社會網絡關係的想像與實踐：以作為「跨境民族」與「天主教徒」的滇東南Hmong人為例

Abstract

For a long time, references to the Hmong have highlighted the ways in which a people who have moved so far and frequently are able to regroup in a new place. There are few scholars focusing on what happened to the Hmong when they adopted Catholicism, and in turn, how they adapted to the new regulations of Catholicism while their traditional style of belief was changed or forbidden by this new foreign religion. For the Hmong living in Tao Village, the imagination and practice of their social networks have different collective representations due to different historical conditions. A class teaching the Miao writing system class also created a chance for cross-border connections and allowed for new relationships to be imagined among the Hmong people. However, this new possibility was limited and stopped by contradictions in and out of the church, and the collectiveness which inspired the development of Tao village withered away in the process. The dilemma of the church came about for a number of reasons. Firstly, in the past, the spreading of Christian religion among the Hmong in this area caused some riots which made the neighboring governments keep an eye on these people. Secondly, because the influence of Vang Pao is still a sensitive issue in this area, the mainly Hmong church has to deal with this political condition carefully. Thirdly, the development of the market economy pushed the people to manage for their own social relationships. In other words, the gap between imagination and practice of social networks for the Hmong living in Tao village has not only been manipulated in their subjective consciousness but also influenced by the international geopolitics.