SchoolArts - October 2007

Hmong Story Cloths

Long ago, according to the Hmong, people and plants
made an agreement. The people planted the crops,
then watered, weeded, and protected them from
wild animals. In return, when they were ripe, the veg-
etables and grains walked themselves from the fields
to the storehouses. But the people became lazy and
neglected to build the storehouses.
When the crops arrived, there was no place for them
to go. Sadly, they returned to the fields, and ever since,
people have had to do their own harvesting. This story
cloth evidently shows a happier time, as a man and
woman sweep the path for the arriving squash and
tubers, rice and corn, who walk from the fields on
flesh-colored human legs towards the storehouses
prepared for them. (See image)

Rebecca Arkenberg

The Hmong, a nomadic and agrarian people, may date back 5000 years. Today they live in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, where during the Vietnam War and its aftermath, many Hmong were killed or persecuted for siding with the American military. In the 1970s, thousands fled to Thailand, where they were placed in refugee camps, and many eventually immigrated to the United States, settling in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, or places where they could continue their agrarian lifestyle and cultural traditions.

The Hmong in the U.S. Today there are about 150,000 Hmong in the United States, where their story cloths and embroidered

32 SchoolArts October 2007

items often appear in craft shows and exhibitions. Sometimes they are referred to as paj ntaub (“pan dow”), a term that encompasses all Hmong embroidery and appliqué techniques. While men may help by drawing the designs on the cloth, the art form is mainly practiced by women.

Often labeled as “traditional handicraft,” story cloths represent a complex definition. The textile tech- niques long-established among the Hmong are applied to festival and ceremonial clothing. The designs are abstract in nature, with patterns that fill the entire space, and colors are based on yin-yang oppositions— pink and lime green, yellow and red, etc. Resist-dyeing techniques, cross stitch, appliqué, and pleating may be combined. In contrast, the story cloths are pictorial and narrative;

they do not fill the entire space or create a pattern. The colors are more or less realistic, and the embroidery is based on outline and long filling stitches.

Origins of Story Cloth Where and when did the story cloths originate? One explanation credits a subgroup from China with intro- ducing representational embroidery. Others argue that Hmong traditional embroideries were always meant to be images of footprints, snail shells, and other concrete objects. The narrative story cloths have been linked to the development of a written language among the Hmong, and it is true that Christian missionaries asked Hmong men to illustrate the English as a second language storybooks they were creating.