Quiz 11 - Asia

• If you saw a South Asian doing the following, you would probably think that the person is NOT a Sikh?

...They avoid alcohol and tobacco use, de-emphasize material possessions, advocate strong families and strongly oppose all forms of prejudice.

• How do Hmong Americans differ from most other Asian Americans?

...They came to the U.S. as involuntary refugees (similar only to Cambodians & Vietnamese) not as voluntary immigrants. They do not have their own country, but are an ethnic minority people who have lived for centuries scattered in several countries. After 1975 they were displaced into even more different countries. Before coming to the U.S., most Hmong lived in small, remote mountain villages, worked in agriculture and hunted. The villages did not have electricity. Few Hmong had contact with the industrial-modern world (autos, phones, electricity). The Hmong have a long and rich culture of oral traditions. Their language was not put into written form until the 1950s when a French missionary helped develop a Romanized alphabet.

• What are the most common religious belief of Asian Indian Americans?

...hindu

• There were four major flows of people from SE Asia (not including the Philippines) to the United States between 1975 and 1990. Which came first?

1975 - Educated urban middle class connected to the defeated S. Vietnamese government. 1978-80 "Boat people" fleeing from Vietnam, largely rural less education who opposed the North and Chinese-Vietnamese minority. 1978-present Hmong (mostly from Laos) who were in Thailand refugee camps 1979-90 Cambodians after Pol Pot genocide who were in Thailand refugee camps.

• What happened about the same time as the Vietnamese "boat people" trying to come to the United States that affect U.S. public opinion about them?

1978-80 "Boat people" fleeing from Vietnam, largely rural less education who opposed the North and Chinese-Vietnamese minority. At the end of the late 1970s, Vietnamese people who had sided with S. Vietnam during the war were released from re-education camps but faced discrimination because of their past politics. Vietnam & China had a small war and the large Chinese-Vietnamese minority faced harassment. Also, many Chinese-Vietnamese were Catholic & shopkeepers who lived in the South, the communist Vietnamese government disliked religious people & business owners. Most were poorly educated and had rural backgrounds. Many lost family members in the transition.

• Who were the Khmer Rouge?

After the U.S. left Vietnam in 1975, a radical group - the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot - took control of Cambodia. For over 3 years the Khmer Rouge devastated the country and terrorized the population. Pol Pot had an extreme anti-education and anti-urban program. He used a program of mass execution.

• South Asian Indian Americans youth report that they have most conflicts with their parents over which issue?

Among 2nd generation college students with Indian parents, about 70% speak English at home, one-half say Indian festivals are important and most of their friends are Indian. Fewer than 15% reports intergenerational conflicts over education or career. About 40% report conflicts over dating with their parents, but 50% want to marry someone of the same ethnicity and same religion (this is about the same % as their parents). About 20% report conflicts with their parents over a marriage partner.

During a Hmong funeral, what does placing some metal or a stone with a body mean?

Any metal or stone or other substance which cannot decompose will bring bad fortune to future generations of the family. In fact, it has been known that Hmong people with ill feelings toward a deceased person have tried to place rocks, metal, or other hard materials into the coffin or clothes of the deceased to bring the family harm.

• What is the "secret war" that the Hmong people often talk about?

By treaty and international law U.S. government publicly promised to leave Laos and Cambodia as neutral countries. However, both countries had a long border with Vietnam that was mountainous, remote and little protected As U.S. military operations expanded in Vietnam in the 1960s, the U.S. military sent secret, illegal special military forces into the mountains. They found the Hmong who had been mistreated by the communist governments in Laos and Vietnam. The Hmong were fierce fighters, knew the local landscape, and hated the communists. The U.S. military secretly and illegally equipped, trained and supervised Hmong in Laos to fight for the U.S. against North Vietnam.

• How has the technical classification of South Asians from Northwest India as Caucasian affected them in the United States?

From the earliest years, South Asians faced discrimination and laws outlawing their right to vote, testify in court, or own land. In the 1920s people in the U.S. began using the pseudo-scientific term Caucasian to talk about European ancestry, light-skinned people. Actually, physical anthropologists say people of the Aryan & Caucasian racial classification originated in Northern India. Northwest Indians are true Caucasians. People in South Asia, as with many other parts of the world, do not use the American racial system based on facial appearance/skin color. They use religion, region, or language to distinguish people instead. Skin colors vary widely in South Asia from very light to very dark. People in the same nuclear family might be classified as different "races" in the U.S. racial system. This causes confusion and frustration when South Americans come to the United States.

• In Hmong culture, what are the customs for girls/women compared to boys/men?

