Description: Hmong nationality (苗族), an ancient ethnic minority, distributes all over the world. In China, it mainly gathers in Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hubei, Yunnan and Hainan. According to the record, Hmong ancestors settled down in the middle and lower region of Yellow River. Due to the war, large numbers moved toward south and west. Chinese Hmong nationality takes up population of 9,426,007 on the basis of the census in 2010.
Language: Hmong language
Religion: After a long period of historical development, Hmong nationality has different religion in different area. In general, most of Hmong nationality believes in the original religion including nature worship, totem worship, god worship and ancestor worship.
Nature Worship
The objects of nature worship of Hmong Nationality are sky, earth, sun, moon, huge stone, big tree, bamboo, rock, bridge and so on.
Totem Worship
Hmong nationality once views phoenix, maple, butterfly, god-dog, dragon, bird, eagle and bamboo as their totems.
Ancestor Worship
Up to now, Hmong people are still prevalence of worshipping ancestors. Originally, they considered Jiangyang as the ancestor of Hmong nationality. During festivals, Hmong public hold ceremony of ancestor worship. They set up ancestor’s tablet in the middle of the room to sacrifice everyday.
Clothing Characteristic: Hmong clothing is well-known for its various and colorful. Styles of women’s clothing are more than one hundred, which is said to be the most. Hmong women usually wear front opening coat with narrow sleeve and giant collar on upper body and pleated skirt on lower body. Men are dressed in front opening jacket on upper body, pull a wool felt on shoulder and twine blue turban on the head.
Food Culture: Hmong nationality in southeast of Guizhou, west of Hunan, Hainan Island and Rongshui in Guangxi live on rice, corn, sweet potato and millet. People in northwest of Guizhou, south of Sichuan and northeast of Yunan make corn, potato, buckwheat and oats as principle food. Hmong people especially like the flavor of sour and spicy. Fish in sour soup is the classic of Hmong dinner. Oil tea is a special drink in their daily life.
Festivals: Hmong is an ancient nationality and pay more attention to etiquette. Hmong traditional festivals are divided as function such as farming activity festival, communication festival, socializing, dating and mating festival, sacrificial festival, monumental festival and so on.
Arts: Hmong people is good at both dancing and singing. Lusheng dance, bench dance and bronze-drum dance are specially prevailing. Hmong instruments include sheng (a reed-pipe wind instrument), sona, xiao, yueqin (a four-stringed plucked instrument with a full-moon-shaped sound box) and huqin (a general term for certain two-stringed bowed instruments).
Sophie

