This is a work of ethnographic reflection on Hmong society, history, and culture, dealing with questions of the self and the notion that a romantic self inspired the ethos of hedonism associated with the consumer economy. A Hmong identity is shown to have been historically constructed through the works of colonial missionaries, linguists, and anthropologists. Yet Hmong voices have also been powerful in this process. Based on recent fieldwork in Asia and overseas, the Hmong diaspora is examined. Nicholas Tapp is a professor in the department of anthropology at the Australian National University.

The Hmong people have emigrated from China to Southeast Asia, and from there, since the end of the Vietnam wars, to France, America, and other Western countries. Examining a Hmong opium-growing village in northern Thailand, Tapp here explores how these people have managed to maintain a strong ethnic integrity despite centuries of oppression by more powerful majority populations.