Battling for Hmong heritage in Vietnam

Fighting for their rights: A worker handling a plank while constructing a house in Dong Van district, Vietnam’s Ha Giang province, home to the Hmong ethnic minority. — AFP

Dong Van (Vietnam): Vuong Duy Bao surveys his ancestral palace, a vestige of Viet­nam’s marginalised Hmong ethnic minority that he says was taken from his family by local officials.

The wooden structure is laden with historic markers: opium flowers carved into pillars in a nod to the region’s once-booming trade, and an iron fence made with metal imported from former colonial ruler France.