| Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora Contributor(s): Vang, Chia Youyee (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252077598 ISBN-13: 9780252077593 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $26.73 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2010 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Asian American Studies - Social Science | Emigration & Immigration - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 305.895 |
| LCCN: 2010024456 |
| Series: Asian American Experience (University of Illinois) |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.79 lbs) 192 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Asian - Cultural Region - Southeast Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The first scholarly work to come from inside the Hmong community, Hmong America documents Chia Youyee Vang's own migration from Laos to Minnesota at age nine and the transformations she has witnessed in Hmong communities throughout the migration and settlement processes. Vang depicts Hmong experiences in Asia and examines aspects of community building in America to reveal how new Hmong identities have been formed and how they have challenged popular assumptions about race and ethnicity in multicultural America. Combining participant observation and archival research with personal experience, Vang constructs a nuanced and complex portrait of the more than 130,000 Hmong people who came to the United States as political refugees beginning in the mid-1970s. Her critique of previous representations of the Hmong community provides the sociological underpinnings for a bold reassessment of Hmong history in the greater context of globalization. This new understanding redefines concepts of Hmong homogeneity and characterizes ordinary Hmong migrants not as passive victims but as dynamic actors who have exercised much power over their political and social destinies. |