February 2009 Archives

     For the past couple weeks, we've been having a series of Hmong speakers from every generation.  This week we heard from the young generation, the Hmong who were maybe born in Laos but grew up in the United States.  The speakers included three Hmong CSP students who told us their personal stories about growing up Hmong, but at the same time growing up American.
     The first speaker was Xia Yang.  She was born in a refugee camp in Laos.  Her dad had two wives, and when he came to the US he could only take one wife, and he ended up taking Xia's step-mom. So when Xia's family came to the US, her mom was considered a single mother.  Xia is a teaching major who is currently student-teaching.
   The second student to speak was Pattoua Yang, who came to the US because her dad has political asylum because he worked with the CIA.  They came to the US 8 days before September 11.  After she graduated from high school in 2007, she didn't know if she wanted to go to college because she didn't know if she was so smart enough.  Her dad, however, wanted her to to get an education, and because of his support she went on to CSP.
     The last speaker was Xang Lee.  He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, and came to the US when he was maybe three or four. He doesn't really remember anything from Thailand. He's now a finance major.
    I thought it was funny that both of the girls were complaining about the strictness of the Hmong culture, and yet when asked how they would raise their kids, both said that they would raise their children traditionally.  Xang, on the other hand, said that he would raise his kids more modern.  It was also quite funny, because every time he tried to make a point he was inadvertently shushed and covered up by the girls. The girls must be more Americanized than they thought.
   This night seemed to sink in a bit more because the speakers were our age, and we could relate to them somewhat better.  It was interesting to see how each dealt with managing the two cultures that they grew up in.  Out of all of them, I think that Xang was the one that has embraced American culture the most.   I think now that I know a bit about their culture, and a bit about their lives, I will be able to interact with them with more ease.  It's going to be a lot easier for this mid-western girl to relate to others now that she is able to relate their lives to hers.

     Today I attended the convocation in the music building that featured art by and about immigrants.  It was really interesting to see how the different artists recorded their immigrant experience. There were several pieces that I enjoyed.  The first piece that really caught my eye was titled Passport to Freedom by Nikki Yang.  It depicted a young Asian boy holding a card with an identification number; next to him is a young Asian adult holding an American visa; next to him, on the far right, was the image of an old Asian man holding his US passport.  I liked this picture because it was a very powerful depiction of the time involved in the process of becoming a US citizen.  It was a very powerful piece that I was drawn to right away.
   Another piece by one of the CSP faulty members was called a knarly old tree stump fused with fresh, new, "synthetic" wood from Menards for the branches.  I really liked how it represented the immigrant experience, especially the immigrant children.  In my opinion, that's the hardest thing to go through: trying to merge ones home culture while at the same time exploring one's new opportunities as an American.
     The final piece that I was really drawn to was a self-portrait by Hend al-Mansour.  It depicted her hand on the steering wheel of the car, with her wedding band and her thumb, decorated with henna.  Again, I loved the juxtaposition of tradition and new opportunities (aka, the henna and the act of driving).  That sort of tension is something that I'm subconsciously drawn to in art.
   Overall, it was a pretty powerful experience.  Maybe it's not something that I can really relate to, but I have definitely gained something from it.  I'm not sure if I can actually explain the thing that I've gained.  But one thing is for sure - I am more aware of immigrants and their emotional struggles than I was before the convocation.
          

    On Monday night we were honored to have two more Hmong speakers in class: Mr. Long Yang and Ms. Choua Thao.  Both of them were adults when they immigrated over to the United States from Laos, and so their experience was a bit different than that of last week's speaker. 
    Mr. Yang was a quiet gentleman; one had to listen closely to be able to perfectly understand him.  Apparently, he was a Hmong gurilla soldier for General Vang Pao.  He then escaped the country to Thailand, from which he and his family lived in detainment camps until they eventually made their way to the US where he worked in the computer programming feild.
    Mrs. Thao, on the other hand, boy was she a force of nature!  Her name means "tornado", and it suits her perfectly.  Back in Laos she was a nurse in charge of a hospital in the jungle.  She was married with three children at the time, and still found time to take care of many patients at the hospital.  Judging from her stories, if she wanted something she found a way to get it.  She talked and pushed her way to America, through an associate's degree in social work, and into a job where they had almost turned her away.  She has a personality that is barely contained by her tiny frame.  No matter what stories she decided to enthrall us with, she always emphasized the importance of getting an education and pursuing one's dream.  Ms. Thao wanted us to fight for our dreams, because if we didn't fight for our dreams we wouldn't get them.
    In a way, Ms. Thao reminds me of my grandma. Beulah.  Although Grandma wasn't a nurse deep in the jungle in a war torn country, she has had to make quick thinking decisions on her feet and making sure that her family was safe over all else.  She has always encouraged me to keep continuing with my education and to keep pursuing my dreams.  (I think if she could single handedly pay for my college education if she was able to.)  And like Ms. Thao, my grandma can be pretty single minded when it comes to getting what she wants. I guess it must be something about that generation. :)
     I think from this experience I learned just exactly had been going on during that time period; it has always been a bit fuzzy for me.  I was also very interested in their perspectives on American things like the fourth of July and such.  I hope that sometime we'll get to hear more from them - especially Ms. Thao. She was really fun to listen to.         

