The idea of the spirit coming home is one of the most important cultural aspects that is emphasized by Yang’s grandmother. When Yang moved to America, she “asked her grandfather’s spirit to protect [her], or at least to tell [her] grandmother of [her] fear” (109). She constantly seeks for her grandmother’s guidance and shamanism – a traditional belief of the Hmong. Her grandmother influenced her strong belief in shamanism. As Yang grows up without her grandmother, her grandmother’s beliefs and values stay with her throughout her journey as she migrates to America.
Most of the readings in class do not capture the importance of culture, but instead, they focused on the United States’ introduction and implementation of policies. The United States
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government pledged to “use its best efforts to assure successful resettlement of each assigned refugee into American life, leading towards economic self-sufficiency” (Robinson, 130-131). However, Yang and her family thought that such policies and organizations, like Hmong American Partnership, “destroyed [their] lives too many times” (Yang, 136). Yang disagrees from what was explained in lecture and readings. Her voice strengthens as a writer. Although the American government tried their best in aiding Hmong refugees, she thinks that her family is still struggling to adapt in the United States. While Yang and her family were acclimating to the United States, they were also trying to find themselves.
They encountered identity issues, especially tackling what it means to be Hmong-American. One of her most powerful lines was “In wanting to live, we were willing to try becoming Hmong Americans” (Yang, 203). Her words depicted how her voice intensified as a story teller. As she grew older, Yang explored herself “as a cultural identity and as Hmong person” (214). She is not done defining herself and history. Today, the history of her family and her people continues, as they seek to explore their identities with each other and within …show more content…
themselves. I. Evaluation As I continued to read the memoir, I could not help but relate to Yang’s experiences. Yang effectively conveyed the history and refugee experience by writing about every significant historical event that happened to the Hmong as they migrated from Laos to America. I really enjoyed reading her detailed stories on how she feels as a refugee and seeing pictures of her family. I found myself in tears when her grandma passed away. She perfectly summed my experience when she mentioned “I explored how it was to be first generation, financially challenged, and living within the American immigration experience” (Yang, 214). Those eloquent words were incredibly prevailing and relatable to me. Furthermore, I enjoyed learning deeply about her culture. One of my favorite memories that she has is when she tells the importance of inheriting her mother’s possessions (Yang, 17). I am very close to my mother, so this is fascinating. Family and inheritance stayed true to the Hmong culture and values throughout the novel. Despite Yang’s lengthy and meaningful descriptions of her life, a few critiques are the focus on women-centered memoir and less weight on the difficulty of obtaining citizenship.
Although Yang effectively shared her story, the book could be improved by showing a balance between men and women leadership. Yang sets a strong emphasis on her grandma’s potent figure such as grandma’s reluctance to leave the camp, but does not make the same mentions of her own father’s presence. She may have chosen to illustrate Hmong women’s perspectives throughout, but she could have done a better job in storytelling by showing a balance between genders. Yang could have also shared how hard it was for other Hmong to earn citizenship in America. Her memoir focused on her family and how lucky they were to gain citizenship; however, for other Hmong, they did not have luck at all. The difficult stages of the process of sponsorship were
neglected. II. Conclusion All in all, Kao Kalia Yang moved hearts by detailing every memory that she had from her migration. Her articulate words successfully align the truth to history by providing a feminine voice and perspective to every step of her and her family’s journey. Resettlement is not an easy process, and Yang profoundly demonstrated this by sharing a powerful and true story.
She heard about the Hmong through a friend, and so she spent 4 years living in Merced, California and another 5 writing this book. She attempts to stay fairly neutral in her writing, though through her time with the Lees, she confesses that her writing may appear biased toward the Hmong culture rather than toward the Americans. However, in the end she could not blame one side or the other for the unfortunate tragedy of Lia, who got hit in the cross-fire between these two cultures. Her theoretical view is a type of cultural relativism. Neither the Hmong nor the Americans could emerge as the better culture. She does not address any questions about direct unethical practices. The Hmong did not practice human sacrifices, and the animals they did sacrifice were theirs. She does seem to believe that every culture has its weak and strong
What are the most important aspects of Hmong culture? What do the Hmong consider their most important duties and obligations? How did they affect the Hmong’s transition to the United States?
At the end of The Latehomecomer, Yang concludes with the promise she had made to her grandmother: “I told her we will not become the birds or the bees. We will become Hmong, and we will build a strong home that we will never leave and can always return to. We will not be lost and looking our whole lives through.” (Yang, 263) Throughout this story, her grandmother was the bond that held the whole family together through all the ordeals. She was the source of pride of being a Hmong, and the courage to find her
Thru-out the centuries, regardless of race or age, there has been dilemmas that identify a family’s thru union. In “Hangzhou” (1925), author Lang Samantha Chang illustrates the story of a Japanese family whose mother is trapped in her believes. While Alice Walker in her story of “Everyday Use” (1944) presents the readers with an African American family whose dilemma is mainly rotating around Dee’s ego, the narrator’s daughter. Although differing ethnicity, both families commonly share the attachment of a legacy, a tradition and the adaptation to a new generation. In desperation of surviving as a united family there are changes that they must submit to.
Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American family with the main focus on the life journeys of her father and mother, Do In Kwon and Hee Kyung Lee. Much like the majority of the pre-World War II immigrants, the author’s family is marked and characterized by the common perception of the “typical” Asian immigrant status in the early 20th century: low class, lack of English speaking ability, lack of transferable education and skills, and lack of knowledge on the host society’s mainstream networks and institutions (Zhou and Gatewood 120, Zhou 224). Despite living in a foreign land with countless barriers and lack of capital, Kwon lead his wife and children to assimilate culturally, economically, and structurally through his growing entrepreneurship. Lee, on the other hand, devoted herself not only to her husband’s business but also to the Korean American society. By investing her time in the Korean Methodist Church and the efforts of its associated societies, such as the Methodist Ladies Aid Society and the Youngnam Puin Hoe, Lee made a worthy contribution to the emergence and existence of Hawaii’s Korean American community.
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
Each of these cultural competences has its own impacting influence and effect over the continuum of the lives of the characters that comprised the story. Towards the progress of the story, the impact of cultural values, beliefs and traditional norms that guided the Hmong people set up their own unique traditions and practices. This influenced the overall development of their cognitive skills and emotional capacities. Furthermore, these cultural competences defined their lives, how they lived in the community and how they organized their roles and their functions towards the society. These were various cultural domains that overall defined their personality and how they should live their lives and unique individuals. However, it was these same cultural and religious considerations that separated them the "normal sense" of development, function and expression of existence (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2009, p. 1). These are the cultural and religious influences that disabled them to understand the narrative display and critical applications of modern knowledge and science. Because of their own set of cultural display and traditions, the Hmong people could not care less of the applications and understanding of modern practices and expressions. Likewise, after Lia was thought of being possessed by an evil spirit, the community thought of her as a poor girl disturbed by the lost souls.
The Hmong people, an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam and Laos, greatly value their culture and traditions. The film “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America” documents the seventeen year journey of the Hmong Shaman, Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America. This film shows the struggle of Paja Thao to maintain their 5000 year-old shamanic traditions as his children embrace the American culture. Moreover, the film shows that one of the major problems refugees like Paja Thao and his family face upon their arrival to the United States is conflict with the American medical system. Despite the dominant biomedical model of health, the film “The Split Horn” shows that
Change is one of the tallest hurdles we all must face growing up. We all must watch our relatives die or grow old, our pets do the same, change school or employment, and take responsibility for our own lives one way or another. Change is what shapes our personalities, it molds us as we journey through life, for some people, change is what breaks us. Watching everything you once knew as your reality wither away into nothing but memory and photographs is tough, and the most difficult part is continuing on with your life. In the novel Ceremony, author Leslie Silko explores how change impacted the entirety of Native American people, and the continual battle to keep up with an evolving world while still holding onto their past. Through Silko’s
In Kingston’s book, the myths, talk-stories, and memoirs she puts together help her to understand her own life on her own terms. Whether she is trying to understand the Chinese culture that her mother teaches her or to understand the American culture she is growing up in, the stories are her way of accepting the life that she is born with. Kingston uses the negative influence on her life from her mother to help her understand what her mother expects and an insight into the Chinese traditions. She also uses myths life Fa Mu Lan to help make her will stronger. The stories of the ghosts in America help her to put a meaning on the confusion she is having. All through out the story, the stories and myths teach her about life, either good or bad, and teaches her to overcome her weaknesses to strive to be a modern day Warrior Woman.
The Hmong culture is firmly rooted in their spiritual belief of animism, ancestral worship and reincarnation. These beliefs connect them to their sense of health and well-being. They view illness as having either a natural or a spiritual cause. A spiritual cause results in a “loss of souls” or is an action or misdeed that may have offended an ancestor’s spirit (California Department of Health Services, 2004, Purnell, 2013, p. 317). The soul escapes the body and may not be able to find its way back home. The Hmong also believe that a combination of natural and supernatural cause’s results in illness, and spells or curses, violation of taboos, accidents, fright, and infectious disease are other causes for illness (Centers for Disease Control
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Oftentimes the children of immigrants to the United States lose the sense of cultural background in which their parents had tried so desperately to instill within them. According to Walter Shear, “It is an unseen terror that runs through both the distinct social spectrum experienced by the mothers in China and the lack of such social definition in the daughters’ lives.” This “unseen terror” is portrayed in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club as four Chinese women and their American-born daughters struggle to understand one another’s culture and values. The second-generation women in The Joy Luck Club prove to lose their sense of Chinese values, becoming Americanized.
Amy Tan’s ,“Mother Tongue” and Maxine Kingston’s essay, “No Name Woman” represent a balance in cultures when obtaining an identity in American culture. As first generation Chinese-Americans both Tan and Kingston faced many obstacles. Obstacles in language and appearance while balancing two cultures. Overcoming these obstacles that were faced and preserving heritage both women gained an identity as a successful American.
Kao Kalia Yang’s The Latehomecomer is a story of one Hmong family’s first hand experience on their trip from the mountains of Laos to a new life in America. It depicts the hardships they faced in their quest to freedom in many instances, showing the reader the realities the Hmong faced during and after the Vietnam War. Yang’s novel displays her family’s story, showing throughout her book the concept that you have to love what you already have, and that love cannot be changed.