express their intentions.

In a recent meeting, Y Dìa mentioned that she is still unmarried despite being 20 years old, and that many people have asked her to be their "life partner." Few Hmong girls in the village marry so late. But for her, establishing a career comes first. However, she still looks forward to the pao-throwing festival. It's an indispensable part of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

Visiting the Thai and Khmu communities in many areas of western Nghe An province, most young people have moved away from their traditional local clothing. This is understandable, as the designs of these garments are no longer suitable for modern working life. However, for young women in the Hmong villages of Na Ngoi (Ky Son district), Hmong traditional clothing is still worn when working in the fields. Lau Y Mi is one of the young women residing in Ka Duoi village who still often wears Hmong clothing in her daily life. In her free time, Y Mi embroiders baby carriers to use when she gets married or as gifts for married relatives in her clan.

As for the young teacher Vu Y Mai (from Muong Long - Ky Son district), whom we met in a Hmong language class in Muong Xen town, a woman with a rather modern lifestyle, the Hmong dress is still very necessary. She said that outside of class or participating in social activities that require dynamism, she still dresses like young people in the lowlands. But when she returns to her village, she still prefers to wear the Hmong dress...

Living in a close-knit community that is still somewhat culturally isolated, the Hmong youth in the highlands today have managed to preserve the fundamental cultural characteristics of their ethnic group. For them, the issue of preserving their indigenous cultural identity is not as pressing as it is for the youth of other minority communities in the highlands of Nghe An!

Text and photos:Huu Vi