Hmoung Fiction Depicts Troubled History and Possible Futures

For years there has been a growing number of Hmong students in classrooms across the United States, and Oshkosh is no exception.  Many of them are very quiet, very hard working, and very respectful to teachers.
Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl's Story by Pegi Deitz Shea allows the reader to understand the cultural pressure put on young Hmong children to respect their elders, work in the home, and honor their ancestral heritage, no matter what.



In 1995, Mai Yang is thirteen years old, living in a refugee camp in Thailand.  Mai and her grandmother finally get the call to move to the United States where Mia plans to live with her cousins in Rhode Island, who were able to move away years earlier.  Mai has been praying for this opportunity for years, but Grandma isn't so sure it's a good idea.  Grandma has to come to grips with leaving her mother land, even if it means moving to another concentration camp back in Laos. Mai has to help Grandma adjust to her new environment as well as learn that America and her cousins are not at all what she expected it to be.

Tangled Threads gives a unique perspective in the tribulations of Asian immigrants escaping concentration camps and clashing with the American culture.  As more generations are raised here, the Hmong people will be able to better adjust to American life. The adjustment may be at a very serious cost, the loss of their Hmong culture and heritage. The author reminds us how important the Hmong culture  is to these immigrants that now make up the populations of communities across America.  It is the responsibility of the schools and the communities to help them maintain their most important cultural traits.  They are some of the most hard working and loyal students and people a community can have.  Wouldn't we want to preserve those traits in all our citizens?