Hmong American Culture Essay

The only dilemma I might face if I were to be involved in a Hmong

The book goes into detail on how the Hmong felt like fishes out of water. An example of this is when Fadiman describes the idea of role lost. In Laos the role system used to go Grandfather is the most important and is obeyed by father, who is obeyed by his wife, who is obeyed by her children, and younger children obey their older siblings. But Fadiman described what happens to a lot of Hmong families when they come to America, “Grandfather has no job.

The Hmong became frustrated with the American medicine as seen when the author says that it was typically Hmong for patients to appear passively obedient only to later ignore everything they had supposedly assented to after they left the hospital. It therefore stressed the doctors who considered the Hmong as the most difficult patients. This was well brought out by a doctor who said that the only easy way to treat the Hmong people was with a bullet in their head known as “high velocity transcortical lead therapy” (63). Lia was equally difficult to the point that nurses would pray she is not admitted any time she fell epileptic. The uncooperative nature of the Lees made Lia be taken away from them

Several chapters in this book are devoted to Hmong’s history, cosmology and the multiple challenges they have faced while trying to settle in the United States. According to Fox (2005), Western medicine is a more reliable and effective way of curing diseases as compared to the traditional, and old-fashioned cultural methods, such as sacrificing pigs and chicken as depicted by the Hmong Lee family. I think that a better and more profound understanding of diverse cultures and their beliefs will play a key role in enabling Western doctors to overcome cultural resistance towards science. Consequently, they will have a more cooperative attitude towards the patients, which will likely change the ancient beliefs as held by some patients. Besides, the societies should not fully trust the cultural healing modalities.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman introduces the reader to the Hmong culture and to the Lee’s family experience with western medicine. Throughout the book it talks of the past interactions of the Hmong and Americans, showing reasoning why the Hmong already mistrust Americans and western medicine. Following World War II, the Hmong culture was rejected and ridiculed by the Chinese for not assimilating with their culture, causing many to move to the U.S. Upon arrival, they were still ridiculed, harassed, and violated. In the Hmong’s eyes, they deserved respect and welfare for their sacrifices in the war.

Although Rudy experienced more crests and troughs in his life compared to my life, this two experienced similar obstacles and shaped somehow similar identity. Overall, Rudy and I learned to be a hard worker and inherited different cultures due to changing environment. Rudy learned how to be responsible and never say “no can,” while I learned effort to be responsible. Rudy’s Hawaiian based identity influenced by his Hawaiian and haole ideal and my Japanese identity influenced by open-minded Hawaiian culture found similarities through each other’s cultural

The Spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman presents a case study of a young Hmong girl, Lia, and her journey with Epilepsy in America. Lia at the age of three months began to seize, the family had diagnosed her with qug dab peg which also means the spirit catches you and you fall down (Fadiman 1997:20). However medical doctors had diagnosed her epilepsy (Fadiman 1997:28). Throughout the book she describes the history of the Hmong people, from their displacement in Laos, to their refugee life and Thailand and finally the journey some of the Hmong took to live in America. The book’s main theme is on the medical response to Lia’s disease, and how this clash between

Lia’s parents endured great mental suffering from taking care of Lia 24/7 and the Hmong had to witness their own men being taken away to fight in war, never to return. Continuing with comparison, the plight of the American doctors is as difficult as the Hmong at points. Some of the doctors did have their varying opinions, but most really just wanted to feel that they did their job to the fullest extent. Many hours and thousands of dollars were spent on Lia and her condition. One could say that Fadiman does have bias towards the Hmong, but if she had chosen to completely side with them, she wouldn’t have mentioned the third element of suffering: the doctors who wanted to better a

The Lee’s were horrified with the side effects of the medications that disrupted her character. Thus leading to the doctors thinking the Lee’s were non-compliant with her medical regime. This, however, was clearly not the issue as the Hmong cherished and loved their children so deeply. They only had diverse beliefs and

In her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman describes the story of the Lee family and their settlement process in the United Sates. When Laos fell to the communists, the Lees were among the thousands of Hmong who fled the country. They arrived in the U.S. with their seven children and settled in the town Merced. The Lees like many refugees received many forms of federally funded public benefits including food stamps, housing, clothing, employment services, medical care, and other necessary services. The Lees took advantage of these benefits because they were in need for medical aid for their youngest daughter, Lia Lee.

As a child of a Vietnamese immigrant , the stories and the past memories that are brought up by my mother, gives me an understanding of how hard it is to leave your mother country and how sometimes you must do what’s best for yourself. There are times when i think to myself and wonder how it would have been like if my mother had not immigrated to the states, I probably would not be here today, or if i was that i would not have been born and raised in the United States. Being a child of an immigrant is not difficult, it does not put me in a disadvantage either , but it instead spreads the message of how it is okay to be different and how it is okay to take risks that will benefit you in the following years. All these messages and lessons have

In order to find myself, I read a book. A book by a Haitian American struggling to find the middle ground of being raised in Haitian customs but surrounded by American influence. Consumed by the thought of reading stories with others who struggle to find their identity like I did, I read every book I could find. In that time I began to learn more about my hidden culture and more about myself. I learned about many customs and characteristics that come from being an American born citizen from Haitian immigrant parents, and the differences and slight similarities that shaped who I am.

Hmong Culture The Hmong primarily originated from the “mountainous areas of China, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos” (Purnell, 2014, pg. 236) and immigrated to the United States in 1975 after the Vietnam War. Primarily refugees from Laos, the Hmong people began immigrating to the United States in large numbers “after communist forces came to power in their native country.” (Bankston, 2014, pg. 332) Mainly settling in California, the Hmong began to be dispersed by American refugee settlement agencies across the country in the 1980s, also settling in Wisconsin and Michigan.

In Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, two cultures clash with each other in the struggle to save Lia Lee, a Hmong child refugee with severe epilepsy. Although Lee and her family live in the United States, and thus receive medical care from Westerners, her family believes that Lee’s condition is sacred and special. The following miscommunications, both culturally and lingually, between the American doctors and the Lee family leave Lia Lee in comatose at the end of the book. However, Lia Lee could have been saved if the Lee’s had a better understanding of the American doctors’ intentions, and the American doctors understood the Hmong culture. Essentially, the tragedy of Lia Lee can be attributed to the clash of American and Hmong cultures at both the surface and sub-surface level.

However, they had a different socioeconomic background. This paper is to persuade representing Filipino American in Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issue and History of Asian Americans Exploring Diverse Roots to capture Mr.