Hmong Women Hemp Traders: From Village to Market

Abstract

This article intends to explain trading relation networks of Hmong women hemp traders, the cores of which are related to the cultural border of Hmong society. This identity of “Hmongness” goes beyond the official demarcation of state borders. Hmong women traders rely on Hmong relations in creating hemp trading networks with Hmong from China, Laos and Thailand. As demand for hemp increased continually, this community’s mode of production changed gradually from agriculture to hemp trading. The process of trading requires that Hmong women travel back and forth from their village in Phayao province to Warorot market in Chiang Mai, which causes different circumstances in terms of power structure and modernity.

The to-and-fro journey between their village and the city has had inevitable impacts on Hmong women’s lives. When Hmong women become traders they are more accustomed and adapted to the public sphere. Such adaptation results in new patterns of relationships. All Hmong women still use men’s structures of relations for trading and opening their social space. In each household, women and men have dynamic interaction and have different contextual conditions. Moreover, women’s power in negotiation, as well as their gender space, roles, and status is fluid.