The Culture Bearer Tradition at Hmong Cultural Center
By Mark Pfeifer
Culture Bearers have been defined as individuals deeply rooted in their cultural heritage, actively participating in, and transmitting their community’s traditions, practices, and knowledge to future generations. They are often practitioners, artists, or carriers of ancestral and/or traditional knowledge who play a vital role in preserving and evolving cultural lifeways.
Since its founding 33 years ago, Hmong Cultural Center of Minnesota has relied on culture bearers to teach important Hmong ceremonial art forms to children, youth, and young adults. The late Tougeu Leepalao was a founder of Hmong Cultural Center and the center’s master Qeej instrument and Wedding and Funeral Songs teacher for multiple decades. The late Ga Long Thao was another master artist who taught Qeej lessons after school to children and youth at the center for many years. The current lead Qeej Teacher at Hmong Cultural Center, Christopher Hang, learned the Qeej from Ga Long Thao. Today, Christopher is teaching a whole new generation of young people important Qeej songs performed at Hmong funerals.
Master Wedding and Funeral Song reciter Soua Sue Lee replaced the late Tougeu Leepalao as the Cultural Customs instructor at Hmong Cultural Center almost a decade and a half ago. In his classes, Soua Sue teaches students both Wedding and Funeral Songs and Wedding and Funeral Procedures. Back in 2013, Minnesota Public Radio visited one of Soua Sue’s classes and described the format of a typical three hour weekend class involving Soua Sue reciting songs with students repeating the song verses back to him.
Today, Hmong Cultural Center is one of the few organizations in the United States that continues to provide community based Qeej and wedding and funeral song instruction training future generations in these important Hmong ceremonial lifecycle arts traditions.
2025 Qeej and Hmong Arts Festival
The 2025 Qeej and Hmong Arts Festival held at Union Depot in St. Paul on April 27, 2025, was a very successful event. More than 2,000 persons attended this year’s festival. An archived stream of the entire festival is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUXMNnHg-RQ
Images courtesy Hmong Cultural Center.
