Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom challenges the marginalization of Hmong communities and individuals by placing them at the center of a compelling historical narrative. In this book, Mai Na M. Lee weaves together documentary evidence, storytelling, interviews, and fieldwork, connecting Hmong history to multiple scholarly discourses. Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom surrounds the reader with stories about Hmong culture, lineages, the shifting dynamics of upland-lowland relations, and the creative failure of political projects (Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Lao) that aimed to control or refashion Hmong communities and individuals. Lee connects older Hmong studies with the most recent work, ultimately moving past the preoccupations of the Zomia heuristic to bring readers an empirically rich and conceptually informed history, one that will open new paths of scholarship into Hmong pasts and Hmong presents.Footnote ¹

Organized in two parts and an introduction, Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom begins with leadership and “the politics of legitimation in Hmong society,” twinned concepts that shape its narrative. After a brief chapter on the nineteenth century, part one charts the history of Hmong messianism in the early twentieth century, explaining the usefulness of the “Mandate of Heaven” for Hmong rebellions. In part two, Lee guides readers through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first; events such as the twilight of French colonialism, the Japanese occupation of Laos, and the Pathet Lao-led revolution are presented from a “highlands” perspective in a manner that combines political narrative with ethnographic detail.

While this book fills a serious gap in the literature for mainland Southeast Asia and Hmong studies, it will also attract those interested in diaspora, oral traditions, uplands-lowlands dynamics, and the global histories of nonmajority ethnic communities. Rather than echoing the theme of evasion and escape as a prime motivation for Hmong mobility, Lee proposes a more sophisticated appreciation for Hmong political agency. Through “upstreaming,” a discursive technique most associated with Richard White, Lee carries Hmong voices into the distant past. Although not without its limitations, upstreaming opens a conceptual space for some essential interventions, among them the notion of “Vietnamese neocolonial rule” (pp. 86–87), nineteenth-century ethnic rebellions as political expressions, and long-term Hmong political agency. Lee's work puts the study of Hmong communities and individuals into a broader intellectual universe without dulling the empirical richness of its material.

Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom also evokes larger questions about evidence. French colonial sources animate much of the story, and the reader will find their traces throughout. The Hmong “rampage” and are “dislodged” or “flee into the inaccessible” areas (p. 109). We meet “resentful Khmu coolies” (p. 110) and learn about Mi Chang's confession to colonial authorities. Although the preoccupations of colonial rule, what Ranajit Guha framed as the “prose of counter-insurgency,”Footnote ² seep into the language of the text, this does not dilute the strength of the book's synthesis of written and oral sources. However, the raw grammar of French counterinsurgency does make the appearance of “informants” (pp. 178, 250), a term no doubt tied to the author's ethnographic methodology, somewhat jarring.

While upstreaming and diverse sources make compelling history, the book raises some problems that pass without explanation. One example is “Sip Song Chau Tai,” a political expression meaning “Twelve Tai Rulers” or “Twelve Tai Lords.” Although selecting the word “state” might ease the comprehension of the reader (p. 71), it also projects the language of contemporary political history into the distant past. While certainly external to the book's main concerns, Tai, Lao, Chinese, and Vietnamese political vocabularies perhaps deserved a marginal discussion. Are terms like “tribal” and “feudal” best suited for a description of political agencies across multiple contexts? Certain specific renderings, such as phya (Tai) to “lord” (p. 282) and quan dao (Vietnamese) to “county chief” (p. 105) represent either a mistranslation or a radical reassessment of local political culture. With the kaitong (p. 334) and naiban (p. 225), Lee convincingly shows the underside of claims to control Hmong communities throughout history, but perhaps a more careful translation of political vocabulary could have accompanied that intervention.

Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom will benefit scholars of Southeast Asia, East Asia, and comparative uplands, as well as specialists in nonmajority ethnic groups across many disciplines. Not only will this book provoke insightful discussion in graduate seminars, it is also a vital corrective for Southeast Asia survey courses as a monograph not tethered, conceptually or empirically, to one nation-state.

Lee reminds readers that “the dream of the Hmong kingdom remains alive” (p. 134). As her book demonstrates, Hmong political agency is neither impassioned somnambulism nor the stuff of wishful thinking; it has endured empires, neocolonial state projects, and the violent dislocations of the Cold War to thrive in the postcolonial world.