Miao people

 ( Ethnic Groups Officially Recognized By China ) 

Miao is a word used in modern China to designate a category of ethnic groups living in southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia. The Miao are the largest ethnic minority group in China without an autonomous region. The Miao live primarily in the mountains of southern China encompassing the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France, and Australia.

Miao is a Chinese language term referring to many groups that have their own autonyms such as Hmong people, Hmu, Xong (Qo-Xiong), and A-Hmao. These people (except those in Hainan) speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong–Mien languages (Miao-Yao) including many mutually unintelligible languages such as the mother tongues of the four primary groups that make up the Miao: Hmong language, Hmu language, Xong language and A-Hmao language.

The Miao umbrella group is not strictly defined by language or ethnicity. Not all Miao subgroups are Hmongic speakers, because the Mienic-speaking Kem Di Mun people in Hainan are also designated as the Miao by the Chinese government, although their linguistically and culturally identical fellows in continental China are designated as the Yao people. Not all Hmongic speakers belong to the Miao either; for example, the speakers of the Bu-Nao language and Bahengic languages are designated as the Yao, and the speakers of the Sheic languages are designated as the She people or the Yao.

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Miao and Hmong

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Miao official status The term "Miao" gained official status in 1949 as a minzu (ethnic group) encompassing a group of linguistically related ethnic minorities (Hmong, Hmao, Hmu, Xong) in Southwest China. This was part of a larger effort to identify and classify minority groups to clarify their role in the national government, including establishing autonomous administrative divisions and allocating the seats for representatives in provincial and national government.

Louisa Schein (1986). 9780913256947, Center for Migration Studies of New York. . ISBN 9780913256947

The push to appropriate Miao as the official name of their minzu nationality received significant contributions from three Miao intellectuals.Cheung Siu-Woo "Miao Identity in Western Guizhou: Indigenism and the politics of appropriation in the southwest china during the republican period" in Hmong or Miao in Asia. 237–40. According to Gary Yia Lee writing in the Hmong Studies Journal, the choice to identify as Miao was a deliberate and strategic decision its members advocated for in recognition of its potential benefits. Rather than being split into multiple smaller groups with short and murky histories, the Miao chose to adopt one ethno-name representing 9.2 million people claiming a long history dating back to ancient China. Their larger population granted them the strength and support befitting of the fifth largest nationality in China. In addition, by claiming kinship to the San Miao referred to in ancient Chinese history, they positioned themselves as pre-existing inhabitants of China prior to the arrival of the Han, imparting a "legendary stature to the present-day Miao" that "bestows the dignity of great antiquity, authoritativeness and a firm standing in the documentary record".

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Historical use Historically, the term "Miao" was applied inconsistently to a variety of non-Han Chinese peoples. Early Chinese-based names use various transcriptions: Miao, Miao-tse, Miao-tsze, Meau, Meo, mo, Miao-tseu etc. In Southeast Asian contexts, words derived from the Chinese "Miao" took on a sense which was perceived as derogatory by the subgroups living in that region. The term re-appeared in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), by which time it had taken on the connotation of "barbarian". Being a variation of Nanman, it was used to refer to the indigenous people in southern China who had not been assimilated into Han culture. During this time, references to "raw" (生 Sheng) and "cooked" (熟 Shu) Miao appear, referring to the level of assimilation and political cooperation of the two groups, making them easier to classify. Not until the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) do more finely grained distinctions appear in writing. Even then, discerning which ethnic groups are included in various classifications can be complex. There has been a historical tendency by the Hmong, who resisted assimilation and political cooperation, to group all Miao peoples together under the term Hmong because of the potential derogatory use of the term Miao. However it is uncertain if the Miao in historical records actually referred to the Hmong and the modern Miao supra-ethno national group includes several groups other than the Hmong. In modern China the term continues to be used regarding the Miao people there.

