国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
王富文学术索引专辑 ★ 编译 余岛
A tribute to Professor Nicholas Tapp
Nicholas Tapp
5 November 1952 – 10 October 2015
BY JEAN MICHAUD
Professor of Anthropology at Université Laval
加拿大拉瓦尔大学人类学教授米寿对王富文一身的学术概括
在过去的三十多年中，包括学者、研
究生、迁居各国的苗人以及中、越、泰、
老乃至整个西方受过高等教育的苗族心
中，社会人类学家尼古拉斯·塔普（Nicholas
Tapp）–——所有人印象中的尼克始终是一
个苗族研究学者的形象，是苗学研究前沿
博学多产的学者。
能与尚在苗学领域活跃且曾经扮演先
驱角色的法国人类学家李穆安（Jacques
从他在伦敦的博士学习开始，他的学
Lemoine）比肩的，可能也就是尼克，不论
术生涯把他带到了香港、爱丁堡、堪培拉
过去或者现在仍然是各中心坐标。他的求
和上海的教学和研究岗位。尼克的确是个
知欲，把他带进亚洲的苗族，又带到迁居
见多识广的人。王富文在伦敦大学亚非学
到西方的苗族中。
院的研究生学习时对苗族产生了兴趣，期
间他选择在泰国北部清迈西北的一个苗族
1
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
村庄进行他的博士实地研究。1985 年毕业，
中国仍是世界上四分之三的苗族人口的居
他的专著《主权与叛乱:泰国北部的白苗族》
住地时，这一成就就显得尤为重要。
那些来找尼克寻求指导的人，经常称
(OUP, 1989)见证了这一丰富的发现时期。
赞他真诚的善良和积极的回应。他们从他
受到诸如弗朗索瓦-玛丽·萨维娜
（François-Marie Savina）和盖伊·莫尚
那里得到的，往往比他们期望的多得多。
（GuyMoréchand）等早期苗族研究学者的
这种毕生做导师的奉献，在他致力于撰写
启发的启发，还有现代学者如托马斯·莱曼
的文本中尤为明显。这些文本的主要目的，
（Thomas Lyman），威廉·斯莫利（William
是让尽可能多的读者了解：苗族人是谁，
Smalley），威廉·格德斯（William Geddes），
以及他们的故事为什么重要，比如最近出
雅克·勒莫恩（Jacques Lemoine），伊夫·贝
版的《苗族文化和习俗》(2010)。他在 2004
特拉伊斯（Yves Bertrais）和让·莫丁（Jean
年出版的《亚洲苗族研究》一书的开篇章
Mottin）等启迪，还有尼克·罗伯特·罗伯
节《苗族研究现状》(The state of Hmong
特·库珀（Robert Cooper）、霍华德·雷德利
studies，一篇关于苗学文献的文章)中也强
（Howard Radley）、努西特·钦达西（Nusit
调了这一承诺，即把光转向他周围的其他
Chindarsi）和乔皮尼特·基斯马尼（Chupinit
人。
Keesmanee）等一群当代年轻骨干研究人员
尼克对世界各地的苗族移民的困境深
的拨动，尼克始终承认自己还有欠于移民
感同情。在第一次和第二次印度支那战争
西方的杨道和李嘉仪（Gary Lee）等著名苗
所引发的社会悲剧之后，苗族社区几乎在
族学人。 他希望在余生中与后者积极合
每一个地方扎根，他都应邀前往。他出版
作。
的最后一本书，也可能是他理念最成熟的
早年研究苗族的芮逸夫从大陆到台湾
一本书，《自我的不可能性:一部关于苗族
后偃旗息鼓，从 1985 年开始在大陆的苗族
迁徙的文集》(2010)，是一个充满活力的证
研究领域，尼克就开始发挥重要作用，为
据，证明了他与这个反复经受考验但却完
苗族研究注入了新的活力。他首先出版了
全有弹性的群体的持久团结。
《中国的民族和民族群体》(香港大学，1989
他的最后一篇学术论文《关于蚱蜢、
年)，然后出版了专著《中国的苗族:背景、
毛虫和豆类:苗族弥赛亚主义的历史观点》
媒介和想象》(2001 年)。这是自 20 世纪上
发表于 2015 年 7 月的《翻译》;这是一个生
半叶包括塞缪尔·波拉德、大卫·格雷厄姆和
动的例子，说明经验、好奇心和创造性的
伊内斯·德·博克莱尔等在内的西方学者和
思考在一个成熟的智者手中可以产生什
传教士著述全盛时期后，第一本以苗族为
么。尼克非常希望这篇文章能在今年发表。
主题的英文学术著作。其中。当人们记住
我不太明白为什么。大概他做到了。
2
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
他的灵魂过早地进入了祖先的王国。
Edinburgh, Canberra and finally
Shanghai. Nick, truly, was a man of the
world. Nick Tapp developed an interest
in the Hmong in the course of his
graduate studies at SOAS, during which
time he elected to conduct his doctoral
field research in a Hmong village just
northwest of Chiang Mai in northern
Thailand. Graduating in 1985, his
monograph Sovereignty and Rebellions:
The White Hmong of Northern
Thailand (OUP, 1989) bears witness to
this rich period of discovery.
