Hmong Essay

Being a Hmong-American in the United States was hard. Growing up in a community that was full of Americans, and being in a private school in my early years, (consisting mostly of Americans and little diversity) was difficult. In that kind of environment, I never saw each person differently. The characteristics that I saw were our skin color, and another distinction that I saw was our religious and cultural backgrounds. I started to lose touch of my own culture and identity as a Hmong-American girl. My family told me that in the stages of my toddler years, I used to be good at speaking my native tongue until I started school.

The Hmong’s believe in shamans. Shamans are religious specialists commonly found in small-scale egalitarian societies. They are believed to have the power to contact powerful cosmic beings directly on behalf of others, sometimes by traveling to the cosmic realm to communicate with them. Shamans are

Initiation Rituals are nothing new to different parts of the world or in different tribes. Different places have different initiation rituals, some far outside the norm and others mild. But the main goal is typical to go from one old status to a liminal status, and then into a new status, like for example entering Manhood. For western society, physical changes to the body through the body like the beginning of menstruation or the addition of more body hair would be some of the many physical changes that take place and signal the start of the transition to adulthood in this culture. It is not like that for everyone else, in many tribes such as the Fulani people, the people involved are put through a series or just one thing that will officially

By erecting alters in homes and placing shrines in fields and along trails, they try to drive away the evil spirits that infect their people. If a treatment from a Shaman does not work, the people do not blame the shaman. Instead, they see that the evil spirits could not be driven from the person’s body. Symbols and patterns were decorating on the clothing that the Hmong women made from hemp. These patterns and symbols were created from dyes that came from vegetables and were used to drive away evil spirits and attract friendly ones.

To be young and Asian in America is a special brand of torture. There is an unspoken dictum of silence that grips Asian youth, a denial of our place in popular culture. Asian youth walk in America not quite sure where we fit in-black children have a particular brotherhood, Hispanic children have a particular brotherhood, white children own everything else. We cannot lay claim to jazz or salsa or swing; we cannot say our ancestors fought for equality against an oppressive government or roamed the great hallways of power across the globe. We do not have a music, a common hero, a lexicon of slang. Asian youth experience personal diasporas every day.

I am Hmong and comes from a family of nine. My parents are refugees from Laos who came to the United States to escape communism after the Vietnam War. I was born in Oroville, California in the year 1994 and moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1997. My parents moved here in hope to find a good job to provide for the family as well as a better education for their children. As I got older, I realized that how important it is to help out one another. I am where I’m at because of the support I received from my family and my community. This is the reason why I tried my best to be a part of my community when I was in high school and while I am in college. In high school I took the opportunity to be involved with my school by joining school organizations.

Along with the stubbornness of the Hmong is my last point that the Hmong and Americans have cultural misunderstandings. Fadiman came “to believe that her [Lia’s] life was ruined not by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding” (Fadiman 1997:262). Hmong once believed some crazy things about Americans. “It was said that Hmong women were forced into slavery, forced to have sex with American men … and with animals; that dinosaurs lived in America, along with ghosts, ogres, and

Although Asian Americans comprise only about 5% of the U.S. population, this group is the fastest growing segment of American society. Despite such rapid expansion, Asian Americans are widely underrepresented throughout media, whether in television, cinema, or literature. Moreover, there are different stereotypes associated with Asian Americans. One of the most pervasive stereotypes details how Asian Americans are a “model minority”. In essence, this myth describes how anyone who is Asian American will become a successful individual able to achieve the “American dream”.

At birth, the Hmong view their newborns as a gift and extremely special. At birth, it is called “Mus Thawj thiab, “go become again” or more simple, “reincarnation,” is a traditional Hmong belief (Bankston 2000). When a child is born, they are automatically seen as a gift and reborn as a reincarnated soul. Though, if a child dies after three days of living there are “no funeral ceremonies…since the child did not have a soul yet” (Bankston 2000). The Hmong believe if the child lives past three days, their soul is present though if they die, the infant never had a soul to begin with. If the child lives past day three, then a shaman is brought in and he “evokes a soul to be be reincarnated in the baby’s body” (Bankston 2000). This is considered

The Hmongs are an ethnic race, originally migrated from Eurasia and settled in river plains of China. The Chinese hated them, calling them ‘Miao’ or ‘Meo’ meaning barbarians and tried to gain mastery over them but the Hmongs wanting to be left alone began to migrate. By the beginning of the 19th century, half a million Hmongs had migrated to Indo-China. Disliking persecution, some settled in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. They detest being ordered or bullied, do not like to lose, are fighters who would rather die than surrender. Though they never possessed a country of their own, they have marched through the pages of history as free men desiring personal liberty. The Lee family travelled to Merced, California along with other Hmongs who fled to Laos in 1975, when their country became a prey to communism.

