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The battle for Hmong heritage in Vietnam
DONG VAN, Vietnam, Feb 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Vuong Duy Bao surveys his
ancestral palace, a vestige of Vietnam’s marginalised Hmong ethnic minority
that he says was taken from his family by local officials.
The wooden structure is laden with historic markers: opium flowers carved
into pillars in a nod to the region’s once-booming trade, and an iron fence
made with metal imported from former colonial ruler France.
Built in 1903 by Bao’s warlord grandfather with his opium fortune, the
retired civil servant claims local authorities took possession of the
property in the northern Ha Giang province from his family and are now
refusing to return it.
“Hmong people all over the world acknowledge this as (our) family home…
so we can’t lose it,” he told AFP from the building, which authorities run as
a museum.
Both sides agree it is an architectural treasure since the historically
nomadic Hmong rarely stayed long enough in one place to build anything
lasting.
Bao had been living in Hanoi, but on return to the family home, he
discovered local authorities had taken ownership of the palace and rejected
his claim to it because he could not provide deeds.
He branded the request “absurd” and said official documents did not exist
when the property was built but his family’s connection to it was set out in
history books about the local area and even in pictures of it displayed in
the museum.
Many Hmong fear the government is simply commandeering their culture to
boost tourism dollars.
For Bao, his battle for repossession goes beyond the personal.
He believes Hmong heritage belongs in the hands of Hmong people, a
tightknit minority originally from China who proudly cling to customs
wherever they settle, from California to Minnesota, Laos and Thailand.
– ‘Community spirit’ –
MORE/MR/ 1040 hrs
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In Vietnam, they have been largely excluded from the economic growth of
the past decade, and more than 60 percent of the country’s one million Hmong
live below the poverty line.
The ethnic group have long been at odds with the central government —
stemming in part from the CIA recruitment of anti-communist Laotian Hmong
during the Vietnam War — which for decades has imposed a series of
resettlement, development and assimilation campaigns that have mostly failed.
“More than any other ethnic minority in Vietnam the Hmong have been
marginalised by programs that purport to develop them,” writes anthropologist
Ngo Tam in her 2016 book “The New Way: Protestantism and the Hmong in
Vietnam.”
Ha Giang authorities are touting tourism as the best way to lift the Hmong
out of gruelling poverty, and the province has said in its master plan it
wants the area to be a “key attraction” for visitors by 2030.
Officials have opened a series of ‘traditional cultural villages’ where
visitors can peek into old-school wooden houses or take photos of themselves
carrying a bamboo basket, a common vessel for Hmong farmers ferrying flowers
or grass from the field.
Local Hmong are encouraged to wear traditional hemp clothing and build
traditional houses, and have been asked to shorten funeral and wedding
ceremonies, days-long, booze-soaked affairs that are among the most sacred of
Hmong rituals.
“Sometimes authorities try to impose their ideas on people forcibly, but
we resist by refusing to follow,” Vang My Sinh, a Hmong man in Ha Giang, told
AFP.
“We’ve always had strong community spirit, we build things together and
preserve things together. Nothing can break us,” he said.
That community spirit has proven powerful.
Troops were sent to quell a massive Hmong protest in 2011, in which some
called for independence.
More recently, Hmong in Vietnam have turned to organised religion and
embraced Protestantism, which makes the communist government nervous.
– ‘Die on the rock’ –
In Ha Giang, some Hmong are happy to comply with government guidelines if
it means improving their lot.
“It is good to preserve tradition, for ourselves, for our children, and
even for tourists who come out of curiosity and bring us more money,” said Va
Thi May, who was selling grilled yams at a quiet roadside stop.
Ethnic minorities are not always the beneficiaries of Vietnam’s booming
tourism sector.
In northern Vietnam’s visitor-saturated Sapa, locals complain hotel owners
from the Kinh majority earn big while ethnic minority women and children hawk
Chinese-made fabric and fake silver.
Regaining control of the Hmong palace could be a small step toward
recovering their own history — and benefitting from local tourist spending.
For some, the loss of the palace is part of a broader issue.
“It’s one of the many things that make Hmong feel marginalised and
definitely adds to their disenfranchisement,” said Sebastian Rumsby, a PhD
candidate at University of Warwick whose research focuses on Christianity
among the Hmong.
Bao hopes to push back against that by getting his palace back — so his
Hmong clan can regain their spiritual homeland.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1040 hrs