The #1 question that I get of all time is “What is your ethnicity?” No one has ever been able to guess my ethnicity and get it right on the first try. It gets kind of fun after a while hearing all of the guesses. Trust me, I’ve heard pretty much everything and some are out there and really funny. The number one response that I get is that I’m apparently mixed or a hapa. When I ask them what I’m mixed with, the answer is always, “I don’t know, but you’re mixed with some Asian.” Here are some of the responses I’ve gotten which have made me crack up and even my mom had a field day hearing these.
I’m supposedly…
- Half-Canadian & Half-Japanese. (Is Canadian even an ethnicity? As far as I know, it’s a nationality, but not an ethnicity. Correct me if I’m wrong.)
- Half-German & Half-Chinese.
- Half-Irish & Half-Chinese.
- Hispanic. (Believe it or not, I’ve gotten this twice.)
- Chinese.
- Filipino.
- Japanese.
- Korean.
- Half-Korean & Half-Irish.
- Hmong.
- Thai.
- Vietnamese
- Half-Canadian & Half-Vietnamese.
- Cambodian.
- Hawaiian.
The answers usually start off with: “You’re half ____ and half _______.” Then when I tell them that I’m not mixed, but of just one ethnicity, the answers are usually Filipino, Korean, etc. Interesting stuff, huh? Even Eurasians (People of Asian & European mixture) often think I’m one of them. Even people of my own ethnic group can’t tell that I’m one of them which makes me think that I might have been switched at birth at the hospital.
I thought this whole thing started when I was in elementary school, but apparently it started way before that. My Mom said that when I was a toddler, my half-sister was babysitting me and her friend was over. The friend wanted to know whose “Caucasian” kid my half-sister was babysitting. You know how some children have blonde hair and then as they grow older, their hair darkens? I was one of those kids. I had reddish hair and then it darkened according to my mom. That’s why I was mistaken for a white kid. She said that the light skin didn’t help either.
Growing up, I got the same reactions as I do today. It has never bothered me as much as it did my Mom. I have a feeling that even after this blog, I will still get questions regarding my ethnicity, but that’s fine with me.
For those history buffs out there, you are in for a treat! As far as I know, I am 100% of just one ethnicity. Yeah, that’s right, I’m not a MUDBLOOD! I’m Mien. You may wonder, “What the hell is that?!?” Okay, have you heard of Hmong or do you know anyone who is Hmong? Mien folks are similar to Hmong, but we are a whole different ethnic group that reside in the Southeast Asian country of Laos. If you don’t know where Laos is, Google is your best friend! It’s right next to Vietnam, Thailand, and etc. Once again, we are NOT Hmong. I am just using the Hmong comparison because Mien people are not as well known in the mainstream as Hmong people are due to the movie Gran Torino. Nationality-wise, Mien folks residing in Laos are Laotian, but ethnicity-wise, they are Mien. If I lost you there, here is an example. I am an American nationality-wise, but Mien ethnicity-wise. 🙂
Do you or have you known anyone with the last names Saelee, Saechao, Saephanh, Saephan, Saeturn, Saevang, Saechiew, Saeyang, etc? All of those are common Mien last names. Pull out your school yearbook and look for those last names. Who knows, you may have gone to school with a Mien person without knowing. You probably just assumed that Asian kid must be Chinese.
As for Mien history, it is not very clear because there was no written Mien language until just recently. All stories and tales were passed on by word of mouth. The educated ones who did learn how to read and write, did so in Chinese, Lao, or Thai. I hear all different tales of where Mien people are from and of course, it always starts in China! Apparently, the Mien folks were battling over territory in China and lost so they had to find a new place to call home. They were nomads and traveled on foot to other areas and ended up in the country of Laos. The Mien built little villages and were neighbors with *drum roll* the Hmong folks! That is why a lot of Mien people speak multiple languages including Hmong, Lao, Thai, Chinese, Cambodian, etc. There were a lot of Mien scattered all over Asia and Southeast Asia, but the majority stayed in Laos until the Vietnam War.
You may think, wait… “What does the Vietnam War have to do with the country Laos?” Well, if you look on a map, you will see that Laos and Vietnam are neighboring countries. During the Vietnam War, the United States C.I.A. recruited Mien people, dressed them up in American military uniforms, and gave them American weapons to fight the Vietnamese communist soldiers. These covert operations failed and you will read about it in some history books about the “secret wars,” but other than that, it really is a secret because not a lot of people know about it. Once the Vietnamese communist soldiers took over the country of Laos, they captured the Mien people and executed them via firing squad or placed them in concentration camps where they eventually died off due illness and starvation. Obviously, the communist soldiers were not happy that the Mien had assisted the American C.I.A. If you were living in a country where you could possibly not live to see the next day because your people were being killed off, your land was constantly being bombed, what would you do? The only smart move would be to get the hell out, right? A lot of the Mien people had to travel by foot from Laos and into Thailand in order to find their way into the U.S. Can you imagine walking on foot to another country? That already sounds like hell, but imagine being able to only do so by night because if you were caught during the day by Vietnamese communist soldiers, you’d be killed. On top of that, the Mien had to be careful about setting off land mines and getting blown to pieces. Imagine carrying your food on your back, starving, carrying your baby on your back, crossing rivers, and crazy terrain trying to make it out of Laos because you refuse to die. Some made it, while some died along the hard journey to Thailand. It took close to 3 months just to reach the borders of Thailand. Those who did make it to the Thailand refugee camps, went through many hardships. No one was allowed to leave the camps and it was fenced in with barbed wires. In Laos, the way of living was through farming. In the refugee camps, the food was distributed by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but was enforced by Thai authorities. By the time the food reached the refugees, it was nearly gone so many Mien died in the refugee camps due to starvation. My Mom said she was starving while in the camps, but earned some money and some food by selling her cross stitching work. In 1976, Lao refugees were allowed to resettle in western countries. This is how the majority of Mien ended up in the United States. To this day, the majority of Mien people live in California, Washington, and Oregon.
I know I made the history sound short and everything easy, but it definitely wasn’t like that. I’ve heard numerous first-hand accounts from my Mother of what happened during the Vietnam War and the struggles and I am honestly glad that I was born and live in the U.S. It seriously makes you grateful for what you have here because you might not have it elsewhere in the world.
On a side note, to confuse you even more, a lot of Mien are changing their last names! You see, when Mien people were in Thailand going through the process of leaving the refugee camps and resettling in the United States, the prefix “Sae” in Thai was attached to their last names by Thai authorities. According to different sources, “Sae” means name in Thai. Since I’m not Thai nor do I speak Thai, I can’t say that I’m 100% sure that that is what it means. Correct me if I’m wrong. A lot of Mien folks are changing their last names and removing the prefix “Sae” to go back to their original last names in their native country. For example, instead of Saechao, Saelee, Saephanh, Saetuern, Saevang, Saeyang, etc., it’ll be Chao, Lee, Phanh, Teurn, Vang, Yang, and etc. Now, if you think about it, there is no way to distinguish between the different Asian ethnic groups just by the last name. A lot of Asian groups have last names such as Lee, Vang, and etc. I am one of those who think it is a pain in the ass to change my name so I still have the prefix attached.
Well, I hope you found today’s history lesson to be interesting instead of boring. If you are Mien and know more details of our history, please share. I wrote this blog entry based on first hand accounts from the elders who have gone through this crazy journey to get to America.
P.S. If you would like to share your history, feel free to leave comments below!
