Thirty years and a lifetime ago, Chue Chang stole his Hmong bride from her parents' home in the highlands of Laos.

Her father would not consent to their marriage, so in keeping with Hmong custom, Chang, aided by friends and relatives, spirited her away.

"Once the (would-be) father-in-law says no, then you must take her," explained their son, 20-year-old John Chang. "Then you arrange everything later."

Today, the Changs live in a Santa Ana subdivision, send their children to suburban schools and universities and do not allow them to date.

"Date?" said John, a biology major at UC Irvine. "That's the forbidden word around here."

For the Changs, as for other new immigrants, the Southern California lifestyle throws traditional values, customs and family ties into sharp relief. But for the Chang family, and for about 600 other Hmong in Orange County, there is a unique sense of community nurtured not only by ties to one of Southeast Asia's most specific cultures, but by a shared passion for education.

The Hmong of Orange County, natives or descendants of the highland people of northern Laos, are few in number (according to the 1980 census, there are more than twice as many Guamanians in the county, for instance) but one of the county's most prominent Laotian immigrants said he expects them to become far more visible within a decade.

"In another 10 years you'll see so many professionals among the Hmong," said Kamchong Luangpraseut. "They've always understood the importance of education."

Luangpraseut, the supervisor of Indochinese programs for the Santa Ana Unified School District, said the key to the success of the second generation of Hmong in the United States lies in the traditional adaptability of their parents.

Himself a Lao, or lowland Laotian, Luangpraseut said the Hmong "don't have a country they can really call a Hmong country. They're spread all over. And because of that, they have an ability to adapt to their situation better than many other ethnic groups."

The Hmong (the \o7 h \f7 is silent) originated in central China but resettled in southern China after years of bloody repression by the Imperial Chinese. In the early 19th Century, many Hmong migrated to northern Laos and a lesser number to northern Vietnam and Thailand.

The Laotian Hmong suffered further persecution in the mid-1970s by the Communist Pathet Lao regime, which accused many Hmong of complicity with the CIA in Laos. Tens of thousands fled to the United States.