Search for the Golden Moon Bear by
Join Sy Montgomery as she travels far and wide in search of the golden moon bear. Along with her research companions, she delves deep into the jungles of the Elephant Mountains, visits the bustling streets of Cambodian cities, explores remote villages, and attends a Club Med for bears in Thailand--all while carrying marshmallows and tweezers for her encounters with the bears along the way. The quest for the golden moon bear takes us on an exhilarating journey and chronicles the detective work and science behind tracking a new species in a different part of the world, where bears are kept as pets and where sometimes things aren't quite what they seem . . .
The Story of Mah by
Caught between the conventions of arranged marriage and their own special bond, Mah and Leu struggle in vain to be together in their present life. The story touches on intriguing facets of Hmong culture -- rich textile art tradition and the role of shamanism in the community.
Jouanah :A Hmong Cinderalla by
Jouanah's story takes readers to the remote mountains of Southeast Asia, to the traditional home of the Laotian Hmong.
Dia's Story Cloth by
A Hmong American tells of her people's search for freedom. For centuries, needlework has been part of Hmong culture. But it has only been since the war in Vietnam and Laos, which displaced many Hmong, that the new, narrative form of 'story cloths' has emerged, a bridge between past and present. Dia Cha and her family experienced this displacement. Born in Laos, Dia fled with her family to Thailand as a child, spending four years in a refugee camp before arriving in the U.S. Her story is shared by many Hmong Americans. As told through the story cloth stitched by her aunt and uncle, the Hmong people's search for freedom began long ago in China. Dia's Story Cloth explores many aspects of the Hmong experience from peace and war in Asia to new beginnings in America. Through Dia's story, young children can see that the search for freedom transcends all cultures. This book includes a compendium of Hmong culture: their history, traditions, and stitchery techniques.
Being Hmong Means being Free : A Video Portrait of Hmong Life and Culture
When the U.S. withdrew from the Viet Nam War in 1975, approximately 120,000 Hmong were driven from their homeland in Laos by communist forces. Focusing on a Hmong immigrant community in Wisconsin, this documentary offers a comprehensive look at many fundamental concepts and practices of the ancient Hmong culture – weddings, funerals, “ball toss,” shamans, clans and “flower cloth” – and how those traditions have framed Hmong culture and community. Acknowledging the difficulties from following those traditions in a new country where the language barrier, limited employment opportunities and xenophobia present everyday challenges,
Roots and Branches: A Conversation with Yang Xiong
A conversation with Yang Xiong who is Hmong from Laos and came to California as a refugee. When filmed, he lived in Contra Costa County and was a social worker. Later he moved to Elk Grove and became a director of a social service organization in Sacramento.
Hmongness by
Hmongness is a documentary that shows the cultural life of a Hmong community in Long Beach. The filmmaker goes into the Hmong Association of Long Beach to find out what “being American Hmong” looks like, and how these Hmong preserve their culture and maintain their identity. Following three subjects from different generations, the film reveals that even though they are all trying to preserve their culture, they do so by highlighting different cultural symbols. While the elders in this community prefer traditional symbols, such as the instrument known as Qeej and the needlework known as Paj Ntaub, youths prefer newer, more fashionable ones—modernized versions of traditional dancing and clothes.
Hmong Americans are immigrants or descendants of people from the mountainous regions of Laos, a nation in Southeast Asia. Many Hmong sided with the United States during the Vietnam war, and left their homeland after the communist victory. Hmong refugees have settled primarily in California, including the Central Valley, as well as Minnesota and Wisconsin (Bankston, 2014).
This study documents Hmong involvement in the Vietnam War, their refugee exodus from Laos, and the challenges to find relocation to United States. The author provides detailed research on the adaptation of Hmong Americans to their new lives in the United States, facing discrimination and prejudice, and the advancement of Hmong Americans over the past 40 years. He presents the Hmong American community as an uprooted refugee community that grew from a small population in 1975 to more than 300,000 by the year 2015; spreading to all 50 states while becoming a diverse and complex American ethnic community. The progress of Hmong Americans over the past 4 decades is highlighted with a list of many achievements in education, high-tech, academia, political participation, the military and other fields. Readers of this book will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges, complex and diverse experience of the Hmong American community. They are like bristle-cone pines on the rock that have been exposed to all types of weather, climate and conditions, but they won't die.
