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Student earns national recognition |
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
 Senior social work major Mang Chang was selected to present at the Hmong National Conference. Photo by Anna Donlan
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by McLEAN DOBBINS
Intern News Reporter
Senior social work major Mang Chang has been invited to present at the Hmong National Conference, March 27-30 in Denver, Colo.
Chang’s presentation, titled “The changing roles of Hmong men,” discusses how the roles of Hmong men in the American society have changed over time.
The Hmong, pronounced “mong,” are an ethnic minority originally from China and Southeast Asia,
mainly Laos.
Many Hmong fought as allies of the United States in the Vietnam War and were forced to flee Laos
when the Pathet Lao’s communist government took over in 1975, according to the Hmong American
Partnership Web site.
“We’ve established ourselves here within a 30-year span and we’re still relatively new and young,”
Chang said.
There are about 300,000 Hmong in the U.S., with about 15,000 Hmong
living in North Carolina, according to the United Hmong Association Web
site.
Born in a Thai refugee camp, Chang lived in Thailand for two years before moving to Hickory with her
family. Chang’s parents grew up in the countryside of Laos but had to flee to Thailand because of
fighting and ethnic cleansing.
Chang learned about the national conference for Hmong professionals when she interned with Hmong
National Development, Inc. through the UNC in Washington program in summer 2007.
An important factor in Chang’s decision to submit her proposal was the lack of a strong Hmong
establishment in the South compared to more politically active Hmong communities in Minnesota and
California.
“I think recently within the South, the Hmong community is realizing that we have to stay involved
within the political arena. I think it’s really important that the Asian community in general, and
specifically the Hmong community, also voice who we are,” Chang said.
Chang said that she has seen this shift in traditional gender roles within her own family. “I feel like, as
a Hmong woman, I have reaped the benefits of the feminist revolution within the United States,” Chang
said. “I don’t have to go into the fields and work anymore; I don’t have to have 13 kids anymore. That’s
not a reality for me anymore.”
One reason why it is hard for Hmong men growing up in America is because Hmong men feel culturally
obligated to stay within their Hmong communities.
The situation among Hmong students at Appalachian could serve as evidence of a wider gap between
Hmong men and women in American society today; out of 12 Hmong students, only two are male.
Chua Lor, a senior elementary education major and president of the Asian Student Association, echoed
Chang’s thoughts on the shift in gender roles.
“If you really work in the Hmong community and you observe, Hmong women are achieving more,
they’re graduating earlier, and they’re getting better jobs when they graduate from college,” Lor said.
Lor was born in a Hmong community in California before her family moved to Morganton when she was
5, just about the time the Hmong population really began to increase in North Carolina. Her parents are
originally from Laos but fled to Thailand after the Vietnam War.
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