Inspired by earlier scholars of the
Hmong such as François-Marie Savina
and Guy Moréchand, by modern ones
like Thomas Lyman, William Smalley,
William Geddes, Jacques Lemoine, Yves
Bertrais and Jean Mottin, and further
enthused by a core of contemporary
young researchers such as Robert
Cooper, Howard Radley, Nusit
Chindarsi and Chupinit Keesmanee,
Nick also always recognised his debt to
prominent Hmong intellectuals of the
diaspora such as Yang Dao and Gar Yia
Lee (Gary Lee). He was to actively
collaborate with the latter for the rest
of his life.
From 1985 onwards, Nick was
instrumental to instilling new life in the
我们不禁要想，尼克还能从他丰富的知识
中提取出什么来为苗族研究和苗族社区服
务呢?
尼克，我们念你！
（余岛 译 gzfolks@gmail.com）
For over three decades, in the mind of
most scholars and graduate students
alike, but also for the Hmong of the
diaspora and the growing number of
Asian Hmong accessing higher
education in China, Vietnam, Thailand,
Laos and indeed in the global West,
social anthropologist Nicholas Tapp –
Nick to everyone – has been the face of
Hmong studies, a prolific intellectual
standing at the forefront of the field.
To the possible exception of French
anthropologist Jacques Lemoine, his
living elder in the arena of Hmong
studies who at one time played the role
of mentor, Nick was and remains the
central reference. His inquiring mind
took him to the Hmong in Asia and in
the Western diaspora.
A nomad in his own right, from his
doctoral studies in London his
academic career led him to teaching
and research positions in Hong Kong,
3
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
field of Hmong studies in China, left
dormant since the departure of Ruey
Yih-Fu for Taiwan after the Revolution.
He did so first with his collection
Ethnicity and Ethnic Groups in China
(Chiao & Tapp ed., China U. of Hong
Kong, 1989), and then with his
monograph The Hmong of China:
Context, Agency and the Imaginary
(Brill, 2001). It was the first scholarly
book in English on the Hmong in that
country since the heydays of Western
scholars and missionaries writing in the
first half of the 20th century – which
included Samuel Pollard, David Graham,
and Ines de Beauclair among others.
When one bears in mind that China is
where three-quarter of the world’s
Hmong population still lives, this
achievement takes particular
significance.
Nick’s genuine kindness and
responsiveness was constantly praised
by those who came to him for
mentorship, often receiving from him a
lot more than what they had even
hoped for. This lifelong dedication to
mentorship was particularly visible in
his commitment to texts that aimed
primarily at informing the largest
possible audience about who the
Hmong are and why their story matters,
for instance with the recent
book Culture and Customs of the
Hmong (Lee & Tapp, Greenwood, 2010).
His opening chapter ‘The state of
Hmong studies (An essay on
bibliography)’ in the collection
Hmong/Miao in Asia (Tapp et al., ed.,
Silkworm, 2004) also highlights this
pledge to redirecting the light to others
around him.
Nick felt deeply for the plight of the
Hmong diaspora worldwide. He visited
and was invited to almost every place
where Hmong communities have taken
roots in the wake of the social
tragedies triggered by the First and
Second Indochina Wars.
The last book he published and possibly
his most intellectually sophisticated
one, The Impossibility of Self: An Essay
on the Hmong Diaspora (Lit Verlag,
2010), is a vibrant testimony to his
enduring solidarity with that
repeatedly tested, yet utterly resilient
community.
