Although they studied Hmong culture and developed the written form of the Hmong language, these missionaries made few converts. However, since the Vietnam War, a substantial number of Hmong living in refugee camps and the United States have converted to Christianity. In China and Southeast Asia, Hmong practice swidden agriculture, a farming method that involves cutting and burning a forested area to clear fields for crops. Hmong farmers plant rice, corn, cucumbers, melons, yams, eggplant, onions, beans, sugarcane, and various herbs and spices. Men and boys hunt to bring in extra food.
Village blacksmiths make all the necessary tools.
Most scholars believe the Hmong migrated to southeastern China from central Asia approximately 5000 years ago. In 1893 many of these Hmong settlements were incorporated into French Indochina, a French colony encompassing Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. When Japan invaded French Indochina in 1940, Hmong militias, under the leadership of Toby Ly Foung, aided the French. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Viet Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist group, resisted the restoration of French rule in Vietnam. Some Hmong sided with the French and others joined the nationalist forces.