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So the Hmong have always had at least some interest in my mind, not least for the unique relationship Merced has with the Hmong diaspora in the United States. And I approached this project with the idea of creating a map based on a Hmong success in the War of the Insane, where the French give the Hmong territory of their own. And this in and of itself causes problems because first and foremost there's no good resources I can find that give Hmong placenames for areas on the Laos-Vietnam border, nor do I want to try making some knowing I'd probably do a dogshit job. The other problem is one of history and culture in general. The Hmong have no country. They are an somewhat migratory people, originating first in China before moving southwards to escape persecution and war before finally entering Southeast Asia in the early 1800s. And the whole of Hmong "history" is one that exists almost wholly in relation to the other nations that they live in, at least from an epistemological standpoint.

So I gave up, which is rare for maps. But I did already have a flag made, which I think is nice enough to post on its own. The flag has 18 stars around its outside to represent the 18 Hmong clans, while a geometric shape in the center is a Hmong symbolic representation of "house", which I figure could be taken to mean all the Hmong people coming together to create a home for themselves. The red would be the years of bloodshed, and the gold would be a bright and prosperous new future from finally gaining a country for themselves after 3000 years on the run. In a way the Hmong are very similar to the Romani in this way. You could theoretically just put them together into a single territory but not only would they be dispersed across most of the region surrounding it but the cultural and linguistic boundaries would end up causing a lot of troubles for the process of nation-building, not least for the fact that the Hmong are hated by just about everyone around them and the actual process of making a Hmong nation-state would be an uphill battle all the way.

Description

So the Hmong have always had at least some interest in my mind, not least for the unique relationship Merced has with the Hmong diaspora in the United States. And I approached this project with the idea of creating a map based on a Hmong success in the War of the Insane, where the French give the Hmong territory of their own. And this in and of itself causes problems because first and foremost there's no good resources I can find that give Hmong placenames for areas on the Laos-Vietnam border, nor do I want to try making some knowing I'd probably do a dogshit job. The other problem is one of history and culture in general. The Hmong have no country. They are an somewhat migratory people, originating first in China before moving southwards to escape persecution and war before finally entering Southeast Asia in the early 1800s. And the whole of Hmong "history" is one that exists almost wholly in relation to the other nations that they live in, at least from an epistemological standpoint.

So I gave up, which is rare for maps. But I did already have a flag made, which I think is nice enough to post on its own. The flag has 18 stars around its outside to represent the 18 Hmong clans, while a geometric shape in the center is a Hmong symbolic representation of "house", which I figure could be taken to mean all the Hmong people coming together to create a home for themselves. The red would be the years of bloodshed, and the gold would be a bright and prosperous new future from finally gaining a country for themselves after 3000 years on the run. In a way the Hmong are very similar to the Romani in this way. You could theoretically just put them together into a single territory but not only would they be dispersed across most of the region surrounding it but the cultural and linguistic boundaries would end up causing a lot of troubles for the process of nation-building, not least for the fact that the Hmong are hated by just about everyone around them and the actual process of making a Hmong nation-state would be an uphill battle all the way.