The Hmong are a group of people who originally lived in the mountains overlooking Laos, China, Vietnam, and Thailand-- though most have since emigrated to other countries and areas due to political conflict. They have valued self-sufficiency and resisted authority throughout history, as they have constantly been the minority and often seen as the Other and persecuted for being such. Still, many have managed to survive and preserve much of their culture, such as religious beliefs and shamanic healing practices.

While much effort is put into maintaining a fairly equal status among the people of !Kung society, this is not to suggest that gender roles are non-existent. Men and women have different roles in society everywhere, it is also seen here. In most cases women took care of the children and preparing of the food. However, the women of the !Kung culture are not limited to only be in their homes because without being able to get help from one another or socialize since these gathering activities were usually done in groups (Shostak 1981). Men also engaged in these activities. Children would be raised in village groups of other children of a wide age range of ages. Marriage was generally between a man in his twenties and a girl in her teens. Newlyweds lived in the same village as the wife's family so that she had family support during her new life.. During this time, the husband would hunt for his wife's family. This is called bridewealth, which is a transfer of wealth to the bride's family in terms of labor. So every groom is responsible to hunt not only for his family, his wife, but also for the bride's family. Even if bride were to die, the groom would still hunt for her family until he got married again. This fact shows that women are valued in this society. Often, young wives would return to their parents' houses to go to bed with the usual arrangements until they become comfortable with their husbands. If the wife or maybe even the husband never felt like he or she

Asians have migrated to and have lived in the Americas since the days of our founding fathers. The first to come from the Eastern Hemisphere were a small group of Filipinos in the early 18th century that settled in present day Louisiana. The first major influx of Asian Americans was Chinese Americans who came in the 1800’s to find financial opportunity during the California gold rush. They settled in the Golden State and eventually spread out all over the United States, creating the now-famous Chinatowns that millions of Americans visit every year. There is a continual migration of well educated South Asians and East Asians for job and education opportunities and their success has formed the basis for the “myth of the model minority” (MMM). This is the idea that all people who are Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are successful both socioeconomically and educationally. This does have a logical basis rooted in statistics—AAPI students are reported to have higher grade point averages, math scores, and overall standardized tests scores on tests such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing Exam (ACT). Other studies often use a racialized rhetoric comparing Asian Americans to white Americans in terms of education and socioeconomic status while contrasting them to the so-called “lazy” and “incapable” Hispanic and African Americans.

As the immigrant population currently projected to overtake latinxs and hispanics as largest group of residents in the United States of America, Asian Americans have shown their will to survive in a way that many groups have not, and that is by banding together in order to achieve the life they deserve. Taking the overgeneralization of pan-ethnicity and using it as a device for increased numbers and support for the causes of a group of people who otherwise may not have much to do with each other, is a testament to how vulnerable they must have felt as well as how successful they have managed to be many aspects of progress. What I have gained from this course is the understanding that at the root of ethnic studies and the Asian American community is the “for us, by us” sentiment that contributed to the blurred lines between the different part of their communities as social, political and cultural, structures, collectives and groups which came out of an obligation and necessity to protect those immigrants and their future generations from a country which has always pushed European superiority in all aspects of society.

     Another way that Chinese Americans preserve their identities is through their weddings. The traditional Chinese wedding procedures are known as the “Three Letters and Six Etiquettes.” Chinese American weddings in America do not really follow all of the old traditions, but there are still aspects that are preserved. Large engagement parties are still held, at which the traditional roast pig is served. Also, at many Chinese American weddings, the traditional tea ceremony is still performed. This is where the bride and groom offer cups of sweet tea to their families, and are offered envelopes with money or jewelry in them in