His last academic article, ‘Of
grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beans: A
historical perspective on Hmong
messianism’, appeared in July 2015
in Trans; it is a telling example of what
4
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
Tapp, N. (2001). The “Hmong” of China:
Context, Agency, and the Imaginary. Boston:
Brill.
experience, curiosity and creative
musings can produce when in the
hands of a mature intellect. Nick was
very keen to have this article published
this year. I didn’t quite get why.
Presumably he did.
His soul has prematurely joined the
realm of the ancestors. What more, we
are left to wonder, could Nick have
pulled from the wealth of his
considerable knowledge to offer to
Hmong studies and Hmong
communities.
We will miss you Nick.
Tapp, N. (2002). Hmong Confucian Ethics and
Constructions of the Past. In Cultural Crisis and
Social Memory: Modernity and Identity in
Thailand and Laos (pp. 95-112). London:
Routledge.
Tapp, N., & Cohn, D., & Wood, F. (2003). The
tribal peoples of Southwest China: Chinese views
of the other within. Bangkok: White Lotus Press.
Hirsch, P, & Tapp, N. (2010). Tracks and traces
Thailand and the work of Andrew Turton.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Tapp, N. (2010). The Impossibility of Self: An
Essay on the Hmong Diaspora. Berlin: Lit.
Tapp, N., & Lee Yia, G. (2010). The Hmong of
Australia: Culture and Diaspora. Canberra, ACT:
Pandanus Books.
Articles:
Tapp, N. (1988). The reformation of culture:
Hmong refugees from laos. Journal of Refugee
Studies, 1(1), 20-37.
主要出版成果
Selected Publication
Tapp, N. (1989). Hmong Religion. Asian
Folklore Studies, (1), 59-94.
for Nicholas Tapp
Tapp, N. (1989). The Impact of Missionary
Christianity upon Marginalized Ethnic Minorities:
The Case of the Hmong. Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies, (1), 70.
Tapp, N. (1989). Sovereignty and rebellion: the
white Hmong of Northern Thailand. New York:
Oxford University Press
Tapp, N. (2002). In Defence of the Archaic: A
Reconsideration of the 1950s Ethnic Classification
Project in China. Asian Ethnicity, 3(1), 63-84.
Tapp, N. (1990). Squatters or refugees:
Development and the Hmong. In Ethnic Groups
across National Boundaries in Mainland
Southeast Asia (pp. 149-172). Singapore: Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies.
Tapp, N. N. (2008). Romanticism in China? Its
Implications for Minority Images and Aspirations.
Asian Studies Review, 32(4), 457-474.
Tapp, N. (2000). Ritual relations and identity:
Hmong and others. In Civility and Savagery:
Social Identity in Tai States (pp. 84-103). London:
Curzon Press.
Tapp, N. (2010). I am the Tiger You Fear: the
Power Of Popular Folk Traditions To Express
Moral Conceptions of Authority. Journal of
Oriental Studies, 43 (1/2), 31-58.
Tapp, N. (2000). The tribal peoples of Southwest
China: Chinese views of the other within.
Bangkok: White Lotus Press.
Tapp, N. (2010). Perspectives on Hmong Studies:
Speech by Dr. Nicholas Tapp on Receiving the
Eagle
5
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
Award at the Third International Conference
on Hmong Studies, Concordia University,
Saint Paul, April 10, 2010. Hmong Studies
Journal, 11, 1-12.
The first group of essays addresses the
fabric of Hmong culture by considering
issues of history, language, and identity
among the Hmong/Miao from Laos to
China. The second part introduces the
challenges faced by the Hmong in
contemporary Thailand, Laos, and
Vietnam.
Tapp, N. (2010). Written cultures in mainland
Southeast Asia – Edited by Masao Kashinaga.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
16(2), 451-452.
Tapp, N. (2010). Yunnan: Ethnicity and
Economies-Markets and Mobility. Asia Pacific
Journal of Anthropology, 11(2), 97-110.
Tapp, N. (2013). Coming to terms with the nation:
ethnic classification in modern China. Asian
Ethnicity, 14(1), 128-132.
content and summary
Tapp, N. (2013). Religion and Mobility in a
Globalising Asia. Asia Pacific Journal of
Anthropology, 14(1), 102-112.
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Issues of History, Language and
Identity
History
1. The State of Hmong Studies (An
Essay on Bibliography)--Nicholas Tapp
2. From Culture Circle to Cultural
Ecology: The Hmong/Miao as reflected
in German and Austrian
Anthropology--Christian Postert
3. A Contribution to the Study of
Hmong (Miao) Migrations and
History--Christian Culas and Jean
Michaud
4. Innovation and Tradition in Rituals
and Cosmology: Hmong Messianism
and Shamanism in Southeast
Asia--Christian Culas
Language
Tapp, N. (2014). Miao migrants to Shanghai:
Multilocality, invisibility and ethnicity. Asia
Pacific Viewpoint, 55(3), 381-399.
