Hmong Diaspora And Media

Hmong Diaspora and Media - Louisa Schein

Louisa Schein's discussion around the Hmong focused on the growing transnational aspect of Hmong media in regards to the vast number of homeland videos that are constantly being marketed to the greater Hmong community. She also says that the connections of America and the homeland are being mediated and gendered due to the ways in which the feminization of the homeland has become more and more salient. Throughout her discussion, Schein emphasizes the prominent inequities that have permeated both geopolitical and gender issues while at the same time showing how various forms of media have made an attempt to challenge and critique such conventions.

It was interesting to witness how Schein was able to speak from her experiences in working with the Hmong population as well as well known film directors in order to bridge connections between the homeland and America and to critically examine the contemporary plight of young Hmong girls who are being forced into the sex trade. Schein includes two film directors in her discussion to illustrate her point, Lee Xiong and Va Meng Thao, both who shed new light as to the ways in which Hmong women have been exploited and provide a challenge to oppositional imaging of women and the dominant feminine stereotype.

I enjoyed the way in which Louisa Schein segued into the topic of interracial tension and menace in the instances that occurred in Wisconsin. In both cases, the position of the dominant White minority was able to manipulate the system to their advantage while in the meantime masking the systemic workings of race. It was important to note how Schein advocated for greater visibility not only within the Asian American community, but also in terms of the greater American society at large in hopes of gaining more awareness of who the Hmong are.