Their World, Not Ours: Problems Grip the Hmong in America

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**A young Hmong girl in traditional garb.**
The Hmong were forced to flee their Laotian mountain village homes following the Vietnam War. The people can proudly trace their heritage for more than three-thousand years, but life in America is slowly diminishing their unique culture and creating an increasing distance between the generations.

he six young Hmong girls dance as one, their movements fluid and graceful. Their costumes glimmer in the light, adorned with items not available in their tribal villages of Laos. The perimeter of the stage is crowded with well-behaved Hmong children. Their eyes focus on each of the performers as they catch a fleeting glimpse of their heritage on this cold November day.
        The girls are performing at the Hmong New Year's celebration in Denver. As the evening progresses, cultural performances give way to a Hmong rock band. The composition of the audience changes rapidly. Most of the families leave. Hundreds of young people, aged fourteen to twenty-five, pour into the auditorium. There is a strong police presence to prevent gang fights, and the youth are screened for weapons with handheld metal detectors. As a Hmong teenager pushes through the doors, a police officer tells him he missed an excellent cultural show. "That stuff is for the old people," sniffs the boy. "That's their world, not ours."
        The young Hmong spread out around the perimeter of the auditorium. They act hip and speak to each other in "Hmonglish," a combination of Hmong, English, and slang. A few of the elders remain, looking on in dismay, disappointment, and confusion. In addition to celebrating the New Year, they are witnessing the erosion and prospective elimination of their culture in the United States.

Cultural Constancy

he Hmong are a Laotian hill tribe. Their culture dates back over three thousand years to China. For centuries, Hmong kingdoms and independent settlements fought with China�s armies to maintain their independence. Finally they were defeated by numerically superior forces. Survivors fled to the mountainous regions in southwest China, where many still live today. The Hmong began migrating into Laos and Vietnam between 1810 and 1820.
        Their mountainous villages were small, made up of fifteen to twenty homes built from lumber or bamboo with dirt floors and thatched roofs. The Hmong practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. They took pride in their complete self-sufficiency, growing their own food, tea, and tobacco. They also grew cotton, which they spun and wove for clothing, and raised chickens and pigs. The jungle provided wild game, fruits, edible plants, and building materials.
        The Hmong had few laws: They didn't need any. The cohesive environment of small, loosely related villages, combined with the fear of gossip, shame, and ancestor spirits, safeguarded the codes of conduct. All the villagers knew their roles, which were clearly defined. Maladjusted teenagers and crime were virtually nonexistent.
        Clan and family ties remain the foundation of Hmong culture. Every individual is held in a cocoon of kinship and clan connections from birth until death. The eighteen primary Hmong clans provide the family name for each respective clan member. Each clan name is listed first for males (Yang Dao) and last for females (Sarah Yang). The clan is further subdivided into subclans and lineages.
        In the village, the household was the most significant social and economic unit. It comprised a man, his wife or wives, their unmarried children, and elderly relatives of the male lineage. Upon marriage, daughters left the household while sons remained, bringing their wives to live with them. Enculturation, the process of transmitting culture to the next generation, was very important. Everyone in the household participated in teaching the children. In this enclosed community, cultural continuity and the acceptance of norms were secure inevitabilities.

Culture in shock

etween 1960 and 1975, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recruited the Hmong to fight communism during the Secret War in Laos. The objective of their involvement was to stop communist expansion and take pressure off U.S. troops in South Vietnam. After the American withdrawal from Southeast Asia, the Hmong were slaughtered by communist Pathet Lao and Vietnamese forces.
        To escape the carnage, thousands of Hmong fled to Thailand. There they languished in overcrowded refugee camps until they could be resettled in another country. In Laos, the Hmong had lived in jungle villages.

**Hmong soldiers at a Memorial Day ceremony held at Fort Logan Cemetery in Denver.**

Many had never seen automobiles, electricity, or indoor plumbing. Between 1975 and 1988, more than 100,000 Hmong refugees came to the United States. Like most refugees, they had little time to prepare. The culture shock was enormous.
        Assimilation into American life proved problematic and disruptive. In their Laotian villages, the father in each respective household was the authority figure. His decisions were final and were not subject to debate or criticism. "The elders were respected by the youth in all cases," says Kue Chaw, a decorated veteran of the war in Laos and former director of a Hmong assistance organization in North Carolina. "Children were taught not to raise their voices, especially when talking to parents and elders."
        "Acculturation and the reliance on kids as translators in the United States disrupted traditional family roles," says Lor Noah, a community liaison for the Merced, California, police department. Since the majority of Hmong adults spoke little or no English, the children became the link to the outside world. Some kids took advantage of the situation, lying to their parents about truancy, school performance, and other issues.
        "Parents expect their kids to behave like children did in Laos," says Choua Thao of the Hmong American Women's Association in Fresno, California, "but the kids are Americanized." Hmong teenagers grew up on MTV and McDonald's. They can't relate to traditional Hmong culture or their parents' experiences in Laos.
        "The elders have been concerned about retaining their culture since they stepped off the plane," says Kathy Garabed, director of Stone Soup, a community outreach and cultural center in Fresno. "It's so sad because they [Hmong elders] are desperately trying to preserve their life as they know it, but the kids, of course, have already gone Nike. So they're resenting all this old-fashioned stuff."
        Yang Dao, a Hmong scholar living in Minnesota, sums it up. "Our challenge is to preserve the Hmong culture while learning Western culture. The struggle is how to maintain the two cultures together."