     So on Monday night we all trooped through the massive puddles to the Hmong Center on campus.  Really, I had no idea what to expect, since the center hasn't really been mentioned a whole lot.  I was pleasantly surprised when the center turned out to be an actual house.  Lee Pao Xiong, the executive for the center, talked to us about the Hmong culture and his own journey from Laos to America.  Overall I was very impressed with his story.  Unlike other lectures I have heard on similar topics,  Xiong's presentation was really quite interesting.  I like how he first told us a little bit about the Hmong presence on campus, and then continued on to his own personal story, some of which included growing up with his dad on an army base, being rushed onto a waiting airplane in order to leave Laos, spending time in a refugee camp, moving to Minnesota, pursuing a career in politics and eventually ending up at CSP.  One thing that was really surprising to me was actually how well known he is.  He had jobs at both the Minnesota and the United States legislatures, as well as serving as an advisor to former President Bill Clinton.  Despite his phenomenal success, Xiong chose to come back to the Twin Cities and become a staff member at CSP.
   Oddly enough, Xiong reminded me of the AP statistic teacher at my high school, Mr. Peter Newland.  Mr. Newland immigrated to the US from China, and like Xiong has made phenomenal progress in the states.  Yet it wasn't their similar success that helped me draw the connection; it was their attitude toward life in general.  Both of these men have an unexplicable drive for learning and growing; for Xiong, it is more in the way of politics rather than Mr. Newland, who prefers math.  Even though both of them could be making millions, they both chose to teach kids.  This might have something to do with the familial-centered cultures from which both of them came.  Although Xiong did remark that it was mostly the women who passed down the Hmong traditions to their children, I think that the men also have that drive, deep down inside.

My high school math department...Mr. Newland is the one in the front row on the right.  He is insanely crazy about math, and at least once a day said "Math gives me tingles!!"  I think my favorite Newland-ism was: "Doing math is just like eating dessert, except no calories!!!"  Oh Mr. Newland...
     Although this maybe did not change me in any way, I still appriciated getting out of the classroom and actually "experiencing" Hmong culture rather than just reading about it.  It was cool to see that the Hmong is an actual people, rather than just some obscure people group that we hear about in passing on the evening news.  What I really admire about the Hmong people, and Lee Pao Xiong in particular, is their ability to adapt, grow, and thrive in their different environments.  I would love to learn more about the Hmong culture, and experience it, rather than learn about it in a classroom as usual.  I think that once we experience a culture, it makes it more meaningful. 

     I had some mixed feelings about seeing this film. On the one hand, I didn't really feel like dealing with such heavy subject matter as Hmong immigration; on the other, I was kinda eager to see Eastwood return to his classic "Man with No Name" attitude. Much to my surprise I actually enjoyed the film.  Living in a city with one of the largest Hmong populations in the US, I suppose it was a good thing I saw this.  Although I am not prejudiced in any way, I have never really had as much exposure to that culture as I probably should have.  In any case, it was a very good movie.
     The film centers around a Korean War vet named Walt who is trying to get over the death of his wife.  In the course of the movie, he becomes a mentor and friend to the teenage members of the Hmong family next door, Thao and Su.  Walt inadvertantly teaches the seventeen year old Thao about the value of hard work and honestly, all the while keeping Thao out of the Hmong gang led by his  cousin.  But when Su is beaten and raped by the gang, Walt discovers that he has come to care for his Hmong neighbors more than he ever thought possible.
 
      Walt stops Thao from exacting revenge on his cousin, and instead goes to confront the gang alone.  Although Walt, unarmed, is shot to death by the gang, in giving up his own life he also made things safe for Thao, Su, and their family. (The gang was arrested and jailed for a long time.)  Thao had become like a son to Walt, more so than his biological sons.  As such, Walt left his beloved 1972 Ford Gran Torino to the teenager, so long as he didn't "chop top the roof...paint any idiotic flames on it like some white trash hillbilly, [or] put a big...spoiler on the rear end."
     Ideally, what I saw in this movie was not a message about culture or racism; what I saw was a message about prejudice and having the courage to get over that prejudice to forge a lasting relationship.  This message is not limited to cross-culture; it pertains to every situation, every stereotype we encounter in our lives.  Now that I think about it, even though I may not have experienced much racial diversity, this phenomenon has happened a lot to me over the course of my life.  One example that quickly comes to my mind is my relationship with one of my co-workers.  Although at first I percieved him to be a bit like Vanilla Ice (sorry, that was the best reference I could come up with...), he ended up being more like my big brother. Being the oldest child with huge age gaps between herself and her cousins, I had never really had that figure in my life.  This is a bit like what Walt experiences with Thao.  By some miracle or another, Thao became more like a son to Walt than his own biological sons. Thao recieved all of the "wisdom", tools, experience, teaching, and sarcasm that a son should be recieving from his father.  This is reflected in Walt leaving his prized Gran Torino to Thao in his will; he chose Thao over his biological granddaughter.  Oddly enough this remindes me of the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice, because not judging a book by its cover is one of the main points of that book.
   We all are guilty of this, of judging people based on their outward appearences. This movie was a nice reminder of the follys of judging someone based on their race, gender, ect. Like God, we should strive to see people for what's in their heart, not what the color of their skin is.