According to Ruey (1962), the way in which Miao was used in Chinese can roughly be divided into three periods: a legendary period from 2300 BC to 200 BC, then a period when the term generally referred to southern barbarians until 1200 AD, and then a modern period during which the Hmong were probably included. In the 20th century, Western missionaries called the Hmong and A-Hmao the "Big Flowery Miao" ( Da Hua Miao) and the "Little Flowery Miao" ( Xiao Hua Miao). Another source states that the Green and White Miao were the Hmong, the Flowery Miao were the Hmao, the Black Miao were the Hmu language, and the Red Miao wre the Xong language. According to She Miaojun, the Miao only existed as an exonym in the imagination of outsiders all the way up to the Qing dynasty. It did not refer to any self-defined ethnic group united by either territory or language. Others believe that Miao identity emerged during the rebellions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Though the Miao themselves use various self-designations, the Chinese traditionally classify them according to the most characteristic color of the women's clothes. The list below contains some of these self-designations, the color designations, and the main regions inhabited by the four major groups of Miao in China:

• Ghao Xong/Qo Xiong; Xong; Red Miao; Qo Xiong Miao: West Hunan
• Gha Ne/Ka Nao; Hmub; Black Miao; Mhub Miao: Southeast Guizhou
• A-Hmao; Big Flowery Miao: West Guizhou and Northeast Yunnan
• Gha-Mu people; Hmong, Mong; White Miao, Green/Blue Miao, Small Flowery Miao; South and East Yunnan, South Sichuan and West Guizhou

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Differences between the Miao and Hmong Despite speaking related languages belonging to the Hmongic language group, the four primary ethnic groups that make up the official Miao minority group have little in common and their languages are mutually unintelligible. Even the group closest to the Hmong, the Hmao, speak a language that is as different from Hmong as Italian is to French. They diverged significantly as early as a thousand years ago, after which they may have had no relation to each other at all. Without their official classification as the Miao minority after 1949, it is unlikely that they would be able to recognize any affinity with each other. However none of the four groups have obtained official status as distinct minorities in China. Their names are generally unrecognized by the Chinese and are only used as part of the local vernacular language. As a result, only a small portion of the modern Miao people initially identified as Hmong. Of the nine million Miao (2005), around one-third (3 million) are Hmong. Cheung (1996) notes that of the three main texts on Miao culture and history written by Miao people themselves, none were by a Hmong.

The non-equivalence between the Miao and the Hmong was acknowledged in interactions between Hmong refugees and the Miao. When Hmong refugees from France and the US initially made contact with the Miao from China in officially sanctioned visits, they were introduced to the Xong Miao people who were neither Hmong nor spoke the Hmong language. An eyewitness recounts several occasions when a Hmong and a Hmao tried to understand each others' languages without success. They also met an assortment of Miao people who no longer spoke their native language and only knew Chinese. The visiting Hmong were themselves not from China but Southeast Asia. Some Hmong went further to seek out "really Hmong" people through unofficial channels with whom they could speak Hmong to. However even after successfully finding them, they found that there were dialect variations that differed from the Hmong that they grew up speaking. As Hmong refugees discovered the differences between themselves and the Chinese Miao, some non-Hmong Miao people such as the Hmu started referring to themselves as Hmong to express nationalistic sentiments. Contributing to this trend is the tendency of professional linguists to use the names of smaller ethnic groups to refer to the broader categories such as Hmong–Mien languages rather than Miao-Yao languages. This is due to the outsized influence of groups outside of Asia such as the Hmong and Mien who are able to articulate their cause, thereby affecting some proto-nationalistic movements within the Miao to identify as Hmong despite not actually being Hmong.

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Gender roles

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Women's status Compared to the Confucian principles traditionally exercised over women in some regions of China, the Miao culture is generally less strict in categorization of women's roles in society. Miao women exercise relatively more independence, mobility and social freedom. They are known to be strong willed and politically minded. They actively contribute to their communities in social welfare, education, arts and culture, and agricultural farming.

