The Hmong diaspora radiates from Southeast Asia to include far-flung nations like the United States, New Zealand, and Argentina. Sangmi Lee draws on the concept of diasporic identity to explore the contemporary experiences of Hmong people living in Vang Vieng, Laos, and Sacramento, California. Hmong form a sense of belonging based on two types of experiences: shared transnational cultural and social relations across borders; and national differences that arise from living in separate countries. As Lee shows, these disparate influences contribute to a dual sense of belonging but also to a transnational mobility and cultural fluidity that defies stereotypes of Hmong as a homogenous people bound to one place. Lee’s on-the-ground fieldwork lends distinctive detail to communities and individuals while her theoretically informed approach clarifies and refines what it means when already hybrid and dynamic identities become diasporic.

In-depth and interdisciplinary, Reclaiming Diasporic Identity blends ethnography and history to provide a fresh consideration of Hmong life today.

Sangmi Lee is an assistant professor of anthropology at Arizona State University.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. The Making of the Hmong Diaspora: History, Multiple Homelands, and Ambivalent Belonging
1. Hmong Diasporic History and Multiple Homeland Narratives
2. Locating the Hmong Diaspora in Ambivalent Local Belongings
 
Part Ⅱ. Transnational Ethnic and Cultural Continuity
1. An “Imagined” Community of Transnational Kin: Hmong Kinship Continuities in the Diaspora
2. Compassionate Money: Monetarized Longing and Emotional Remittances in the Transnational Familial Economy
3. From Local to Transnational: Hmong Shamanism and Spiritual Rituals across Borders
 
Part III. Cultural Difference and Discursive Fragmentation
1. Cultural Differences in the Diaspora: Hmong Funerals and the Nation-State
2. Diaspora’s National Affiliations: Relative Belonging to the Nation-State and Discursive Fragmentation

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index