Hmong girls began to contribute to the family by age 7. Hmong women always worked at farming, wove textiles, made clothing and embroidery. They were especially famous for making "story cloths" in which they showed daily life or major historical situations in embroidered as stories in fabric.

• What happened in the U.S. v. Thind case?

In U.S. v. Thind the judge said that "white" meant what the ordinary American thought, and Mr. Thind did not appear "white" to most Americans at the time, so he could never become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Mr. Thind had been drafted and served in the U.S. military during World War I lost his rights. U.S. citizenship law limited citizenship to people "of the white race." In 1910 U.S. courts ruled in U.S. v. Balsara that South Asians were Caucasian and could become naturalized citizens. About 70% of South Asians in the U.S. went through the naturalization process. The 1915-1920s was a period of rising racism and immigrant fever in the U.S. In 1923 Anti-Asian groups challenged that a person from India were "white." In the 1880s-1940s, California outlawed intermarriage between a white an a person who was Black, Mexican or Asian. They also outlawed owning land by non-whites. Between the 1910 Balsara ruling and the 1923 Thind ruling South Asians were classified as whilte. If a white woman had married a South Asian during this period, after 1923 she lost her citizenship. South Asians who bought land in California between 1910-1923 lost their titles to land under the Anti-Asian land law. Due to immigration restrictions. By 1930, there were 1,500 South Asian men for each South Asian woman in the U.S. As a result, most South Asian married Mexican women.

• Most South Asian Americans come from which country?

India

• What is common today, about the countries of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam?

Laos ranked 208th of 211 countries Cambodian ranked 211th of 211 countries Vietnam ranked 202nd of 211 countries Today, the 3 countries of origin are among lowest income in the world

• What cash crop did Hmong people grow and sell to Chinese traders since the 1920s, but not use themselves?

Opium

• What is the Paradox about SE Asian settlement in the United States?

Paradox -- the more they helped themselves survive in America, the less they fit into American society. As SE Asian refugees rebuilt their lives in America, they created ethnic temples, churches, stores, language schools, music groups, festivals, etc. These addressed their intense spiritual, social, emotional, and psychological needs. Such organizations and social networks meant SE Asians did not have to deal as much with mainstream American society. As a result many remained isolated minorities unfamiliar with and outside the mainstream U.S. culture.

• What is common among Vietnam youth gangs in Southern California?

Some SE Asian youth rejected parental authority and formed street gangs. The gangs became surrogate families in the new culture. They offered protection in rough neighborhoods, and became a way for low income youth to attain material possessions and status in the U.S.

• The Miao a recognized minority group in an Asian country. What Asian country is that?

The Miao ethnic minority group population has grown extensively in South China (including Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, and Hainan provinces) and surrounding SE Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam. The majority of the Miao people living in China are located in Guizhou province.

• What does the term desi in the context of South Asian Americans mean?

The majority of SE Asians came to the United States as refugees - involuntary fleeing war and threat of death. Resettlement in the U.S. was outside their control; it was directed and operated by U.S. government and/or religious or charity organizations. This differs from immigrants who migrate as part of a voluntary, conscious plan for self-improvement or economic opportunity. Immigrants decide to go to the U.S. and choose where in the U.S. they would like to start anew.

• What was common about the settlement in the U.S. of Hmong, Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese people?

The majority of SE Asians came to the United States as refugees - involuntary fleeing war and threat of death. Resettlement in the U.S. was outside their control; it was directed and operated by U.S. government and/or religious or charity organizations. This differs from immigrants who migrate as part of a voluntary, conscious plan for self-improvement or economic opportunity. Immigrants decide to go to the U.S. and choose where in the U.S. they would like to start anew.

• Several Asian groups have an "Hourglass" income distribution, which of the following is NOT one of them?

There is a sizeable group of highly educated professionals (doctors, professors, scientists) and a sizeable group of low-wage people (restaurant workers, motel operators, taxi drivers).

• Hmong people live in many countries and the United States has the world's 4th largest Hmong population. Which Asian country does not have Hmong people?

are an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity (苗族) in southern China. (japan)

• Upon first arrival in the United States, what happened to most Hmong people?

signed children up for school The quickly overrun refugee camps were very dangerous, unsanitary and miserable. Family members were separated and many died during the journey or in the camps. International aid organizations and religious charities attempted to address immediate survival needs and seek countries would accept resettled Hmong refugees. Most Hmong arrived in their new homes with no money and no personal possessions. Refugee arrivals to the U.S. began in 1976 and peaked at 27,000 in the year 1980