Anne Fadiman’s book is an extensively researched and well written
book about an epileptic Hmong girl and the clash of two cultures that occur
when she undergoes treatment in America. I personally loved this book because
of the portrayal of the Hmong; Fadiman did her utmost best to present each side
as a whole; and it was such an insight to understand the Hmong point of view
and thus understand why they did what they did; such as not assimilate into the
American culture, underwent depression at family separation, and didn’t trust
doctors. The analysis of this book through the course was very rigorous; it
took me a while to understand the point that Fadiman was trying to make; that
she wasn’t making one; rather she was commemorating the struggle of Hmong
in America; that to understand them individually, as in the hospitals with Lia
Lee; we have to understand the whole historical and cultural background they
come from. As the youth aptly put in his “Fish Soup Story”; everything is
connected.
The collision of cultures I would think is a daily occurrence
in America; due to the diversity of American’s natural nationalities; yet the
unique thing about the Hmong is that they helped America in fighting a war and
America responded by giving them asylum as they were overrun. They didn’t come
here of their own accord; rather, documentation of refugee camps in Thailand
show that the people would rather stay in those under served refugee camps than
come to America. The Hmong were a proud and fierce people and the American policy
of imperialism didn’t sit well with them; indeed they even had a saying about bureaucrats;
that to look at a bureaucrat is to look at death. The Hmong suffered at the
hands of the communists and it is no wonder that they were still battle-scarred
and unwilling to let go of their history; for in America, to assimilate means
to blend into a homogenous mixture of people; not one standing out, rather
everyone is one. The Hmong’s loyalty to culture was so strong that assimilation
of this sort was inevitable to a clashing of cultures.
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