Hmong celebrate New Year with mingling of cultures

Traditional dress, modern music part of scene at Lenoir festivities

Saturday, November 25, 2006

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer


LENOIR -- Paul "L.P." Yang held a microphone to his mouth and began, closing his eyes in concentration and waving his right hand in the air.

The smell of cooking chicken, noodles, rice and sausage wafted, and a handful of Hmong teens, some dressed in baggy pants and tank tops and others in traditional costume, stopped Friday to watch the one-man show.

Yang drove more than 10 hours from Detroit with a few fellow rappers to perform and sell CDs from his Shaolin Entertainment label at this week's Hmong New Year festivities at the Caldwell County fairgrounds in Lenoir, about 70 miles northwest of Charlotte.


The New Year festival, traditionally held after the harvest season in late November, celebrates millennia-old Hmong culture with dancing, music, games and food.

Yang, 20, said he doesn't see blending rap music with the ancient culture as a conflict. Instead, Yang said he'll rap about the Hmong people of Laos helping U.S. forces during the Vietnam War or about the hardships they endured in fleeing persecution after the battles ended.

"It's a way to introduce people in the rap community to my culture," he said. "The older Hmong don't understand it, but the youth do."

It's that kind of blending that Yang said helps younger Hmong appreciate their culture while assimilating in the United States.

For young and old Hmong, preserving their culture is one of the community's biggest concerns, said Tong Yang, executive director of the United Hmong Association of North Carolina.

More than 300,000 Hmong from Laos have sought refuge in the United States since the late 1970s, and about 15,000 have settled in North Carolina. Most of those live in Catawba, Burke, Alexander, Caldwell and McDowell counties in the Catawba Valley, where the foothills terrain and climate are similar to their Laotian homeland.

The Hmong, Yang said, have begun blending Western culture with traditional New Year activities. Religious beliefs, with Hmong thanking their ancestors for the ending of the year, have merged with more modern customs, such as talent shows and beauty pageants.

"It's something we can do to mix Hmong culture and our American culture," he said.

At the fairgrounds Friday, middle-aged Hmong men wander in black suits, eyeing booths stocked with traditional outfits, DVDs, toys and an array of food and sweets. Clinking silver coins swish against the colorful fabrics of the outfits worn by giggling teenage girls and smiling boys.

Mothers dressed in slacks and blouses push toddlers wearing traditional woven vests in strollers.

For Marissa Hang, a 23-year-old mother of two, bringing her kids to the New Year celebration is the best way to teach them about Hmong tradition. For the opening festivities Thursday, she dressed up her 1-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter in the traditional garb.

"This is the only time of the year we can see our culture in full bloom," she said. "Even if it is only for a few days."

Yang said this year's three-day celebration has brought about 10,000 Hmong from as far as California and Minnesota.

Joe Lee, 23, and his older brother, Waii, drove from Spartanburg with some friends to attend the festivities.

"I feel bad because I didn't come here dressed up," Joe Lee said. "It's good to stay connected, and a lot of (Hmong) kids don't know about it."

Though the Lees wore jeans and T-shirts rather than traditional garments, the brothers said participating in Hmong celebrations is critical to preserving the culture.

"Living in America, you learn all this new culture," Waii Lee said. "It's tough to think about everything you're losing, but we try to keep a little bit of it inside as we adapt."


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