Every now and then a book is published that is almost immediately destined to become the “go-to” reference for a particular topic. Mai Na M. Lee's book, Dreams for the Hmong Kingdom: The Quest for Legitimation in French Indochina, 1850–1960, is one of those books. Indeed, this well researched and skillfully written book, composed by an ethnic Hmong American woman and now Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities will undoubtedly become the key source for those interested in understanding the history of the Hmong from Laos during the French colonial period.

Dreams for the Hmong Kingdom tells a fascinating story of Hmong leadership in Laos, particularly in the key area that became Nong Het District, Xieng Khouang Province, in northeastern Laos. However, the book also considers important related events involving the Hmong in adjacent parts of northwestern Vietnam, and it touches on associated issues in southern China as well. Focusing on the histories of key Hmong leaders, the book begins with a preface by the author, followed by a lengthy introductory chapter, in which she introduces some important background and context about the Hmong and the research done for the book. She also introduces the idea of “leadership and the politics of legitimation in Hmong society”, the overall focus of Lee's work. This precedes the presentation of the two main parts of the book.

The first part of Dreams for the Hmong Kingdom discusses the important topic of Hmong Messianism. In Chapter 2, the author provides an account of some important context regarding Hmong messianism. She then provides chronologies of the two most important Hmong messianic movements of the time, the first emerging in northwestern Vietnam between 1910–1912, led by Mi Chang, and the second, and more famous uprising, which also started in Vietnam but later spread to adjacent parts of Laos, and was led by Pa Chay Vue between 1918 and 1921. Then in Chapter 3, the last chapter in Part 1, Lee provides a detailed analysis of these movements.

Part 2 examines the emergence of Hmong leaders in Laos, with a particular focus on Nong Het in Xieng Khouang, and colonial route #7, which the French started developing as a crucial link between northern Vietnam and northern Laos at the turn of the twentieth century. In Chapter 4, she focuses on the appointment of Blia Yao Lo as a “Hmong Supreme Chief” between 1900 and 1935. Then, in Chapter 5, she looks at the relationship between Blia Yao Lo, his secretary Ly Foung, and their connections with other Hmong leaders, the overall Hmong population in the Nong Het area, and the French administration. This includes focusing on the power struggle between Ly Foung and Blia Yao Lo's son, Fay Dang Lo, over who would assume the leadership position that Blia Yao Lo had held until he passed away in 1936.

This power struggle is crucial, as Ly Foung's success in gaining the trust of the French and ultimately the position led Fay Dang Lo bitterly to side with the Japanese against the French during World War II. Moreover, it set the stage for Fay Dang Lo and his followers to side with the communist Pathet Lao after the departure of the Japanese at the end of World War II, whereas those supportive of Ly Foung, and later his son Touby Lyfoung, were the ones who largely ended up supporting General Vang Pao, the Royal Lao Government and the Americans, represented by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Second Indochina War or Secret War in Laos. Chapter 6 then focuses on the emergence of Touby Lyfoung, the son of Ly Foung and the grandson of Blia Yao Lo, as the main Hmong administrator under the French, between 1936 and 1940. Chapter 7 is devoted to examining the period of Japanese occupation of Xieng Khouang between 1941 and 1945, including illustrating how Touby Lyfoung and other Hmong leaders, particularly the Mouas, helped hide the French from the Japanese. Chapter 8, the final chapter of the book, examines Hmong leadership during the post-World War II era, covering the period between 1946 and 1960. The book concludes with a short epilogue, which provides a brief account of crucial Hmong political events in Laos and abroad since 1960, thus setting the stage for Lee's next book, which is expected to focus on the “Secret War in Laos”, which ended with a large number of US-aligned Hmong led by General Vang Pao fleeing the country, and with many eventually ending up as political refugees in various countries, especially the United States and France.

Dr. Lee identifies herself as an oral historian of the Hmong, and indeed her book relies heavily on oral sources, especially information provided by Touby Lyfoung's sister, Mao Song Lyfoung, who Lee conducted a number of interviews with over a few years. However, Lee is not simply an oral historian, and at times does not give herself enough credit for the extensive archival research she did in France. Indeed, one of the strengths of the book is that it relies on both oral history and primary archival sources, an appropriate mix and approach for this type of study. Moreover, unlike many Hmong history books, Lee uses proper academic referencing throughout the book, so as to make the sources for the material she presents clear.