Miao women demonstrate great skill and artistry when making traditional clothing and handicrafts. They excel at embroidering, weaving, paper-cutting, batik, and intricate jewelry casting. From vests, coats, hats, collars and cuffs, to full skirts, and baby carriers, the patterns on their clothes are extremely complicated and colorful with clean lines. Girls of around seven will learn embroidering from mothers and sisters, and by the time they are teenagers, they are quite deft. Additionally, Miao silver jewelry is distinctive for its design, style and craftsmanship. Miao silver jewelry is completely handmade, carved with fine decorative patterns. It's not easy to make and there is not one final masterpiece exactly the same as another. The Miao embroidery and silver jewelry are highly valued, delicate and beautiful.

Silver jewelry is a highly valuable craftwork of the Miao people. Apart from being a cultural tradition, it also symbolises the wealth of Miao women. As a Miao saying goes, "decorated with no silver or embroidery, a girl is not a girl", Miao women are occasionally defined by the amount of silver jewelry she wears or owns. It is especially important to wear heavy and intricate silver headdresses and jewelry during significant occasions and festivals, notably during weddings, funerals and springtime celebration. Silver jewelry is an essential element of Miao marriages, particularly to the bride. Miao families would begin saving silver jewellery for the girls at an early age, wishing their daughters could marry well with the large amount of silver jewelry representing the wealth of the family. Although a growing Miao population is moving from rural Miao regions to cities, the new generation respects the families' silver heritage and is willing to pass on the practice as a cultural tradition more than a showcase of family wealth.

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Workforce and income Although Miao women are not strictly-governed, their social status is often seen as lower than that of men, as in most patriarchal societies. Be it in the subsistence economy or otherwise, men are the main economic force and provide the stable source of income for the family. Women are primarily involved in social welfare, domestic responsibilities, and additionally earn supplementary income.

As tourism became a major economic activity to this ethnic group, Miao women gained more opportunities to join the labor force and earn an income. Women mostly take up jobs that require modern day customer service skills; for example, working as tour guides, selling craftwork and souvenirs, teaching tourists how to make flower wreaths, and even renting ethnic costumes. These jobs require soft skills and hospitality and more visibility in public, but provide a low income. On the contrary, Miao men take up jobs that require more physical strengths and less visibility in public, such as engineering roads, building hotels, boats and pavilions. These jobs generally provide a more stable and profitable source of income.

The above example of unequal division of labor demonstrates, in spite of socioeconomic changes in China, men are still considered the financial backbone of the family.

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Marriage and family

While the Miao people have had their own unique culture, the Confucian ideology exerted significant influences on this ethnic group. It is expected that men are the dominant figures and breadwinners of the family, while women occupy more domestic roles (like cooking and cleaning). There are strict social standards on women to be "virtuous wives and good mothers", and to abide by "three obediences and four virtues", which include cultural moral specifications of women's behavior.

A Miao woman has some cultural freedom in marrying a man of her choice. However, like many other cultures in Asia, there are strict cultural practices on marriage, one being clan exogamy. It is a taboo to marry someone within the same family clan name, even when the couple are not blood related or from the same community.

In contrast to the common practice of the right of succession belonging to the firstborn son, the Miao's inheritance descends to the youngest son. The older sons leave the family and build their own residences, usually in the same province and close to the family. The youngest son is responsible for living with and caring for the aging parents, even after marriage. He receives a larger share of the family's inheritance and his mother's silver jewelry collection, which is used as bridal wealth or dowry.

Some imperially commissioned Han Chinese chieftaincies assimilated with the Miao. Those became the ancestors of a part of the Miao population in Guizhou.

Mark Elvin (2025). 9780300133530, Yale University Press. . ISBN 9780300133530

The Hmong Tian clan in Sizhou began in the seventh century as a migrant Han Chinese clan.

Wm. Clarke Hudson (2025). 9780549442837, Indiana University. ISBN 9780549442837

The origin of the Tunbao people traces back to the Ming dynasty when the Hongwu Emperor sent 300,000 Han Chinese male soldiers in 1381 to conquer Yunnan, with some of the men marrying Yao and Miao women.