Culture in Transition

ang Dao teaches a course on Hmong language and literature at the University of Minneapolis. He previously worked for the Saint Paul public schools as an East Asian cultural specialist. "About 11,000 of the 45,000 students in the Saint Paul school district are Hmong," he says. "They are exposed to American culture all day long, speak English at school, and usually speak English with their friends."
Language is the primary transmitter of culture. As individuals lose their native language, they lose the codebook that enables them to fully decipher and understand their own culture, past and present. "When elderly

**A Hmong village in Southeast Asia.**

Hmong speak, the kids don't understand the whole meaning because they don't know all the words," sighs Yang Dao. "When the kids talk to their parents, they speak Hmong with English, so the parents don't understand their own children. This creates misunderstandings in the household."
        Most of the Hmong teenagers I've met in the United States speak a combination of one or more Hmong dialects mixed with English. Several can't speak any Hmong at all. At the request of the Hmong community, McLane High School in Fresno began offering Hmong language classes a few years ago. Only twenty-five students a year signed up, less than 6 percent of the Hmong high school population at McLane.
        Attitudes present as great a cultural gulf. American culture champions individualism and materialism. Our communication style is direct and often confrontational. Our advertising and media glorify youth over maturity. People are expected to be self-sufficient and live apart from their family and relatives. Such American cultural traits are in direct opposition to the traditions of Asian cultures.
        The Hmong traditionally encourage reliance on the group. Individualism is viewed as disruptive and selfish. "Asian parents are disappointed in the education system here that teaches the kids to be independent," says Yang Dao. "In Asia, the philosophy of education is to teach the kids to be interdependent." Hmong families and communities are thus faced with decisions over what parts of their culture to keep, what should be modified, and what should be abandoned. Bride abduction (often but not always prearranged between the couple) was one of the first things to go, but the payment of a bride-price remains. This usually amounts to $5,000 to $6,000, paid by the groom to the bride's parents.
        Other elements of traditional culture, from ancestor altars to funerary practices, are challenged as assimilation into the American mainstream continues. Funerals remain integral to the Hmong community,

**Members of a Hmong gang.**

although they are expensive and time consuming. Cattle and pigs are sacrificed for the deceased and the ancestors. The meat is consumed during a funerary feast that lasts several days. In the hustle of life in America, these extensive practices are increasingly difficult to maintain.
Understanding the components of traditional funerals is essential to understanding the interplay between the spiritual and physical worlds in traditional Hmong culture. Young people who do not fully understand their parents' language fail to comprehend the full meaning of the funeral rites. Hmong culture has been further eroded by Christian teaching. Some ministers forbid their Hmong congregations to maintain ancestor altars, participate in traditional ceremonies, or have any interaction with a shaman, the Hmong spiritual healer.

Culture in eclipse

raditionally, it would be unthinkable for Hmong children to attend day care or for parents to be placed in a nursing home. Life outside Laos has changed things. When parents become ill, some of them now ask their children to let them go to a nursing home. They know that the demands of the new culture are overwhelming old customs.
        This change is due, in part, to the economic pressures of American life. Hmong families are substantially smaller in this country, and both parents may work to pay expenses. The lack of elders in the household further impedes the teaching of cultural values and components to the children and grandchildren.
        With the erosion of traditional certainties and wisdom comes a more serious crisis of identity. "Hmong culture is the soul of the Hmong people," says Yang Dao. "If the young people lose their culture, the Hmong soul will die."
        It appears inevitable that traditional Hmong culture will cease to exist in the United States within another generation. Except for a few individuals and programs that teach Hmong dance and handicrafts, there are no organizations teaching children about their history, culture, and traditional village life. The American Hmong kids growing up now know virtually nothing about their grandparents' and parents' heritage. By the time they themselves have children, they will remember few things of their traditions, and have little to pass on. Indeed, within a few years, anyone interested in studying the authentic Hmong culture may have to go to Laos or China. Hmong cultural identity in America may be little more than a check mark on a census form, a footnote in history.

James Emery is an anthropologist and journalist who has done extensive fieldwork in tribal villages in Southeast Asia. He teaches a university course on Hmong history and culture and is an expert witness on Hmong culture and DNA in criminal and civil court cases.