Saturday, February 15, 2020

Week 7_Melanie Manuel_ASA 114


Melanie Manuel
ASA 114 001
15 February 2020

Louisa Schein’s “Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics, and the Materializing of Memory” mentions how the Hmong language was lost due to the Han Chinese not allowing the teaching of it to younger generations. This barring of the spread of culture both reminds me of the importance of culture as well as the role that colonizers play in deterring this spread. It also reminds me of a documentary I watched about the St. Louis World’s Fair in which indigenous Filipinx folks were put on display, and how this transport of Filipinx bodies has led to the loss of the Igorot language and culture. While there are many other tribes, just the fact that their histories aren’t being spoken about is enough to show the influence and extent of this kind of silencing. To this day, I think there are gaps in the histories of Hmong folks and Filipinx folks. It is especially hard when Hmong history isn’t mentioned in textbooks or their roles in the Secret War. I also think it is hard for Hmong folks, because they don’t have a specific country to call a predominantly Hmong country – they’re perpetually displaced, which bears the question: When will they, as a South East Asian diaspora, be acknowledged in the United Stated historical canon, not just as a throwaway sentence, but as an entire lesson? 

I think doing this is worthwhile, because their lack of presence in history textbooks can be extremely alienating for Hmong kids going through the education system, already not accepted in society as different but without understanding their own histories, potentially as a result of trauma and language barriers, how might they feel better connected to the diaspora?

I include an image of the first Hmong American woman to run for Sacramento City Council this year. Her name is Mai Vang, and she was my former Asian American Legal History professor from last Winter quarter. She’s an amazing woman who opened my eyes to the issues faced by the Hmong community since Trump’s administration. 


Works Cited
Schein, L. “Diaspora Politics, Homeland Erotics, and the Materializing of Memory.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, vol. 7, no. 3, 1999, pp. 697–731., doi:10.1215/10679847-7-3-697.

Images Used
https://www.sacbee.com/site-services/newsletters/local-news-crime/article234627042.html

No comments:

Post a Comment