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Abstract
After they arrived in the US, Hmong refugees expanded their artistic expressions from kwvtxhiaj (singing) and pajntaub (embroidery) to spoken word performances, plays, painting exhibits, poetry publications, and other creative genres. This article examines the thriving Hmong American arts scene in Minnesota to explain why these refugees invested scarce time and resources in art when they were still busy meeting basic needs and confronting external oppression. It presents the findings from content analysis of Hmong newspaper articles about 62 public art events involving 248 Hmong American artists from 2002 to 2011. The article shows that this ten-year period began with the first Hmong art exhibition and the first book of Hmong fiction in world history. These and other Hmong American art forms addressed three social problems: 1) intergenerational conflict; 2) gender inequality; and 3) human rights violations in Laos and the US. The development of Hmong American art was, therefore, a dynamic adaptation to new diaspora challenges rather than simply an attempt to preserve Hmong culture.
Keywords
International migration, refugees, art, intergenerational conflict, gender, human rights, Hmong Americans
Introduction
International migration creates numerous challenges for immigrants and refugees, including political insecurity, economic disadvantage, familial conflict, and racial prejudice and discrimination. Despite these high priority hardships, a growing literature reveals that international migrants avidly participate in the arts in Europe (Costanzo and Zibouh, 2013; Delhaye, 2008; Escafré-Dublet, 2010; Orlando, 2003; Rogstad and Vestel, 2011; Soysal, 2004), Australia (Ram, 2005; Tabar, 2005), and the US (Fernández-Kelly, 2010; Jamal, 2010; Leonard and Sakata, 2005; Wilcox, 2011). The Hmong followed this pattern when they arrived in the US as refugees from Laos after the Vietnam War. Hmong refugees dramatically expanded their artistic expressions from traditional kwvtxhiaj andpajntaub to books, plays, paintings, and other creative genres. Why do immigrants and refugees like the Hmong invest so much of their scarce time and resources in art when they are still busy meeting basic needs and confronting oppression in their new society?
Marginalized groups, according to some scholars, use art to resist racial oppression. In the US, blacks often feel excluded from art events organized by whites (Shaw and Sullivan, 2011). Among both disadvantaged (Beighey and Unnithan, 2006) and middle-class African Americans (Banks, 2010:5), black art is "rooted in the...