Hmong/Miao in Asia
Edited by Nicholas Tapp, Jean Michaud,
Christian Culas and Gary Yia Lee
DESCRIPTION
This volume presents the most
comprehensive collection of research
on Hmong culture and life in Asia yet to
be published. It compliments the
abundant material on the Hmong
diaspora by focusing instead on the
Hmong in their Asian homeland. The
contributors are scholars from a
number of different backgrounds with
a deep knowledge of Hmong society
and culture, including several Hmong.
6
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
5. Pa-hng and the Classification of the
Hmong-Mien Languages--Barbara
Niederer
6. Vocabulary of Environment and
Subsistence in the Hmong-Mien
Protolanguage--Martha Rafliff
7. A Note on the Ethno-Semantics of
Proverb Usage in Mong Njua (Green
Hmong)--Thomas Amis Lyman
8. Problems in the Interpretation of
Hmong Surnames--Kao-ly Yang
Identity
9. The A Hmao in Northest Yunnan and
Northwest Guizhou Provinces:
Perspectives on the Encounter with the
A Hmao from some Western Protestant
Missionaries--R. Alison Lewis
10. Miao Identity in Western Guizhou:
China during the Republican
Period--Cheung Siu-Woo
11. Hmong/Miao Transnationality:
Identity beyond Culture--Louisa Schein
Part 2: Current Issues
Vietnam
12. Hmong and the Land Question in
Vietnam: National Policy and Local
Concepts of the Environment--Claes
Corlin
13. The Hmong and Forest
Management in Northern Vietnam's
Mountainous Areas--Vuong Duy Quang
Thailand
14. Ntoo Xeeb: Cultural Redefinition for
Forest Conservation among the Hmong
in Thailand--Prasit Leepreecha
15. Following Hmong Cultural Pathways
for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS: Notes
from the Field--Patricia V. Symonds
16. Hmong Marriage Patterns in
Thailand in Relation to Social
Change--Peter Kunstadter
17. Rape: Perceptions and Processes of
Hmong Customary Law--Robert Cooper
Laos
18. Transnational Adaptation: An
Overview of the Hmong of Laos--Gar
Yia Lee
19. The Hmong and Development in
the Lao People's Democratic
Republic--Jan Ovesen
Epilogue
20. Hmong Refugees from Laos: The
Challenge of Social Change--Yang Dao
Index
Notes on Contributors
This collection of academic theory and
research is divided into two parts. The
first focuses on Hmong History,
Language, and Identity, the second on
Current Issues. The book’s essays on
language provide background on
7
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
written versions of the Hmong
language, but they require some
in-depth knowledge of linguistics. The
basic premise of each is easy to discern,
however. The first, “Pa-Hng and the
Classification of the Hmong-Mien
Languages” by Barbara Niederer,
compares and contrasts linguistic roots
of several tribal languages with the
(spoken) Hmong language to shed light
on relationships among these groups
(129-131). The second, “Vocabulary of
Environment and Subsistence in the
Hmong-Mien Proto-Language” by
Martha Ratliff, explains how the
development of Hmong language (and
surrounding tribal people’s languages
as well) was shaped by the geography
of the land on which they lived. The
article implies that slash-and-burn
farming also influenced Hmong
vocabulary.
