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Author: Joseph J. Zasloff
Publisher: Springer
Published: 1991-06-18
Total Pages: 361
ISBN-13: 1349112143
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis work contains papers presented at a conference called "Current Developments in Laos" in Washington DC in 1988. The topics covered range from Lao nationalism and American policy, 1954-1959, to Laotian refugees in Thailand.
Author: Joanna C. Scott
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 1989-01-01
Total Pages: 330
ISBN-13: 9780899504155
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis poignant collection of oral histories tells the stories of nine Laotians, four Cambodians and nine Vietnamese: what their lives were like before 1975, what happened after the Communist takeover that made them decide to flee their native countries, and how they escaped. The storytellers (housewife, Amerasian child, schoolteacher, government clerk, military officer, security agent, Buddhist monk, artist) create a broad and moving picture of the new realities of contemporary Indochina.
Author: Souvankham Thammavongsa
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 2020-04-21
Total Pages: 192
ISBN-13: 0316422118
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and winner of the 2020 Giller Prize, this revelatory story collection honors characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world." A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her stunning debut story collection, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do—brightly, ferociously, unforgettably. Unsentimental yet tender, taut and visceral, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation. “As the daughter of refugees, I’m able to finally see myself in stories.” —Angela So, Electric Literature
Author: U.S. Committee for Refugees
Publisher:
Published: 1986
Total Pages: 32
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis paper, based partly upon staff visits to sites of Laotian river crossings, examines the history of the refugee situation in Laos, the conditions of life in that country and the current situation of Laotian asylum seekers who have sought refuge in Thailand, and suggests policy objectives. Following the fall of Laos and the events that took place in Viet Nam and Kampuchea, thousands of Laotians fled their homes to seek refuge, primarily in Thailand. However, as political problems in Southeast Asia remained unresolved and the number of arrivals in Thailand increased, the welcome of the asylum seekers in their host country grew thin. The refugees found themselves either forced back across the Mekong or placed in humane deterrence camps. January 1985 saw a policy of widespread pushbacks of Laotians by the Thai authorities. Thai officials also began screening new arrivals from Laos to determine if they were indeed refugees. By 1986, Laotians in Thailand numbered among the largest group of asylum seekers in that country. The Thai authorities decided in this same year to open its humane deterrence camps and permit third countries to process refugees in time for resettlement.
Author: Mark Edward Pfeifer
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2013-01-31
Total Pages: 322
ISBN-13: 0824837770
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis 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, meticulously rewriting the established view of the Hmong as “new” Asian neighbors—an approach articulated, Hollywood style, in Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino. 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 policymaking. The influence of Hmong culture on young men is examined, followed by profiles of female Hmong leaders who discuss the challenges they face and interviews with aging Hmong Americans. A section on arts and literature looks at the continuing relevance of oral tradition to Hmong Americans’ successful navigation in the diaspora, similarities between rap and kwv txhiaj (unrehearsed, sung poetry), and Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir, The Latehomecomer. The final chapter addresses the lay of the land in Hmong American studies, constituting a comprehensive literature review. Diversity in Diaspora showcases the desire to shape new contours of Hmong American studies as Hmong American scholars themselves 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.
Author: Kou Yang
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2017-10-05
Total Pages: 193
ISBN-13: 1498546463
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis study documents Hmong’s involvement in the Secret War in Laos, their refugee exodus from Laos to the refugee camps in Thailand, and the challenges to find third countries to take Hmong refugees. At the time, Hmong and other highlander refugees from Laos were considered unsuitable to be resettled into the United States. He 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. To get better insight into their diversity, complexity, and adaptation to different localities, Kou Yang uses the Hmong communities in Montana, Fresno and Denver as case studies. 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 will also obtain insight into the overall experience of the Hmong, an ethnic people of Diaspora, found in Asia, the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Europe. 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.
Author: Niphaphone "Laura' Robertson
Publisher: Rose Gold Publishing, LLC
Published: 2021-05-22
Total Pages: 160
ISBN-13: 9781952070341
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this book, the author shares how she discovered her reason to come to America. She shares stories of her childhood and of her family members, some killed during the Communist Rule in the '70s. The author's father, a prisoner did a daring escape and took his family to a refugee camp in order to survive the war that was devastating the country of Lao. The author courageously shares her experience, reading the newspaper clippings and stories written about her, her family, and her friends. In this book filled with the history of their journey into a new life, she shares the kindness of strangers and how without them, their lives may have ended. A definite must-read! Powerful,, riveting, and truly engaging.
Author: Pao Lor
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society
Published: 2021-03-23
Total Pages: 169
ISBN-13: 0870209590
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs a five-year-old boy, Pao Lor joined thousands of Hmong who fled for their lives through the jungles of Laos in the aftermath of war. After a difficult and perilous journey that neither of his parents survived, he reached the safety of Thailand, but the young refugee boy’s challenges were only just beginning. Born in a small farming village, Pao was destined to be a Hmong clan leader, wedding negotiator, or shaman. But the course of his life changed dramatically in the 1970s, when the Hmong faced persecution for their role in helping US forces fighting communism in the region. After more than two years in Thai refugee camps, Pao and his surviving family members boarded the belly of an “iron eagle” bound for the United States, where he pictured a new life of comfort and happiness. Instead, Pao found himself navigating a frightening and unfamiliar world, adjusting to a string of new schools and living situations while struggling to fulfill the hopes his parents had once held for his future. Now in Modern Jungles, Pao Lor shares his inspiring coming-of-age tale about perseverance, grit, and hope. Included are discussion questions for use by book clubs, in classrooms, or around the dinner table.
Author: Kao Kalia Yang
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Published: 2010-12-15
Total Pages: 251
ISBN-13: 1566892627
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard. Beginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for their collaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recounts the harrowing story of her family’s captivity, the daring rescue undertaken by her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. When she was six years old, Yang’s family immigrated to America, and she evocatively captures the challenges of adapting to a new place and a new language. Through her words, the dreams, wisdom, and traditions passed down from her grandmother and shared by an entire community have finally found a voice. Together with her sister, Kao Kalia Yang is the founder of a company dedicated to helping immigrants with writing, translating, and business services. A graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University, Yang has recently screened The Place Where We Were Born, a film documenting the experiences of Hmong American refugees. Visit her website at www.kaokaliayang.com.
Author: Yusef Komunyakaa
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 1988-09-01
Total Pages: 73
ISBN-13: 0819573787
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet is “a major contribution to the body of literature grappling with Vietnam” (Poetry). Yusef Komunyakaa is renowned for his ability to blend memory and history with strikingly evocative poetic imagery. Born in the rural community of Bogalusa, Louisiana, Komunyakaa served in Vietnam as a correspondent and editor of The Southern Cross and received a Bronze Star for his service as a journalist. In Dien Cai Dau, he applies this unique sensibility to his experience of the Vietnam War. The resulting poems have been called some of the finest Vietnam testimony ever documented in verse or prose. “So finely tuned are Komunyakaa’s images, so faultless his vision, that the reader sees precisely what the poet recalls . . . A powerful must-read for those who have forgotten those days.” ―Booklist
