At the root of this project is the struggle of my bicultural identitythe practice of composing in a non-native language and the act of speaking ones native language that possesses no written form (though captured in the synthetic Romanized Popular Alphabet, initially for religious conversion, and now, for study, for something). As a second-generation Hmong-American, I am constantly haunted by the Hmong narrative, a story that is inherently my own as it is unbelonging to me, elements of my core being stemming from that of the Secret War in Vietnam, diaspora, and cultural brokenness. The poems presented here exhaustively meditate on such chaos, both internal and external, (the humility of) the Hmong life, a life of exile. More intimately, these poems examine speech locked inside the body, violence inflicted upon the self (and onto others), the weight of worthlessness despite Hmong meaning one who is freeone who is free of worthlessness. The use of language (particularly writtenness) is an integral part of my inquiry into said identity, making the writing experience an ultimate, ritualistic paradox of praying, seeing, and meditating.
Like many tribal groups, the Hmongs orally based culture emphasizes the function of the earthe ability to listen, a super sense to be exercised for awarenessand the mouth for the ability to converse and tell stories. A hybrid of listening and telling stories can be found in the art of "hais kwv txhiaj," or sung poetry, an important practice for every Hmong man or woman. These songs or poems are essentially spoken, improvisational ballads that touch on life experiences or themes of said experiencesbeing a young adult, an orphan, and or a widow to name a feweach song revealing complex landscapes of both body and mind, and their relationship to the world. While I never successfully learned how to sing my own life stories, I chose the foreign art of writing as a form of channeling my own songs, letting the page face my pain, my hunger for belonging and truth, internalizing the inscapes of my fears, those songs that continue to haunt.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05132013-120748 |
| Date | 23 May 2013 |
| Creators | Xiong, Khaty |
| Contributors | Ed Skoog, Kathryn Shanley, Elizabeth Robinson |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05132013-120748/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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