When making claims, be advised that sometimes people write things based on their "needs" and "thoughts" that benefit them, and not from accurate accounts. On a bigger issue, some people are trying to get their PHDs based on a book, with their thoughts and words, also from their thoughts and conclusion--this doens't mean their conclusion is correct.
Quincy made a very good example in his book of this case--concluding that mong are from the middle east due to blonde hair, eating with spoon, etc....the fact of the matter is, all asian have blonde hair in their blood. also, keep in mind that wester ministers were already ducking mong people in china in the 17th hundreds...in their attempt to convert hmong into christianity, taking advantage of them when mong were at their weakest (i'm referring to the last 3 wars that the mong had with the chinese).
personally, i believe that maab, moob, men, mang, miao, mien, mun, ahmu, etc...ARE ALL RELATED. however, i also believe that the word mong was only created a few hundred years ago (maybe at most 4 hundred years ago)...
going back to quincy, some mong now really believes that we are from the middle east, thus they strictly hold onto christianity, enforcing themselves that they are the lost tribe of israel, so reuniting with the bible god is a good thing. it is crazy thoughts like this that divided the mong for hundreds of years from chiyou's time.
even in the usa, phd wannabees started calling hmong's "hauvtoj" a new year celebration--a big mistake. the problem with this is, the younger kids will start following this idea...and eventually, we will be a subgroup of the mong in laos, and another subgroup o fthe mong in china. it is sad indeed.