Fish Soup
- New set of folks now. The author (Anne Fadiman) tells us how she once heard a story about a Hmong-American student who gave a presentation in front of his French class.
- The presentation was about "soupe de poisson: Fish Soup" (2.1). The student went into exhaustive detail, starting with catching the fish and snowballing from there. It's a lot.
- So why are we telling you this? To the French professor, this anecdote reveals a lot about Hmong culture. In Hmong stories, you have to talk about everything, going back to the beginning of time, in order to truly understand a situation. Yes, it's a useful device to give us an excuse to do exactly that.
- The Hmong people have had a tough existence. They originally live in China, but are driven out of the country after they refuse to assimilate into Chinese culture. Spoiler alert: that's a pattern we'll see repeated again and again.
- The Chinese call the Hmong the "Miao," which means either "barbarians" or "people who sound like cats" (2.4). And not in an adorable, lol-sort of way, either. For their part, the anti-authoritarian Hmong see the Chinese as overbearing and oppressive.
- In 2700 B.C.E., a Chinese emperor named Hoang-ti decrees that any Hmong convicted of a crime will be castrated. Yikes. Now we know where the overbearing-and-oppressive idea comes from. Anyway, this sparks a rebellion that goes on for centuries, until the Hmong finally retreat into the mountains.
- By 400 C.E. the Hmong have established their own mini-kingdom in the mountains. This commune-based society lasts for several hundred years. Until, you guessed it, the Chinese army demolishes it.
- After another century and a half of conflict, the Hmong are tiring of battles. Which we can't really blame them for. Though a good number remain in the mountains of China, many families—the Lees' ancestors included—leave for Vietnam and Laos.
- All of this is to say that you can't push the Hmong around. In fact, there's nothing they hate more than being told what to do. And with a history like that, it sort of makes sense.