Another crucial strength of the book is that Lee is both Hmong and a woman. This appropriately results in her going into considerable depth regarding the importance in Hmong society of clan relations, something that other non-Hmong authors have sometimes failed to do. Moreover, she makes a strong argument that despite Hmong society being strongly patriarchal, the role of women in strengthening Hmong alliances and leadership positions has long been crucial. That is, in Hmong society marriage between two members of the same clan is not allowed and is considered taboo. Therefore, one must marry someone from a different clan. Traditionally, once a Hmong woman married, she would leave her clan of birth and join her husband's clan. Lee shows the importance of strategic marriages that were designed to strengthen the ties between different clans, and thus demonstrates the importance of women in strengthening ties that helped make it possible for Hmong leaders to emerge. In particular, many Hmong leaders practiced polygamy, and Lee argues that multiple marriages were often designed to improve the ties between different powerful clans, something essential for consolidating influence and power in Hmong society, even though such strategic marriages were not always capable of achieving their goals, as was the case when Ly Foung took the daughter of Blia Yao Lo as his second wife, despite objections from her father.

Undoubtedly there will be those in the Hmong community who will contest parts of this book, as Lee engages with historical events that are important for Hmong Americans who migrated to foreign countries from Laos after 1975. Moreover, while Lee touches on many crucial aspects of Hmong history in colonial Laos, it would be impossible for one book to include details about all the important stories of that time. In that she relies heavily on oral sources, it is also likely that her sources chose to focus on and emphasize certain aspects of history, while abbreviating or even omitting others. While this is undoubtedly the case, it should not be seen as a weakness of Lee's book. It is, instead, the inevitable result of a study such as this. One cannot do everything.

Moreover, being essentially the first in-depth study of its kind, the book focuses on the elite Hmong leadership. This is a necessary first step, but hopefully others will be able to enrich our understanding of this period in the future through better understanding the lives and politics of those in less prominent positions in Hmong society.

Being Hmong herself, and born into the powerful Lee clan, is one of the great strengths of the author of Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom, but it will undoubtedly be a point of contention for some. Inevitably, a few will accuse her of focusing too much on the Lee/Ly clan, or of being overly positive about their role in the historical events that she describes. In my view, however, these criticisms are not valid, as Lee does not fail to point out, for example, some of the weakness of the Lys, including Ly Foung himself.

One of the shortcomings of past scholarship on the Hmong has been the limited Hmong perspective presented by non-Hmong and largely Western authors. Lee strives to rectify this problem by focusing on the point of view of the Hmong. However, Lee's strength in this area leads to a possible weakness: that her focus on the Hmong has resulted in her not focusing enough on Hmong relations with the people from other ethnic groups, including the Phouan, Khmu, Black Tai, and Lao, although she does not ignore these ethnic groups entirely – far from it – but almost all of her oral sources were Hmong. But let me provide one example of how taking a strong Hmong perspective has some limitations. Lee wrote about Touby Lyfoung's education, commenting that Touby had a “reputation as a pioneering Hmong who had excelled in his studies in the lowlands” (p. 248). Indeed, he was a pioneer, having been the first Hmong to study in the lowlands of Laos. He was also the first Hmong from Laos to study in Vietnam. However, the idea that Touby “excelled in his studies in the lowlands” can be questioned to some extent. By chance, one of the sons of a prominent Black Tai leader from Vietnam, who later emigrated to Xieng Khouang, Laos after the French were defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, recently told me that his father Baccam Cam studied at the same elite private school in Vinh that Touby attended in the 1930s. According to him, private schools in Hanoi were too expensive, even though Touby was not a poor student, but neither was he close to being at the top of the class. Instead, he was considered to be a fairly average student. Touby was apparently better at school than some prominent Black Tais, including Baccam Kuy, but crucially, the best students were all ethnic Kinh (Vietnamese). They generally outperformed the Black Tai and Hmong, including Touby, who studied during the French colonial period in Vietnam. I have no way to verify the above, but such a reality would not be a surprise, as first-generation students such as Touby Lyfoung and Baccam Kuy were certainly at a disadvantage compared to Vietnamese students who had longer histories of engaging with formal education. Moreover, I was told that Touby's two younger brothers, Tougeu and Toulia, performed better at school than their older brother. For the Hmong, Touby was rumored to be a star student in the lowlands, but while his achievements were indeed unprecedented for the Hmong, they might not have been as great as the Hmong community came to believe. It should also be pointed out that Touby did not get the opportunity to study because he was especially gifted, but rather because his father, Ly Foung had enough money to send him to an elite private school in Vinh. Overall, the above does not contradict what Lee wrote, but rather contextualizes it.

Ultimately, however, this slight weakness is certainly overshadowed by the considerable advantage to Lee of being Hmong, and overall, Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom can best be described as an extremely important contribution to Hmong studies. As someone who works with Lee regularly through the Hmong Studies Consortium, I can only express my congratulations to her for producing such a high-quality volume. Now we have to wait for her book on the Secret War in Laos, which promises to be equally path-breaking.