'Love, loss, and longing'

Aug. 10—A new podcast based in Sacramento was announced last month by the name of "Hmong-ish"

"Hmong-ish" attempts to explore the cultural identity of Hmong-Americans, and how this ethnicity has come to view itself here and across the globe.

The podcast is co-hosted by Pachia Lucy Vang and Shoun Thao, whose family were some of the first Hmong residents of Yuba County. Vang, of Sacramento, is the owner of Culture through Cloth, and Thao is now director of the HOPE Center, which stands for Hmong Organizing for Progress and Empowerment.

The Hmong people originated in China, but political unrest caused the majority to migrate south to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. During the Vietnam War, and the Secret War in Laos, many Hmong were recruited into the CIA's "Special Guerrilla Units" and fought on behalf of America. A significant amount of lives were lost in these wars, and once the U.S. started to withdraw its forces in 1973, many Hmong people were left to fend for themselves or take refuge in other nearby countries and overseas.

For this reason, the 1970s and 80s saw a mass influx of Hmong immigration to the United States, with most groups settling in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Currently, California boasts the largest Hmong population in the country with Fresno and Sacramento housing the highest concentrations. A large Hmong community has also been established within the Yuba-Sutter region, comprising approximately 16% of all Linda residents.

Thao was one of these residents, being born in Linda in 1990 and calling it home for the first six years of his life. He attended Cedar Lane in Olivehurst for both preschool and the start of kindergarten. His father moved to the area around 1985, and they believe their family was either the first or second Hmong family to settle in the community.

"They came from the Bay Area, and they were actually driving to Eureka because the Bay Area was so unaffordable," explained Thao. "And then they drove though Linda and Marysville and they were like, 'we like this place, let's check it out.' They went to the county social work department to talk to them and the next thing you know my dad's uncles just moved there and then my dad follows through right after."

Moving in family groups or communities is referred to by both Thao and Yang, something that appears to be relatively common in Hmong culture.

Thao still has many relatives that live in Marysville and Linda and he enjoys attending the annual Lantern Festival at Ellis Lake hosted by Lotus Moon, another Hmong organization.

When asked what the initial draw was for Hmong people to want to settle in Yuba County, Thao replied, "I think they just love the community there. It's a little bit rural but still close to Sacramento and Oroville. It's just the perfect location."

Hmong people now reside in different regions across the globe. This diversity is one of the reasons Thao and Vang's podcast is so relevant to the community. Defining Hmong culture and what it means to be Hmong differs from person to person and from one group to another. Nevertheless, some similarities have stayed consistent.

"One interesting thing is how we greet each other," said Yang. "For me growing up, part of the conversation when you find out someone's Hmong it's like, 'Oh what's your last name and where's your family from?' So culturally, lineage plays an important part of who you are and where you've come from. I think that immediate connection is a type of comradery. We come from this history that not a lot of people know, but we ourselves know about who we are."

Yang is pursuing a master's degree with a focus on Hmong clothing and textiles. She feels Hmong clothing has come to embody a large part of the culture and people's associations with it.

"We didn't have a writing system for a very long time," explained Yang. "As with many other people and cultures, clothing is always linked to writing, like textiles and text for example. And that's something we see in Hmong history as well. A lot of our oral history and mythology talk about how the patterns and the symbols of our clothing were ancient script that we used when we had a writing system, which was lost throughout the ages."

The symbols that Yang refers to are still in use in Hmong communities across the globe, and many have remained unchanged since their inception.

Aside from outer style, Thao and Vang describe the cultural arts of Hmong as a "blend," influenced by their nomadic history. But one of the most important and unifying forms of Hmong expression has come from its music.

"I think for the Hmong community, we communicate through our songs," said Thao. "Sometimes when you meet a musician and they're playing you a song, they can actually translate that song into words and sing it to you. It could either be a love song, or a song of longing, or a song of loss, those are most likely the three types of music that we play or sing: love, loss and longing."

Thoa and Vang expanded on the significance of a Hmong song in an encounter they had during a recent trip to China.

"We were on a boat, and they were singing back and forth to each other," said Thao. "And when they sang their songs and we sang our songs, there were certain verses and stanzas that were just the same. It was like, 'wow, this hasn't changed,' even though these communities hadn't seen each other for 400 years or so. Our language has changed, and we pronounce things differently, yet the songs are still the same."

Every year Hmong communities showcase their culture in events like the Hmong New Year. This is a great time for the public to learn about and experience Hmong cultures including dance, music, and clothing. The Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds has hosted many of these annual events in the past, with the last one taking place in 2018, according to the events page for the Hmong American Association in Yuba City. Other similar events are hosted annually in Oroville and Sacramento, with the biggest taking place in Fresno.

To learn more about Hmong culture, and the fun things Yang and Thao are up to, check out the "Hmong-ish" podcast at buzzsprout.com/2006421. "Hmong-ish" is produced by Hmong American Media and streams on a variety of platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Overcast. The podcast can also be followed on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.