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You are welcome to send in comments, suggestions, personal stories or reflections you or a relative of yours may have about Shong Lue Yang. Personal insight, cultural/academic research, interviews and editorials are also encouraged.
Every brothers and sisters Shong Lue Yang is just like a Thomas Edison. He discover something so advanced for us. Then people thought Thomas Edison was crazy to think he could come up with a light bulb. Same story. Forget about politics between Hmong people. We need to be proud that a Hmong man has developed a fine Hmong writing system for us. Just think about the future for us every one. Every language takes mostly 2 to 7+ characters to form a word. This writing system that we have takes mostly 1 or 2 to form a word. What does this mean for our new generations? This means if Hmong's new generation can put this writing system to use in education becomming a Doctor, Lawyer, etc.., we would read 2 books while the rest of the world reads 7+ books. They finish 1 Ph.D, we finish 3 or 4 Ph.D. If we already see this great advantage why are we still debating with the old generations if this is good or not. If we put our minds together in our lauguage, heck even my Gramma can finish a Ph. D. faster then I can because she more fluent in our language. If I use our writing system this masage would be 3 times shorter then this. Why should we be proud of our writing system? It's ours, it's Hmong made so we can say it's ours. Althoug the RPA is well known it will never be ours, it's not Hmong made. Let's face reality. You can't say that some one else's son is your son. If you and your wife/husband had a son then he is yours to claim. By using analogy people can see exactly what I'm talking about. Brothers and sisters I've thought of this for some time and I thought I should let everyone know about our language's technology and advancement. My comments are not to hate or create arguements but to let the young generations know of our future potentials and be proud that one day in the future we will stand above many nations as a leader in technologies.
Shong Lue was a genius, I think. He created something out of nothing. Let me explain....we all know that Einstein was a scientist who studied for many years before he discovered the theory of relativity...there are many people like Einstein who had the luxury and background to become great. I'm a software developer. I went to college and I study math and science and computer programming to learn how to become a software developer. I think of myself as a pretty smart guy who has a lot of knowledge in math, science, and computer programming. If I someday created a new computer programming language, everyone can easily conclude that I am able to do that because I have studied and programmed for many years. Now imagine that I wasn't educated and I know nothing about computer programming and one day I just created a new computer programming language....that is Shong Lue Yang. He is either a genius or it's divine intervention.
When I found motherofwriting.com on the internet, I found a part of myself. Whoever you are, thanks for putting up the web site.
Pretty neat site. I think Shong Lue Yang was a man ahead of his time. He understood things that Hmong people during his time did not understand. He saw things that Hmong people during his time could not see. So like many great men throughout history, he was assassinated for being great and ahead of his time.
i just want to say that this is a pretty cool website and that if hmong people research back into history, they will find that shong lue is the "father" of hmong nationalism.
My father followed Shong Lue Yang from Vietnam all the way to Loas. Although, he doesn't like to talk too much about Shong Lue (even though he said they slept in the same room together), he did mention that following Shong Lue was probably the greatest thing he ever did in his life because it brought him to America while all his brothers are still living in proverty in Vietnam.
Niam Ntawv is not what it sounds like. "Niam" in Hmong means "Mother" and "ntawv" means paper, letter or writing or education--whichever you choose depends on the context of the moment. But some Caucasians have interpreted Niam Ntawv literally as "Mother of Writing." They did this for two reasons: 1. they knew the word niam to mean exactly what it sounds like: mother, and the word ntawv to be writing--in the context of a system of scribbled communications; 2. the people who coined up this translation in this manner were women Ph.D.'s who felt closer to their mothers--and largely feminist activists--and wanted to perpetuate this word. A secondary guessing or an implicit translation of this word this way, though, is that mother--like mother nature--is the source of all creations. In this sense, the translators felt that this translation was as close to its meaning as possible. Of course, I don't argue with that. I simply add one more clarification to it: as used in the context of Shong Lue Yang's work of consonants, vowels, and other printed communication marks, not himself but his efforts and the products of his efforts, Niam Ntawv really meant Writing Originator. In this sense, this last translation is identical to the other people's idea that Shong Lue was the source of writing creation. Now, how different? Well, I just wanted to point out other ways. For all we care, he was also the writing maker, letter developer, etc. Anything to that effect, right?
Controversy arose, however, when Shong Lue began spreading not just his writing system but also imposing his ideas on life onto the Hmong people in Laos. He claimed he was a Messiah, a brother of Jesus Christ, one of the few sons of God sent down from Heaven to rescue the Hmong and the Khmu (Pub Thawj) people. This attempt trudged over powerful authorities such as General Vang Pao (VP) and Dr. Yang Dao (YD) at a time when Shong Lue really should have asked for their permissions to teach his writing system in the schools on the mountains of Xiengkhouang but didn't choose to do so.