James Stuart Olson (1998). 9780313288531, Greenwood Publishing Group. . ISBN 9780313288531

The presence of women presiding over weddings was a feature noted in "Southeast Asian" marriages, such as in 1667 when a Miao woman in Yunnan married a Chinese official.

Some Sinicization occurred, in Yunnan a Miao chief's daughter married a scholar in the 1600s who wrote that she could read, write, and listen in Chinese and read Chinese classics.

Barbara Watson Andaya (2025). 9780824829551, University of Hawaii Press. . ISBN 9780824829551

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History

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Legend of Chiyou and origins According to a Tang dynasty Chinese legend, the Miao who descended from the Jiuli tribe led by Chiyou () were defeated at the Battle of Zhuolu (, a defunct prefecture on the border of present provinces of Hebei and Liaoning) by the military coalition of Huang Di () and Yan Di, leaders of the Huaxia () tribe as the two tribes struggled for supremacy of the Yellow River valley.

The San Miao, according to legend, are the descendants of the Jiuli Tribe. Chinese records record a San Miao (, Three Miao) kingdom around Dongting Lake. It was defeated by Yu the Great. Another Miao kingdom may have emerged in Yunnan around 704 BC that was subjugated by the Chinese in the 3rd century BC. In 2002, the Chu language has been identified as perhaps having influence from Tai–Kam and Miao–Yao languages by researchers at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Chu Language Rhymes at University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Dispersal The Miao were not mentioned again in Chinese records until the Tang dynasty (618–907). In the following period, the Miao migrated throughout southern China and Southeast Asia. They generally inhabited mountainous or marginal lands and took up swidden or slash-and-burn cultivation techniques to farm these lands.

During the Miao Rebellions of the Ming dynasty, thousands of Miao were killed by the imperial forces.

(1988). 9780521243322, Cambridge University Presslocation=. . ISBN 9780521243322

Mass castrations of Miao boys also took place.

Shih-shan Henry Tsai (1996). 9780791426876, SUNY Press. . ISBN 9780791426876

During the Qing Dynasty the Miao fought three wars against the empire.Xiong, Yuepheng L. "Chinese Odyssey: Summer Program offers Students rare opportunity to learn Hmong history in China", HmongNet.org In 1725, a Miao rebellion in Weining, Guizhou, wa suppressed by the imperial army under the lead of Ha Yuanzheng

The issue was so serious that the Yongzheng emperor sent one of his most important officials, Ortai, to be the Viceroy of the provinces with significant Miao populations in 1726, and through 1731, he spent his time putting down rebellions. In 1735 in the southeastern province of Guizhou, the Miao rose up against the government's forced assimilation. Eight counties involving 1,224 villages fought until 1738 when the revolt ended. According to Xiangtan University Professor Wu half the Miao populations were affected by the war.

The second war (1795–1806) involved the provinces of Guizhou and Hunan. Shi Sanbao and Shi Liudeng led this second revolt. Again, it ended in failure, but it took 11 years to quell the uprising.

The greatest of the three wars occurred from 1854 to 1873. Zhang Xiu-mei led this revolt in Guizhou until his capture and death in Changsha, Hunan. This revolt affected over one million people and all the neighbouring provinces. By the time the war ended Professor Wu said only 30 percent of the Miao were left in their home regions. This defeat led to the Hmong people migrating out of China into Laos and Vietnam.

During Qing times, more military garrisons were established in southwest China. Han Chinese soldiers moved into the Taijiang region of Guizhou, married Miao women, and the children were brought up as Miao.

In spite of rebellion against the Han, Hmong leaders made allies with Han merchants.

Mai Na M. Lee (2025). 9780542282768, University of Wisconsin—Madison. . ISBN 9780542282768

The imperial government had to rely on political means to bring in Hmong people into the government: they created multiple competing positions of substantial prestige for Miao people to participate and assimilate into the Qing government system. During the Ming and Qing times, the official position of Kiatong was created in Indochina. The Miao would employ the use of the Kiatong government structure until the 1900s when they entered into French colonial politics in Indochina.

