Tub Lwm Hawj

I was browsing youku (youtube's illegitimate Chinese cousin--that's what everybody calls it) and found some Hmong music videos by Tub Lwm Hawj, a Hmong Chinese singer from Yunnan.  In the past decade, there has been a growing interest among the Hmong Chinese in Yunnan and Guangxi, China in Hmong entertainment from the West.  They, in return, have produced a couple of singers themselves like Yeeb Yaj, Mim Yaj, Lig Vaj, and Leej Lis to cater music to the Hmong market in the West (which requires singing in intelligible Far Western Hmong dialect).  However, with the exception of Yang Geli, they have all been female singers.  So it came as a great surprise to me to finally find a male Hmong Chinese singer who sings pop songs.  

 



Although he does sing in our dialect, I'm assuming that Tub Lwm Hawj's music was produced for the Hmong Chinese community only.  This is a fact given that the music videos contain quite a bit of Chinese writing, the cinematography and editing quality is on the poor side (it resembles the way Hmong music videos was shot and edited perhaps 20+ years ago), the instrumental seems to be karaoke versions only, and the music video collection was not sold in the West.  Without sponsors in the United States to help out, I believed that the Hmong Chinese singers are just beginning to learn how to make music videos/films on their on so they're in the early developmental stage.  On a positive note, I applaud them for singing in our dialect.  It makes them seem less foreign when we watch/listen to them and it helps to bring all of us closer together as a people.

So, here are two music videos from Tub Lwm Hawj.  The first one is in Chinese and the other is a duet in Hmong.  (He also plays the flute as well but I'm having trouble uploading his other music videos so these two will be it for now).