Shong Lue came on strong. His teachings were not just on the importance of a permanent form of writing to improve our people's intelligence and economic advancement but also on how his magical and spiritual powers could protect him and those who followed him. His home was considered a sacred round White house secluded deep in the jungles which could not be bombed even by the use of General Vang Pao's most capable pilots at the time. People have blamed his assassination to a Lor guy associated with General Vang Pao. After Vang Pao's scholars have thoroughly analized Shong Lue's characters, Vang Pao felt Shong Lue was just a Communist agent who was trying to tame the Hmong for an easy victory.
Today, despite his death three decades ago, Shong Lue still has a great command of a large number of followers. Many Hmong felt that his writing was a kind of real Hmong stuff, Hmong-made system, and that it is unique from all other systems in the world. They have continued to spread his writing system and hold his image real high in esteem and respect. Among his followers are people like Pa Kau Her (assassinated in Thailand years ago), Chia Koua Vang (still going strong in St. Paul, MN), and a few others less well-known figures. Chia Koua considers himself Shong Lue's first disciple--analogizing Jesus Christ's 13 at the Last Supper.
There probably are about 400 people who are truely proficient in Shong Lue's writing system today. Many others do not care to learn the system, even though they now are beginning to see its uniqueness. Not that we care to read or write anymore than years before; it's harder to learn and its usage is absolutely not widespread--not as widely accepted as the RPA for sure. (Even Hmong Chinese have started learning and becoming quite proficient at the RPA these days.) There are constant questions on whether Shong Lue's writing was a discovery--finding of something already in place--or a creation--true making of a new system. Scholars are constantly curious because there is no clear answer to this. Some feel he created this himself since they resemble forms of snails and marks one normally see printed by nature in the valleys, on sands, or tree trunks, barks, and others--real close to Shong Lue's claimed youth farming upbringing; while others felt some letters were twisted Russian and English letters, e.g. the upside down A was one of the characters with an added dot on top; the H was clearly used as one of the consonants in Shong Lue's writing--things that clearly demonstrated a learned and maybe even Western-educated scholar who was proficient in various languages and was selecting only a few characters from each language to form his own writing system. These were partly reasons why some scholars and VP disbelieved Shong Lue's claim that he was a low-class farming boy whom God imprinted the writing system onto but rather highly-educated Russian spy who wanted to ingratiate into the Hmong for our downfall with the CIA. Things of the sort. Not sure what to believe. Shong Lue has died. But his work lives on. One day, perhaps when the Hmong have lost most of our roots, we may turn to it and look at it as a unique Hmong thing. We'll see.
Pahawm is Hmoob I believe we all need to pursue our true system of writing and not let other influence us. I know most people loved the characters they just hate to spend time to memorize. If we are that lazy then maybe we will be like this forever. Keep taking ideas from others and claimed to be ours.
Pahawm is more than just writing. It's a whole new Hmong world. Meaning that it has its own set of culture. Pahawm as I know it (corret me if I am wrong), has a god to worship, has significant old Hmong words, has a wedding procession, funeral rites, etc
i have notice that a lot Hmong elders know of the name shong lue but they don't like to talk about him too much. it seems like they are afraid to talk about him or they just don't know enough to talk about him.
When I was in my late teens back in Laos, I saw a hmong man that was imprisoned, but they let him out into the fence courtyard to walk around. I use to see him walk around in that court yard every day as I pass by. After his death, I learned that the imprisoned man was Shong Lue Yang. Till this day, I wished I would have went to the fence and talked to him.
I am 25 years old and it's sad that i am just learning about one of my hmong historical figures like Shong Lue Yang. Maybe one of the comments made on this website about "One day, perhaps when the Hmong have lost most of our roots, we may turn to it and look at it as a unique Hmong thing." is true. Maybe someday when we have forgotten our language, our culture, or way of life in whatever country we live in, we will start to look back at people like Shong Lue Yang as something that is genuinely Hmong.
When I was in my late teens back in Laos, I saw a hmong man that was imprisoned, but they let him out into the fence courtyard to walk around. I use to see him walk around in that court yard every day as I pass by. After his death, I learned that the imprisoned man was Shong Lue Yang. Till this day, I wished I would have went to the fence and talked to him.
I am 25 years old and it's sad that i am just learning about one of my hmong historical figures like Shong Lue Yang. Maybe one of the comments made on this website about "One day, perhaps when the Hmong have lost most of our roots, we may turn to it and look at it as a unique Hmong thing." is true. Maybe someday when we have forgotten our language, our culture, or way of life in whatever country we live in, we will start to look back at people like Shong Lue Yang as something that is genuinely Hmong.
