Claiming Place: On the Agency of Hmong Women

Countering the idea of Hmong women as victims, the contributors to this pathbreaking volume demonstrate how the prevailing scholarly emphasis on Hmong culture and men as the primary culprits of women s subjugation perpetuates the perception of a Hmong premodern status and renders unintelligible women s nuanced responses to patriarchal strategies of domination both in the United States and in Southeast Asia."Claiming Place" expands knowledge about the Hmong lived reality while contributing to broader conversations on sexuality, diaspora, and agency. While these essays center on Hmong experiences, activism, and popular representations, they also underscore the complex gender dynamics between women and men and address the wider concerns of gendered status of the Hmong in historical and contemporary contexts, including deeply embedded notions around issues of masculinity.Organized to highlight themes of history, memory, war, migration, sexuality, selfhood, and belonging, this book moves beyond a critique of Hmong patriarchy to argue that Hmong women have been and continue to be active agents not only in challenging oppressive societal practices within hierarchies of power but also in creating alternative forms of belonging.Contributors: Geraldine Craig, Kansas State U; Leena N. Her, Santa Rosa Junior College; Julie Keown-Bomar, U of Wisconsin Extension; Mai Na M. Lee, U of Minnesota; Prasit Leepreecha, Chiang Mai U; Aline Lo, Allegheny College; Kong Pha; Louisa Schein, Rutgers U; Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, U of Connecticut; Bruce Thao; Ka Vang, U of Wisconsin Eau Claire."

Table of Contents:
Contents Introduction: Hmong Women, Gender, and Power Chia Youyee Vang, Faith Nibbs, and Ma Vang Part I. History and Knowledge Production 1. Rewriting Hmong Women in Western Texts Leena N. Her 2. Rechronicling Histories: Toward a Hmong Feminist Perspective Ma Vang 3. Rethinking Hmong Women’s Wartime Sacrifices: On Gender and Sexuality Chia Youyee Vang Part II. Social Organization and Kinship 4. The Women of “Dragon Capital”: Marriage Alliances and the Rise of Vang Pao Mai Na Lee 5. Hmong Women, Family Assets, and Community Cultural Wealth Julie Keown-Bomar and Ka Vang 6. Divorced Hmong Women in Thailand: Negotiating Cultural Space Prasit Leepreecha Part III. Art and Media 7. Hmong Women on the Web: Transforming Power through Social Networking Faith Nibbs 8. Stitching Hmongness into Cloth: Pliable Identity and Cultural Agency Geraldine Craig 9. Reel Women: Diasporic Cinema and Female Collectivity in Abel Vang’s Nyab Siab Zoo Aline Lo Part IV. Gender and Sexuality 10. Thinking Diasporic Sex: Cultures, Erotics, and Media across Hmong Worlds Louisa Schein 11. Dangerous Questions: Queering Gender in the Hmong Diaspora Bruce Thao 12. Finding Queer Hmong America: Gender, Sexuality, Culture, and Happiness among Hmong LGBTQ Kong Pha Afterword Cathy Schlund-Vials Acknowledgments Contributors Index

About the Author :
Chia Youyee Vang is associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she is founder and director of the Hmong Diaspora Studies Certificate Program. Faith Nibbs is founding director of the Forced Migration Upward Mobility Project. She is author of Belonging: The Social Dynamics of Fitting In as Experienced by Hmong Refugees in Germany and Texas and co-editor of Identity and the Second Generation: How Children of Immigrants Find Their Space. Ma Vang is assistant professor of critical race and ethnic studies at the University of California-Merced.

Review :
"An important work for Asian American studies and ethnic studies."-CHOICE "This book should be hailed as a novel and welcome contribution to gender studies among Asian Americans."-Pacific Affairs