Francisco Gomez Week 7 Blog

In Louisa Schein’s article, Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics, and the Materializing of Memory, she discusses how the displacement of the Hmong community has shaped their views on gender and sexuality. The article touched on the topic of homeland and how the Hmong community doesn’t necessarily have a place to call “homeland”. The author challenges the idea of “homeland”, because the author discussed the idea that homeland doesn’t necessarily mean a physical place. The Hmong community were displaced but that has never stopped them from keeping their culture alive. They established a secretive method that helped keep their system alive, they have also keep a unique look on their past. Hmong people according to the article romanticize their past and make it seem better than what it was. Hmong women according to the article are more outspoken and not afraid to express how they feel. This has lead to many Hmong men marrying other women like Chinese women to be specific. Since displacement the Hmong community has changed in some ways, that have made them stronger but has also weaken them.

Question: There is still uncertainty of what the true origins are of the Hmong community, so how can they if any go about attaining their “true” history?

Work Cited: Schein, Louisa. "Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics and the Materializing of Memory." 1999. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique7(3): 697-729.