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20th century During the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Miao played an important role in its birth when they helped Mao Zedong to escape the Kuomintang in the Long March with supplies and guides through their territory.

In Vietnam, a powerful Hmong named Vuong Chinh Duc, dubbed the king of the Hmong, aided Ho Chi Minh's nationalist move against the French, and thus secured the Hmong's position in Vietnam.Nevison, Leslie. "In Search of a Hmong King" In Điện Biên Phủ, Hmongs fought on the side of the communist Viet Minh against the pro-French Tai Dam aristocrats. During the Vietnam War, Miao fought on both sides, the Hmong in Laos primarily for the US, across the border in Vietnam for the North-Vietnam coalition, the Chinese-Miao for the Communists. However, after the war the Vietnamese were very aggressive towards the Hmong who suffered many years of reprisals. Most Hmong in Thailand also supported a brief Communist uprising during the war.

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Miao clans with Han origins Some of the origins of the Hmong and Miao clan names are a result of the marriage of Hmong women to Han Chinese men,

(1996). 9789622094024, Hong Kong University Press. . ISBN 9789622094024

Nicholas Tapp (2025). 9783643102584, LIT Verlag Münster. . ISBN 9783643102584

with distinct Han Chinese-descended clans and lineages practicing Han Chinese burial customs.

Stephan Feuchtwang (2025). 9781844720101, Psychology Press. . ISBN 9781844720101

These clans were called "Han Chinese Hmong" ("Hmong Sua") in Sichuan, and were instructed in military tactics by fugitive Han Chinese rebels.

Nicholas Tapp (2025). 9780391041875, BRILL. . ISBN 9780391041875

Such Chinese "surname groups" are comparable to the patrilineal Hmong clans and also practice exogamy.

(2025). 9788187746966, Global Vision Publishing House. . ISBN 9788187746966

(2025). 9788187746973, Global Vision. . ISBN 9788187746973

David Levinson (1993). 9780816888405, G.K. Hall. . ISBN 9780816888405

Timothy J. O'Leary (1991). 9780816888405, Hall. . ISBN 9780816888405

(1999). 9780028653679, Macmillan Library Reference. . ISBN 9780028653679

Han Chinese male soldiers who fought against the Miao rebellions during the Qing and Ming dynasties were known to have married with non-Han women such as the Miao because Han women were less desirable.

(2025). 9780520211032, University of California Press. . ISBN 9780520211032

Brackette Williams (2025). 9781135234768, Routledge. . ISBN 9781135234768

The Wang clan, founded among the Hmong in Gongxian county of Sichuan Yibin district, is one such clan and can trace its origins to several such marriages around the time of the Ming dynasty suppression of the Ah rebels.

(1996). 9789622094024, Hong Kong University Press. . ISBN 9789622094024

Nicholas Tapp wrote that, according to The Story of the Ha Kings in the village, one such Han ancestor was Wang Wu.

Nicholas Tapp (2025). 9780391041875, BRILL. . ISBN 9780391041875

It is also noted that the Wang typically sided with the Chinese, being what Tapp calls "cooked" as opposed to the "raw" peoples who rebelled against the Chinese.

Nicholas Tapp (2025). 9780391041875, BRILL. . ISBN 9780391041875

Hmong women who married Han Chinese men founded a new Xem clan among Northern Thailand's Hmong. Fifty years later in Chiangmai two of their Hmong boy descendants were Catholics.

A Hmong woman and Han Chinese man married and founded northern Thailand's Lau2, or Lauj, clan, with another Han Chinese man of the family name Deng founding another Hmong clan. Some scholars believe this lends further credence to the idea that some or all of the present day Hmong clans were formed in this way.

Jiangxi Han Chinese are claimed by some as the forefathers of the southeast Guizhou Miao, and Miao children were born to the many Miao women married Han Chinese soldiers in Taijiang County in Guizhou before the second half of the 19th century.