Q. What is Mien?
A. 'Mien' is simply means 'People', in short of 'Iu Mien' which means "Iu People"
Q. What is "IU" and where did it derived from?
A. "IU" is derived from the "YAO" which was officially given to us in 1949. Others [Chinese, Laos, Thai, etc.] called us Yao, but we called ourselves "IU" - IU or YAO - it's the same Chinese character but pronounced differently.
Q. Do Yao People in China called themselves Iu-Mien as well?
A. Yes (in some part of China), But mostly Yao.
Q. How come Yao people from Laos, Thailand, North Vietnam, and the USA are so different than those Yao in China?
A. Because we had completely lost contact with those in China for hundreds of years. Our ancesters who lived in Laos, Thailand or North Vietnam were all farmers or mountain dwellers. Unlike those in China, our ancesters were too busy doing farming called "slash and burn." Generation after the next, we gradually forgotten our own many important rituals, ceremonials, and festivals. Very sad but true.
Q. During your trip to China in 1992, did the Yao people spoke to you in Mien dialect? If so, could you understand them?
A. Yes, they spoke to me in Mien dialect, and Yes, I understood them but not that well. Most of them have Cantonese accent when speak in Mien dialect.
Q. How many Iu Mien or Yao in the world, approximately?
A. Not that many. My guess is between 3 - 3.5 million Yao/Iu Mien in the world. (over 2 million in China, close to 1 million in North Vietnam, tens of thousands from Laos, Thailand, Burma, and over 35,000 from the USA).
Q. Would you go visit our Yao people in China again if you have the opportunity?
A. Absolutely, I would love to go visit Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan - where the majority of the Yaos live. I want to learn the different Yao rituals, special days that Yao people celebrate each year, and many important festivals they have that my parents/grandparents never mentioned to me before.
Q. What dialect pronounces it "Yao"?
I ask because I have some Mien friends in Northern Thailand which I hope to visit soon. They generally take offense to being called Yao. They consider it a name imposed on them by others... and derogatory, but is it really? It would be fun to furnish them with a real explanation. Especially one so benign.
A. Mandarin pronounces it "Yao" - We are talking about the two different Chinese characters here. They both pronounce 'Yao' but each has its own rootword/radical. Let's call them Yao#1 and Yao#2. As you can see,
Yao#1 is an old character, which contains the 'animal' radical/root. The Han imposed this character to the Iu-Mien because we believe in the legendary Pien Hung (king Pan), a dragon dog, [which volunteers to cross the sea to destroy an enemy of the Chinese emperor. Returning across the sea with the enemy’s head..], took place in some thousand years ago. We Iu-Mien never have accepted such Yao character, we find it quite insulting.
However, Yao#2 is the CORRECT YAO, it contains the "king" radical/root, which to honered the (preferably) King Pan rather than the dragon dog. It is the newly adopted word by modern Yao people of China. This character also means jewels, jades. It's the character you see on the front of my Web Page.
Q. Do you know all the Iu Mien 12 Clans, original surnames?
A. So far, No one knows for sure, but from what I have found from an old Chinese book that my father brought home from China in 1989 -
1. Pan/Bienh; 2. Shen/Chin (??); 3. Bao/Beu; 4. Huang/Yangh; 5. Li/Leiz; 6. Deng/Dangc;
7. Zhou/Chou; 8. Zhao/Zeuz; 9. Hu/Hux; 10. Feng/Bungz; 11. Lei/Leo(??); 12. Tang/Dorngh.
* The ones with ?? means I'm not sure..
Q. Just wondering what sources can you back up your
information?
A. Of course, everything you say has to come from a source to prove that you're not lying.
I go to www.yaozu.com for most of my Yao researches, and some times www.china.org for other nationalities & ethnicities researches.
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