Week 8 - Narayan

Pryanka Narayan

ASA 141

Week 8

            The article Speaking through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture through Textile Art is a highly intriguing article as it discusses the origin of Hmong culture and their association with textile art. For example, the Hmong people are one of the newest set of immigrants to arrive in America but are statistically rising within the ranks. While statistically, the numbers rise, their presence and history within the U.S. remain largely unknown. This is largely because until 1950, their culture and history were preserved orally. We have learned the origin of Hmong people were in Siberia and then in 2500 B.C. they migrated to northern China. They then had to face centuries of persecution and as a result many fled to Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos in the mid 1800’s. They were also an essential part of U.S. history as; the Hmong were part of the secret army that ambushed the communist. The Hmong have to face a lot of prosecution and tried to remain intact with their beautiful culture. Textile art is also an essential part of the Hmong culture as through this form of art, the Hmong women were able to portray their history in an artistic light. They were also able to pass this form of history to their descendants. While reading this article I was amazed to learn about the Hmong culture. I knew a lot of Hmong people growing up, but never really knew their history. I was especially amazed by textile art, as I think it is such a unique and beautiful way to preserve history.