various life forms (e.g., human beings,
spirits, deities, shaman, messianic
figures, etc.) occupy. As in many
monotheistic religions, in Hmong
cosmology, human beings occupy the
physical realm, which exists at the
bottom of a hierarchical cosmological
spectrum. Gods (or “The Immortals” as
they are labeled in the diagram) occupy
the spectrum’s highest realm. Unlike
Christian, Jewish, and Islamic
cosmology, however, Hmong
cosmology includes animism and
reincarnation. Some humans, such as
shaman and messianic figures, can
travel between earthly and spiritual
realms while alive, and some spirits
dwell in the earthly realm. These spirits
can have positive or negative effects on
living human beings. A shaman can
travel between the “Terrestrial World
of Humans” and the “World of Spirits”
to bring missing spirits back to their
human bodies, and human beings who
die can also travel into the “Heaven of
Souls of the Deceased,” which occupies
a realm one level higher than that of
the “World of Spirits,” but only divine
beings (gods, ancestors, and messianic
figures) can access the fourth and
highest realm, the “Heaven of the
The most helpful essay in this collection
for the purposes of ENGL 2330 Hmong
American Literature is Christian Culas’s
“Innovation and Tradition in Rituals
and Cosmology: Hmong Messianism
and Shamanism in Southeast Asia.” In
particular, diagrams on pages 110-111
give an overview of what realms
8
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
Divinities” (110). This explanation
clarifies why messianic leaders, such as
Pa Chay and Shong Lue Yang, garnered
so much influence on the Hmong in
Southeast Asia; their ability to travel to
and from the divine realm meant they
could be in contact with the deceased
ancestors of people on earth and could
interceded on behalf of living humans
negatively affected by spirits. I plan to
photocopy these diagrams and keep
them for future reference, as they
provide the most complete and
straightforward explanation of Hmong
cosmology and spiritual beliefs I have
encountered so far.
blonde, and blue-eyed, Tapp explains,
are not evidence of Caucasian origins
or Siberian migration, as Quincy claims,
but of albinism. Tapp skewers Quincy
for accepting early missionaries’
accounts of Hmong history and culture
without skepticism and without
cross-referencing to evaluate their
validity. Tapp also suspects Quincy’s
description of a Hmong kingdom (400
to 500 AD). He writes that no evidence
of such a kingdom exists. Rather, Tapp
asserts that tales of a highly-organized,
hierarchical Hmong kingdom, as
presented in Quincy’s book, came from
“one of Bernatzik’s (1947) more
suspect interviews with a particularly
fanciful informant and then mixed with
some (necessarily) untrained reading of
English summaries of basic Chinese
history” (18). Another of Tapp’s
charges against Quincy is that his
misunderstanding of Hmong history
stems, in part, from the fact that
“Quincy has not a single one of the Thai,
Lao, Vietnamese, Burmese, or Chinese
languages which could have allowed
him to consult just one of the available
historical records” in verifying his
claims (18).
Nicholas Tapp’s essay “The State of
Hmong Studies” offers a counterpoint
to theories about Hmong origins and
migration put forth by Keith Quincy in
his book, Hmong: History of a People.
Tapp doesn’t hold back in his criticism
of Quincy’s book, which he calls a
“sorry publication” and about which he
asserts “there can be no excuse for
such a publication in any discipline”
(18). He disputes Quincy’s claims that
the Hmong migrated to and from
Siberia at some point in their ancient
history. Hmong individuals who are fair,
9
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
Within the Current Issues section of the
book, authors study the emergence,
spread, and treatment of HIV/AIDS in
Hmong villages. They also compare and
contrast traditions and relationships to
the environment among the Hmong in
Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. These
essays provide helpful points of
comparison between Hmong life in
those countries and Hmong life in
America.
王富文教授(Nicholas Tapp)，英国人，生于 1952 年，2015 年 10 月 卒
于中国上海。剑桥大学文学学士(1975)，伦敦大学东方与非洲研 究
学院社会人类学博士(1985)，是国际知名的“蒙或苗民族”
“H(
mong”)
研究学者、社会人类学家，田野调查主要集中在泰国、老挝、 澳大
利亚以及中国，学术生涯后期，又对散居在加拿大、美国的“蒙族”
开展田野工作，著述颇丰，发表了近百篇期刊论文，并出版了数部有
世界 影响力的专著，包括: Sovereignty and Rebellion: the White
Hmong of Northern Thailand(《主权与叛乱: 泰国北部的白
苗》,1989);The Tribal Peoples of Southwest China: Chinese Views of the
Other Within(《西南中国的部落民》，2000);The “Hmong” of China:
Context, Agency, and the Imaginary(《中国的“蒙族”:情境、能 动性
与想像性》,2001);The Impossibility of Self: An Essay on the Hmong
Diaspora(《自我的不可能性》
，2010)。
主要参考：
亚洲苗族研究
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9789749575017/hmongmiao-in
-asia/
王富文简历
10
国际苗学文献参考/ References of Hmong studies International
Vol.1 May 2020 gzfolks@gmail.com
http://asaa.asn.au/a-tribute-to-professor-nicholas-tapp/
王富文学术思想：
https://shanghai.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/media/Social%20N
ewsletter%20-%20Fall%202015%201216.pdf
11