Read The Making of Hmong America by Kou Yang online via ProQuest ebooks.
Also available in print in the library: Reading Room E184 .H55 Y38 2017
This anthology wrestles with Hmong Americans' inclusion into and contributions to Asian American studies, as well as to American history and culture and refugee, immigrant, and diasporic trajectories. It negotiates both Hmong American political and cultural citizenship. The collection boldly moves Hmong American studies away from its usual groove of refugee recapitulation that entrenches Hmong Americans points-of-origin and acculturation studies rather than propelling the field into other exciting academic avenues. Following a summary of more than three decades' of Hmong American experience and a demographic overview, chapters investigate the causes of and solutions to socioeconomic immobility in the Hmong American community and political and civic activism, including Hmong American electoral participation and its affects on policy making. address new issues. It represents an essential step in carving out space for Hmong Americans as primary actors in their own right and in placing Hmong American studies within the purview of Asian American studies.
Read Diversity in Diaspora : Hmong Americans online via JSTOR.
Print book also available in the library: Main E184 .H55 D58 2013
This collection of evocative personal testimonies by three generations of Hmong refugees is the first to describe their lives in Laos as slash-and-burn farmers, as refugees after a Communist government came to power in 1975, and as immigrants in the United States. Reflecting on the homes left behind, their narratives chronicle the difficulties of forging a new identity. From Jou Yee Xiong's Life Story: "I stopped teaching my sons many of the Hmong ways because I felt my ancestors and I had suffered enough already. I thought that teaching my children the old ways would only place a burden on them." From Ka Pao Xiong's (Jou Yee Xiong's son) Life Story: "It has been very difficult for us to adapt because we had no professions or trades and we suffered from culture shock. Here in America, both the husband and wife must work simultaneously to earn enough money to live on. Many of our children are ignorant of the Hmong way of life . Even the old people are forgetting about their life in Laos, as they enjoy the prosperity and good life in America." From Xang Mao Xiong's Life Story: "When the Communists took over Laos and General Vang Pao fled with his family, we, too, decided to leave. Not only my family, but thousands of Hmong tried to flee. I rented a car for thirty thousand Laotian dollars, and it took us to Nasu . We felt compelled to leave because many of us had been connected to the CIA . Thousands of Hmong were traveling on foot. Along the way, many of them were shot and killed by Communist soldiers. We witnessed a bloody massacre of civilians." From Vue Vang's Life Story: "Life was so hard in the Thai refugee] camp that when we found out we could go to the United States, we did not hesitate to grasp the chance. We knew that were we to remain in the camp, there would be no hope for a better future. We would not be able to offer our children anything better than a life of perpetual poverty and anguish."
Cooking from the Heart : The Hmong kitchen in America / by
Simple, earthy, fiery, and fresh, Hmong food is an exciting but still little-known South Asian cuisine. In traditional Hmong culture, dishes are created and replicated not by exact measurements but by taste and experimentationOCofor every Hmong recipe, there are as many variations as there are Hmong cooksOCoand often served to large, communal groups. Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang have gathered more than 100 recipes from Hmong-American kitchens, illustrated them with color photos of completed dishes, and provided descriptions of unusual ingredients and cooking techniques.Cooking from the Heart is the first cookbook to clearly set out the culinary traditions of the Hmong people as well as the cultural significance such traditions hold. The recipes are accompanied by anecdotes, aphorisms, and poems that demonstrate the importance of food and cooking in Hmong culture and offer a dramatic perspective on the immigrant experience. Scripter and Yang outline diet restrictions and taboos as well as how herbs and foods are traditionally used for healing purposes. The dishes featured in Cooking from the Heart range from well-known items such as egg rolls and green papaya salad to more unfamiliar dishes such as Nqaij Qaib Hau Xyaw Tshuaj (Chicken Soup for New Mothers) and Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua (Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup).The oral tradition by which these recipes have been passed down has meant that Hmong cooking has not yet reached a wide audience in the United States. While designed for an American kitchen, Cooking from the Heart encourages readers to seek out Hmong herbs and vegetables only recently introduced in the United States. After all, the authors say, the essence of Hmong cuisine is cooking with an adventurous and creative spiritOCofrom the heart."
An Introduction to Hmong Culture by
Presenting a holistic perspective of the Hmong way of life, this book touches on every aspect of the Hmong culture, including an overview of their history and traditions, relationships between Hmong parents and their children, the rites and traditions of Hmong wedding and funeral ceremonies, the celebration of the Hmong New Year, home restrictions and other superstitious taboos, arts and politics. The book features and explains many Hmong words, phrases and proverbs.
The Hmong : A Guide to Traditional life by
The Hmong diaspora straddles the mountains ranges of Southern China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Through refugee migration it has crossed the oceans to the United States, Europe, Australia, and South America. As the decades of war and trauma come to an end, and the younger generation embraces the benefits of modern life, it is doubtful Hmong traditional life will survive the peace.
In this book, Robert Cooper and his research team, including Gary Yia Lee, among the world's leading authorities on the Hmong people, have recorded traditional life as it was and as it remains in the more remote locations, offering readers a privileged glimpse into a unique, endangered lifestyle.
Hmong Milestones in America by
Hmong history
-- Life in Laos
-- Celebrations
-- The war years
-- Leaving Laos for Thailand
-- Life in the camps
Hmong Firsts:
-- Dr. Xoua Thao, first Hmong medical doctor -- Ying Vang, first Hmong Catholic priest in the United States
-- Choua Lee, first elected Hmong official in the United States
-- Rev. Bea Vue-Benson, first Hmong woman Lutheran minister
-- Christopher Thao, first Hmong attorney in the United States
-- Afterward: bridging two worlds
Hmong Means Free by
This collection of evocative personal testimonies by three generations of Hmong refugees is the first to describe their lives in Laos as slash-and-burn farmers, as refugees after a Communist government came to power in 1975, and as immigrants in the United States. Reflecting on the homes left behind, their narratives chronicle the difficulties of forging a new identity. From Jou Yee Xiong's Life Story: ""I stopped teaching my sons many of the Hmong ways because I felt my ancestors and I had suffered enough already. I thought that teaching my children the old ways would only place a burden on them."" From Ka Pao Xiong's (Jou Yee Xiong's son) Life Story: ""It has been very difficult for us to adapt because we had no professions or trades and we suffered from culture shock. Here in America, both the husband and wife must work simultaneously to earn enough money to live on. Many of our children are ignorant of the Hmong way of life . Even the old people are forgetting about their life in Laos, as they enjoy the prosperity and good life in America."" From Xang Mao Xiong's Life Story: ""When the Communists took over Laos and General Vang Pao fled with his family, we, too, decided to leave. Not only my family, but thousands of Hmong tried to flee. I rented a car for thirty thousand Laotian dollars, and it took us to Nasu . We felt compelled to leave because many of us had been connected to the CIA . Thousands of Hmong were traveling on foot. Along the way, many of them were shot and killed by Communist soldiers. We witnessed a bloody massacre of civilians."" From Vue Vang's Life Story: ""Life was so hard in the Thai refugee] camp that when we found out we could go to the United States, we did not hesitate to grasp the chance. We knew that were we to remain in the camp, there would be no hope for a better future. We would not be able to offer our children anything better than a life of perpetual poverty and anguish."" "
Hmong, History of a People by
This survey of Hmong history and culture answers a keenly felt need for a study that combines comprehensive coverage with concise scope.
Hmong in America : Journey from a Secret War by
Hmong in America is the dramatic story of one of America's newest groups of immigrants, the Hmong, told through the voices of the people who lived this contemporary history. Their journey begins in the scenic, rugged highlands of Laos, travels through the Vietnam War, pauses in the over-crowded refugee camps of Thailand, and ends with the challenges of resettlement and a new life in America.
