This Month's Speaker
Dr. Pao Lor
April
28
Wednesday
Professor Pao Lor holds the Patricia Wood Baer Professorship in Education at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, where he also chairs the Professional Program in Education. He has been writing about the Hmong American experience for many years.
For our discussion this month, we will be reading two chapters from Pao Lor's newly published memoir, Modern Jungles: A Hmong Refugee’s Childhood Story of Survival.
Access This Month's Reading
Modern Jungles: a Hmong refugee's childhood story of survival by Call Number: Click title to access eBook chaptersPublication Date: 2021We will be reading the Introduction & Part IV: Ghosts of the Past (Chapters 10 & 11) for this month's reading.
- Spectrum News Review of Modern JunglesRead a review of Modern Jungles here.
- Madison.com Review of Modern JunglesRead a review of Modern Jungles here.
Recommended Further Reading & Resources from Pao
- Modern Jungles: a Hmong refugee's childhood story of survival by Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 2021As a five-year-old boy, Pao Lor joined thousands of Hmong who fled for their lives through the jungles of Laos in the aftermath of war. After a difficult and perilous journey that neither of his parents survived, he reached the safety of Thailand, but the young refugee boy's challenges were only just beginning. Now in Modern Jungles, Pao Lor shares his inspiring coming-of-age tale about perseverance, grit, and hope. Included are discussion questions for use by book clubs, in classrooms, or around the dinner table.
Hmong at the Turning Point by Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1993Hmong at the Turning Point is a scholarly analysis of the Hmong of Laos at a critical period of their history, 1935-1975, when the events of the world virtually unknown to them wrenched them forever from their peaceful mountains and thrust them onto the center of the world political stage.Dr. Yang Dao, the first Hmong to earn a PhD, presents an insider's view of the political and social development of the Hmong during these tumultuous years.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1997The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest.
Ban Vinai by Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 1992Lynellyn Long documents the reality of daily life in Ban Vinai, a refugee camp in northeast Thailand. Based on the author's ethnographic experience of living and working in the camp, the book offers rich narrative descriptions of the lives of the Hmong and lowland Lao refugees. Long describes the lives of five families over the course of a year, recounting interactions with camp relief workers and the complexities of the larger relief system, how their family relationships and social roles change as a result of camp life, and their desires and expectations of the future.
The Latehomecomer by Call Number: Click title to check availabilityPublication Date: 2008The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang's tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard. Beginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for their collaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recounts the harrowing story of her family's captivity, the daring rescue undertaken by her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. When she was six years old, Yang's family immigrated to America, and she evocatively captures the challenges of adapting to a new place and a new language. Through her words, the dreams, wisdom, and traditions passed down from her grandmother and shared by an entire community have finally found a voice.
Pao stated, "To retain the integrity of the story, I relied on my memories and only used common knowledge about the Hmong American experience from my research to provide context when needed. To help the readers, there are a few YouTube videos that provide excellent insights into what refugee camp life was like in Thailand--these are the two refugee camps I covered in the book."
Ban Vinai Closing Down
Video documenting the final departures from Ban Vinai camp in 1992 before it closed, including family and friends saying goodbye as the buses depart and the very last families waiting until the very end.
Lao Refugee Camp ສູນອົພຍົບລາວປີ 1979
Erica Hagen at Ban Vinai Refugee Camp (updated)
- Center for Hmong StudiesFind information on the biennial international conference on Hmong Studies & programs for students, scholars and community members an Concordia University.
- Hmong Resource Center LibraryFind online collections & resources related to Hmong history, education and culture.
- Hmong Studies ConsortiumThe objective of the Hmong Studies Consortium is to promote critical Hmong scholarship in a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, and to build professional connections between researchers of the Hmong. Located at UW-Madison.
- Hmong Studies JournalThe Hmong Studies Journal is a unique and established peer-reviewed Internet-based academic publication devoted to the scholarly discussion of Hmong history, Hmong culture, Hmong people, and other facets of the Hmong experience in the U.S., Asia and around the world.
- Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and AdvancementJournal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement is an online and freely accessible interdisciplinary journal providing a forum for scholars and writers from diverse fields who share a common interest in Southeast Asian (SEA) Americans and their communities.