“Miao” Was Even Associated with Native Americans: Miao To Miaozu

From Miao To Miaozu — Alterity in The Formation of Modern Ethnic Groups. “As China began to interact with the world, “Miao” was even associated with Native Americans.”

From Miao To Miaozu — Alterity in The Formation of Modern Ethnic Groups

From “Miao” to “Miaozu” – the Construction of the Modern Ethnic Group Performed by the “Other” | Hmongstudies.Org

A similar tendency can be observed in discussions of “Miaozhong” or “Miaozu” at the time. Although “Miao” began to be associated with the concept of ethnic group and were called “Miaozu,” the meaning of the group did not change much from the “Miao” in pre-modern times. The “Miaozhong” or “Miaozu” in the writings of Zou Rong, Chen Tianhua, Liang Qichao, quoted above, was still used as a blanket term for the non-Han people across southern China and even in areas such as Southeast Asia and Indochina. As China began to interact with the world, “Miao” was even associated with Native Americans. For example, an article on policies regarding Native Americans in different countries in the Americas used the name of “Red Miao” (“Hongmiao”) to refer to the Native Americans. The word “red” here referred to the skin color of the native Americans and had no connection with the “Hongmiao” branch of the Miao ethic group.37 Why should “Miao” be used for the native Americans? Here we can observe some cognitive shift.

As the times changed, so did sinocentric universalism and the hua/yi cultural hierarchy subtly change. This cultural hierarchy, which used to show the absolute supremacy of the Chinese Empire, was now used as a paradigm for understanding the world. On the one hand, the yellow and the white races were in conflict. On the other hand, despite their color difference both the Euro-American white people and the Han Chinese were “people of morality and knowledge” (“de hui shu zhi zhi min”). They were therefore on the side of civilization, i.e., on the side of “hua.” 38 In this sense, the images of the Chinese Miao and the Native Americans overlapped with each other in the paradigm of “hua yi zhi bian”. Aside from the scarcity of information, a more important reason for such an overlap to occur in peopleís minds was perhaps the belief in the similarity between the Miaos and the Native Americans, as they were both seen as displaced “barbarians.”

At the turn of the 20th century, a historical moment of dramatic intellectual development, Miao became Miaozu, and their image also adopted multifarious meanings in the eyes of the “Other”.