Hmong American - Culture

Culture

Even though most Hmong families speak a language other than English at home, many Hmong Americans are rapidly blending into mainstream American society. This is causing the younger generation to lose aspects of their cultural identity at a fast pace. To combat this, the Hmong community has set up associations and media that encourage Hmong people to maintain their language and culture. These include the Hmong National Development association and the Hmong Today newspaper. Hmong National Development (HND) is a national, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization. The goal of HND is to develop leadership and empower the Hmong American community. HND works alongside with local and national organizations, public and private entities, and individuals to encourage educational opportunities, to increase community participation, and to develop resources for the well-being, growth, and full participation of Hmong in society. There is an annual HND conference which usually takes part during the month of April and is held in a different state each year.

Hmong Today publishes communications products for the Hmong community. These products are designed to provide important information to the Hmong community and to promote unity in the Hmong community. Hmong Today also informs the community at large about the Hmong community. Having a newspaper like Hmong Today creates a way for businesses, organizations, and schools to connect with the Hmong community.

As of 2012, Hmong in California are developing a Hmong-English online translator, in collaboration with Microsoft.

As happened with other immigrant groups, some cultural conflicts arose when the Hmong arrived in the U.S. after the Vietnam War. One of the better-documented conflicts occurred in medicine. Anne Fadiman's 1997 nonfiction book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down documents one such conflict regarding a young Hmong girl's health care. The girl's parents saw her epileptic seizures as a divine gift, whereas Western medicine viewed them as a serious medical condition. The conflict was exacerbated by communication issues and cultural over-reliance on alternative medicine. A language barrier and what the parents interpreted as condescension and racism on the part of the doctors led the parents to believe the Californian doctors did not have their daughter's best interests at heart, and on several occasions believed the medicines being administered were making their daughter's epilepsy worse. Meanwhile the American doctors remarked that the Hmong were being obstinate and were unable or unwilling to follow instructions in medicating their daughter. There is controversy over whether there was true informed consent from the illiterate parents, who often signed consent forms without an interpreter. Although there are issues about its contents, Fadiman's book is often used when studying cross-cultural medicine.

Hmong Americans are fully integrated into the surrounding culture in most areas. Many Hmong Americans serve in the U.S. Military.

At least two Hmong have been elected to high public office. In 2002, Mee Moua became the first Hmong American legislator when she was elected to fill the Minnesota State Senate seat vacated by Randy Kelly when he was elected mayor of St. Paul. She is currently the Senate majority whip. Cy Thao is a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

At age 14, Joe Bee Xiong fought alongside American soldiers like his father had done. When their village fell to the Communists, Xiong and his family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually ended up in Wisconsin in 1980. In 1996, Xiong was elected to the Eau Claire (Wisconsin) city council. Xiong was the first Hmong to be elected to a city council in Wisconsin. He ran for the state Assembly in 2004. Xiong was travelling with family in his native country, Laos, when he died, possibly of heart-related complications. Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind worked with Xiong to investigate reports of human rights abuses against Hmong still in Laos and southeast Asia and says Xiong was a great community leader and an inspiration to many. Another Hmong, Thomas T. Vue, presently serves on the Eau Clair city council.

In many of the large cities where Hmong Americans live and work, tensions are running high between them and neighboring ethnic groups. Hmong people have often been targets of discrimination, mainly because of job competition and stereotyping of them as welfare dependents. Many of their persecutors justified their actions by claiming that the Hmong unnecessarily took jobs, welfare money, and other services away from long-time residents.