IAH-207-733 (W2)
Knowing about (Hi)stories of Refugees and their Diasporic Experience is important: • To Understand the Present
• To understand the past from a Global perspective and Transnational Lens • To raise Awareness of Human Rights, as part of Global Ethics
A Critical Look at the Documentaries Hmong Memory at the Crossroads (2015)
& Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads (2017), Directed by Safoi Babana-Hampton, IAH207
Liachoua Lee, a Hmong-American from Rochester Hills, Michigan, revisits his past as a former refugee and son of Hmong veterans of the French Indochina War (1946-1954), and of the American Secret War in Laos (1961-1975), by revisiting places that carry traces of his personal history and the emotional scars left by the war. Lee’s story begins in Detroit, Michigan, then takes him to France, a place where he and his family sought asylum before immigrating to America, and ends in an emotional return to the homeland Laos for the first time in 40 years. The film documents Lee’s re-reading of key chapters of his refugee history, re-creating memories of wartime as experienced by the child he was then. The film follows Lee’s journey of remembrance, which brings his personal story into conversation with others’ stories in the Hmong community, American Vietnam veterans, French Indochina War veterans, historians and government officials, in the Midwest and France. Official website: http://hmc.cal.msu.edu/
SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
Four children of former Hmong refugees embark from their home in Minnesota on a milestone journey to trace their family history in Laos, Thailand and France. In their earnest search for their cultural roots, Justin, Joshua, Bella and Maipa open a door into the world of children born to former war refugees and what it means to grow up Hmong in the diaspora. A sequel to the award-winning Hmong Memory at the Crossroads (http://mhcc.cal.msu.edu (French) http://hmc.cal.msu.edu/ (English), Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads gives a glimpse of the unique struggles that the children of this generation work through to relate to their parents’ cultural heritage, to make sense of their historical memory, to construct and perform a sense of place in the community and in the world, against the backdrop of politically troubled times, increasing social anxieties and the global spread of xenophobic sentiments. Official website: http://growinguphmong.com/
Memory vs. history: What/who is remembered? How? Why?
Brainstorming Activity: Images of the “Other” and of Interactions
with the Other � What are the various perceptions of the Other that prevail in
mainstream media and popular culture? Definitions of the Other/Outsider? � The immigrant � The refugee � Cultural minorities � Indigenous populations � Other?
� What are the various forms of interaction with the “Other” observes in contemporary Western societies? What triggers them? What happens when their stories are not known/ remembered? � Xenophobia � Inclusion � Ethnocentrism � Welcome � Intolerance � Exclusion � Hospitality � Discrimination � Tolerance � Racism � Integration
Why is it important to tell the (Hi)story of Hmong refugees from a complex frame/lens?
To ask this question is to ask:
u Who are the Hmong? u Why are they “here” in the US and France (Cf. Clint Eastwood’s 2008 Gran
Torino)? u Why is this question still being asked 40 years after their immigration to the US
and France? u Why is it important to tell the story of war refugees, (invisible) cultural minorities,
and populations of immigrant origin from a global and complex frame of reference? (i.e. connecting different histories and geographies)
Because to know their story is to also know our own history and our present from a from a complex and global framework (i.e. to understand them from a different perspective or a little better). For a brief overview of Hmong history – Watch Hmong Memory at the Crossroads Minute marks 2:37 – 9:22
Consequences of lack of complex understanding of history and the world : Emergence of habits of thought
which engender fear, mistrust, conflict and violence
How do Perceptions of Refugees & Immigrants Fit into the narratives and foundations of
Democratic nations such as France and the US? Into Being American or French? Into Legacies of American and French Revolutions? From the Perspective of Global Ethics and Universally
Shared Values and Moral Standards ? Thinking Refugee Rights through the Tension Between Nationalist Frameworks and Human
Rights Frameworks.
FRANCE
The US
Hegemonic (dominant) official Narratives of History (and of National Identity):
What is problematic about narratives of history according to the remarks below? How can History be Re-written?
