twistedkvm.blogg.se - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Her mother, Foua, sprinkled it regularly with water to keep the dust down and swept it every morning and evening with a broom she had made of grass and bark. If Lia Lee had been born in the highlands of northwest Laos, where her parents and twelve of her brothers and sisters were born, her mother would have squatted on the floor of the house that her father had built from ax-hewn planks thatched with bamboo and grass. Dressing American journalists as Hmong brides is the only joy she's got left.THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN (Chapter 1) Birth Foua longs for her former life-for her former freedom. One night, Foua tells Anne about their life back in Laos.What's crazier is that he does, and a mere week later. When she learns that Anne's boyfriend is in town, she decides to "dress as a Hmong bride" to entice her bae into popping the question (8.17). Foua, in particular, takes a strong interest in Anne's life.Foua even starts calling her " mi Anne," which means dear little Anne (8.12). Over the hundreds of hours she spends at their apartment, Anne becomes close to Nao Kao and Foua. Both of these details work in Anne's favor (8.8). Plus she's related by marriage to the Lees.

May Ying is the "third-most-poised Hmong woman in the United States" (we wonder who came up with that ranking).

A young woman named Max Ying Xiong fills the role nicely.

Sukey tells Anne that there are two keys to earning the Hmong's trust: being respectful and using a good translator.

Then Anne meets a psychologist named Sukey Walker.

In fact, her early, awkward interactions with the local Hmong community seem to validate this concern.

When the author, Anne Fadiman, first arrived in Merced in 1988 (yes, after the events she's telling about), she had expected Nao Kao and Foua to be standoffish.