First moments with Design

(image credit: http://www.wpt.org/hmong/language.html)

Paj ntaub (pronounced pa dao) would be my first encounters with design. Paj ntaub is bascially Hmong embroidery that tells a story. I am Hmong, so this type of embroidery has been around ever since I was a little girl.

The story that the paj ntaub tells is usually related to the way Hmong people lived. Sometimes it will depict people farming and other times it will depict a Hmong celebration, such as the New Year’s festival. Usually the cloth is as big as a canvas in which an artist paints. And rather than hang paintings on the wall, some Hmong families hang the paj ntaub, for display and decoration. Each figure sewn onto the cloth is a composition of many small strokes of yarn, all done by hand. In the paj ntaub shown above, for exmample, the men's black pants, are filled in with many single strokes of yarn.  Not only is the handwork such an amazement, the use of colors are outstanding too.  Most of the colors used in making Hmong clothing are bright vibrant colors. Those bright colors are reused in this paj ntaub also. Bright colors usually imply beauty, like flowers.

Looking at this specific piece of paj ntaub, it reminds me of comic book paneling. This paj ntaub depicts the Vietnam War. There are four main parts to the story the embroidery shares, reading top to bottom.  Most paj ntaub do not contain words, since Hmong people initially didn’t have a written language. So to understand, one must normally look at the drawings sewn onto the fabric and interpret it themselves.  The paj ntaub depicted everyday activities, so understanding the message of the images were not difficult.

There is a physical touch to the paj ntaub. The pictures, since made of yarn, take a physical form on the fabric. The fabric itself is a thin cloth, so when the figures are sewn onto the fabric, it is easy for the year to pile on top of one another and create that physical form.  Being able to feel and touch the figures on the paj ntaub adds a feeling of realism to the experience of the embroidery.  One may not understand the situation on a personal level, but having the pictures be more than just a print allows the viewer to interact with the events that go on in the embroidery.

Hmong people are mountain people; we don’t have any other form of art, or process in which we can visually display something.  Essentially, paj ntaub would be our form of art, since it is more permanent that doodles that can be done in the dirt or sand.  It’s also a form of storytelling.  Living in the mountains, Hmong people lacked the materials necessary to create a “book.” Without a written language, stories were told orally and through the paj ntaub, as visual presentation.