M. Jean-Barthelemi Debost
Director, Musée de l’immigration, Paris, France
"... the French historical narrative valorizes French civilization, French gastronomy, French history, the succession of French kings ... One nation, indivisible, where everybody must speak French ... The French nation is built around a French civilization ... . In school books, in cinema, and museums telling the history of France - immigrants are absent ... They are the black hole in the history of France ... invisible ... because the history of France is built on one (hi)story ... On one people, on one religion ... ”
Point of view in the documentaries: Protecting the Political Foundations of Democratic Cultures is inseparable from Re- writing history from an inclusive, complex, and plural lens
Current Global Discourses on Human Rights Approaches to Refugee and Migrant Crisis and their Challenges:
Debates on Sanctuary Cities and the Ethics and Politics of Hospitality – What contradictions/tensions do they
reveal about visions of a democratic order?
In its 2016 “Cities Welcoming Refugees” report, UNESCO publishes the following in a globally turbulent moment: “The international human rights frameworks provide clearly articulated legal standards for national and local legislative and practical responses. Human rights principles and standards of a broader scope that also apply to migrants and refugees are contained in all nine UN fundamental human rights conventions. These include the International Convention on the Elimination of all Form of Racial Discrimination (1965), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) as well as the Convention on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation No. 111 (1958) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). All of the above are ratified by nearly all European States and are thus largely incorporated in national legislation”.
MAPPING the Routes of Migration, Exile and Diasporic Experience of the Hmong People of Laos
• Space: Geographic and global dispersion • Time: Crossing geographies of space as a means of crossing geographies of
history (mapping and connecting geographies and histories) • Identity: Fragmentation, plurality, fluidity • Memory of past suffering/collective trauma, past conflict, past violence:
silence, forgetfulness, occlusion (erasure), reclaiming recognition reparation and justice
• What are the film narrative strategies used for visual (re)constructions of untold stories/invisible memory:
Family and official archives, testimonies/oral histories, official history, memorial sites.
Viewing of Film Selections & Discussion of both films: 1. Constructing and performing a sense of place in the community
and the world in diasporic settings 2. Viewing Culture and History from a Global Frame of Reference
u Yia Moua Hmong family, Hmong Memory at the Crossroads – TC 45:34 – 48:08
u Hmong artist Jin Lee, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 1:11:18 – 01:13:53
u Hmong participant Justin Hang, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 15:07 – 19:56
u Hmong participant May Kao, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 53:25 – 56:09
u Voiceover concluding lines, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 1:21:30 – 01:26:21
Viewing of Selections & Discussion from both films: How do the following testimonials speak to the idea that
Protecting the Political Foundations of Democratic Cultures is inseparable from Re-writing history from an inclusive, complex, and plural lens
u Chief Advisor to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, French Ministry of Defense & Former Deputy of French National Assembly, Hmong Memory at the Crossroads – TC 1:06:17 – 01:07:44
u French veteran of the French Indochina War (1946-1954), Hmong Memory at the Crossroads – TC 57:08 – 01:01:27
u MNHS Museum curator, Hmong Memory at the Crossroads – TC 31:47 – 36:16
u Hmong participants Joshua and Bella and scholars Panivong Norindr and Françoise Verges, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 12:58 – 15:06
Broad overarching questions explored in both Films through the testimonies of
Hmong refugees
u How do spaces of hospitality (toward immigrants, refugees, the homeless, dispossessed, ethnic and religious minorities) look like in Western democracies such as France and the US (the stories of the participants presented schools, churches, Buddhist temples, Martial Arts Club, College campuses, the public space, history books, government legislation as examples of such spaces)
u How are spaces of hospitality defined, practiced and institutionalized? And by whom?
u Who creates and inhabits these spaces of hospitality? Who is excluded from them?
Viewing of Selections & Discussion of both films: 1. Forms of Interaction with Hmong Refugees 2. Inclusive Visions of History and Culture
u Principal of elementary school in the city of Nantes, France, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 1:00:04 – 01:01:30
u Principal of middle school in the city of Arras, France, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 41:40 – 44:50
u Maipa’s childhood French host family, the Bertrais-Caillon family, Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads – TC 26:29 – 28:19 AND 30:34- 35:28
u Museum of Hmong Village in Thailand, TC 38:01
To Know More about both films: Visit the official websites
Hmong Memory at the Crossroads (2015) : http://hmc.cal.msu.edu
Growing up Hmong at the Crossroads (2017): http://growinguphmong.com
A production of Michigan State University in partnership with
the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Humanities Without Walls Consortium, funded by a grant from the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation.