Monday
night, February 23, 2009, the Honors class had an amazing opportunity, having a
panel of three Hmong students from CSP come and talk to us. Each of them talked
about the history of their families as a whole and then were able to expand on
their own beliefs and life between the Hmong and American cultures. Xia Yang,
Pa Houa Yang, and Xang Lee were gracious enough to take time out of their busy
school schedules and share their beliefs that are very unlike those of any
person in the room. It was interesting to hear of their struggles here while
living in a traditional Hmong home and going to school in a very Americanized
culture growing up. The two women expressed how they are content with their
status as a woman and not being able to ever leave the house, and being a "good
girl" by cooking, cleaning, babysitting siblings, and doing chores. Xang
expressed more of a like for the Americanized culture in some respects, but he
still honors and respects his Hmong roots. We were able to hear about the
traditions of marriage and funerals, but they also dispelled myths about the
Hmong people in relation to rituals and daily living. These very respectful
students provided a large amount of new information concerning life in a
foreign culture for their parents and the switch between the two cultures for
themselves.
This greatly relates to the Hmong
speakers we have had in the past, such as Lee Pao Xiong, Long Yang, Choua Thao,
and Kao Kalia Yang. These three students did provide some more interesting
information that had not yet been touched on, but they still gave a general
history of their families. Each of their history stories about their families
were quite similar in many respects to the stories of past speakers, in terms
of the refugee camps and the war. This also was quite related to the book, The Middle of Everywhere, in that this
book gave quite a significant amount of information about immigrant and refugee
families which had similar struggles as the ones each student expressed. Also,
the book that Kao Kalia Yang wrote, The
Latehomecomer had similar experiences expressed.
There were some interesting pieces of
information that these three Hmong students were able to express or share with
the Honors class that we have not heard much on yet. They spoke about the
traditional Hmong lifestyle. I found it very interesting to see that the women
of the Hmong families must at all times be at home, but the males are free to
do what they like. Pa Haou Yang and Xia Yang were very proud of their
traditional Hmong lifestyle and are looking to carry that on for their children,
but the same could not be said for Xang. This was interesting to me because the
two women who have no freedom and are seen as very inferior, but the male who
has freedom does not think that this is the greatest or only way to live. This,
along with other rituals and traditions discussed, changed my perspective on
the roles of each gender in the Hmong culture. I was under the impression, due
Ms. Choua coming in and being very authoritative, that women were quite
outspoken, but hearing the inferiority of women from these three students was
quite a change of perspective. Overall it was great hearing from these three
individuals, as what they expressed really clarified some of the assumptions
that I had been making about the Hmong culture.
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