Dia Cha

Last updated

Dia Cha is a notable Laotian American author and academic who has written books for both children and adults.

Contents

Early life

She was born in the early 1960s in Southeast Asia. [1] After the Vietnam War, her family immigrated to the United States of America. [1]

In 1975, Dia and the surviving members of her family, were forced to flee the advancing communist movement, Pathet Lao in their takeover of her home country of Laos. She soon found herself a refugee in Thailand. [2]

She eventually settled in the United States in 1979, [3] where she was able to begin formal studies in the ninth grade. In 1983, she graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, in Denver, Colorado, ranking thirtieth in a class of 251 students. [4] In 1987, she joined the Institute of Foreign Studies and spent a semester studying at the University of London. [5]

Career

In December 1989, Dia received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Metropolitan State College, Denver, Colorado. [6] In December, 1992, she was awarded a Master of Arts in applied anthropology from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.[ citation needed ] After additional studies, she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado. [5] [7] Dia Cha is considered to be the first Hmong women to receive her PHD. [2] [8]

In the 1990s, Dia wrote Dia's Story Cloth which is now considered to be one of the utmost popular books on Hmong story clothes . [4] [9] Along with Norma Livo, she co-wrote Folk Stories of the Hmong and Teaching with Folk Stories of the Hmong: An Activity Book. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in "Bamboo Among the Oaks" as well as the "Paj Ntaub Voice" Hmong literary journal.[ citation needed ]

Additionally, she was an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies at St. Cloud State University, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. [7] [10] There, she taught courses in cultural anthropology, ethnic studies, Southeast Asian communities, Asian American studies, and Hmong studies. [10] [11]

As of 2013, she was CEO of Your Consulting Services, Inc. [11]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong people</span> Ethnic group in Southwest China and Southeast Asia

The Hmong people are an indigenous group in East and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. The modern Hmong reside mainly in Southwest China and countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. There is also a large diasporic community in the United States of more than 300,000. The Hmong diaspora has smaller communities in Australia and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vang Pao</span> Laotian-American soldier

Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army and later a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong Americans</span> Americans of Hmong birth or descent

Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the Laotian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ka Vang</span>

Ka Vang is a Hmong-American writer in the United States. Vang was born on a CIA military base, Long Cheng, Laos, at the end of the Vietnam War, and immigrated to the United States in 1980. A fiction writer, poet, playwright, and former journalist, Vang has devoted much of her professional life to capturing Hmong folktales on paper. She is a recipient of the Archibald Bush Artist Fellowship and several other artistic and leadership awards. She is the author of the children's book, Shoua and the Northern Lights Dragon, a finalist for the 23rd Annual Midwest Book Awards in 2012.

Mai Neng Moua is a Hmong-American writer and a founder of the Paj Ntaub Voice, a Hmong literary magazine. She is also the editor of the first anthology of Hmong American writers, Bamboo Among the Oaks.

The insurgency in Laos is a low-intensity conflict between the Laotian government on one side and former members of the Secret Army, Laotian royalists, and rebels from the Hmong and lowland Lao ethnic minorities on the other. These groups have faced reprisals from the Lao People's Army and Vietnam People's Army for their support of the United States-led, anti-communist military campaigns in Laos during the Laotian Civil War, which the insurgency is an extension of itself. The North Vietnamese invaded Laos in 1958 and supported the communist Pathet Lao. The Vietnamese communists continued to support the Pathet Lao after the end of the Laotian Civil War and the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Bamboo Among the Oaks is the first Hmong American anthology of creative writing, published in 2002 by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. Many of the pieces contained in Bamboo Among The Oaks first appeared in the Paj Ntaub Voice Hmoob literary journal.

The alleged 2007 Laotian coup d'état plan was a conspiracy allegation by the United States Department of Justice that Lt. Col. Harrison Jack (Ret.) and former Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao, among others conspired in June 2007 to obtain large amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to overthrow the Communist government of Laos in violation of the Neutrality Act. The charges were ultimately dropped and the case helped serve to further highlight, instead, major human rights violations by the Lao government against the Hmong ethnic minority, Laotian refugees, and political dissidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of the Hmong people

Hmong cuisine comprises the culinary culture of Hmong people, an Asian diaspora originally from China who are present today in countries across the world. Because Hmong people come from all over the world, their cuisine is a fusion of many flavors and histories in East and Southeast Asia, as well as modern diasporas in the Western world such as the United States. Most dishes are not unique to Hmong culture, but are rather served in a Hmong style developed during centuries of migration across cultures.

Vang Pobzeb was a Hmong American dedicated to Lao and Hmong human rights. For over 25 years, he was an outspoken critic of the Marxist governments of the Pathet Lao in Laos and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) and their human rights violations, religious freedom violations, and persecution of the Lao and Hmong people.

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Minnesota-based Lao American spoken word poet, playwright, and community activist. She was born in 1981 in a refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand. In 2020, she received a National Playwright Residency Program grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Hmong people are a major ethnic group in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. As of 2000 there were 40,707 ethnic Hmong in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The 2010 U.S. Census stated there were 66,000 ethnic Hmong in Minneapolis-St. Paul, giving it the largest urban Hmong population in the world. Grit Grigoleit, author of "Coming Home? The Integration of Hmong Refugees from Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand, into American Society," wrote that the Minneapolis-St. Paul area "acted as the cultural and socio-political center of Hmong life in the U.S."

The Hmong are a major ethnic group in Fresno, California. The Fresno Hmong community, along with that of Minneapolis/St. Paul, is one of the largest two urban U.S. Hmong communities. As of 1993 the Hmong were the largest Southeast Asian ethnic group in Fresno. As of 2010, there are 24,328 people of Hmong descent living in Fresno, making up 4.9% of the city's population.

Hmong writing refers to the various writing systems that have been used for transcribing various Hmongic languages, spoken by Hmong people in China, Vietnam, Laos, the United States, and Thailand, these being the top five countries. Over a dozen scripts have been reported for Hmong, none of which is considered standard for transcribing the languages in the eyes of the speakers.

Cherzong Vang was an American community leader from St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an elder of the Hmong people in Laos and the Lao-American community in the Twin Cities of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William A. Smalley</span> American linguist

William Allen Smalley was an American linguist. He is best known for his role in the development of the Romanized Popular Alphabet for the Hmong language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaohly Her</span> American politician

Kaohly Her is a Hmong-American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Her represents District 64A, which includes parts of Saint Paul in Ramsey County, Minnesota.

Chia Youyee Vang is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research and writing deals with the Hmong diaspora, other Southeast Asian diasporas and refugees and on community-building efforts among Hmong people in the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 Zia, Helen (1995). "Dia Cha" . In Zia, Helen; Gall, Susan B.; Takei, George (eds.). Notable Asian Americans (illustrated ed.). Gale. ISBN   0810396238. GALE|K1620000016. Retrieved 31 July 2019– via Gale In Context: Biography.
  2. 1 2 Chiu, Jeannie (June 22, 2004). ""I salute the spirit of my communities" (1): autoethnographic innovations in Hmong American literature". College Literature (Critical essay). Johns Hopkins University Press. 31 (3): 43–69. doi:10.1353/lit.2004.0030. S2CID   145750899. GALE|A119900697 – via Gale In Context: High School.
  3. ↑ "Dia's Story Cloth". publishersweekly.com. PWxyz, LLC. March 4, 1996. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Dia's Story Cloth: The Hmong People's Journey of Freedom | Lee & Low Books". www.leeandlow.com. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  5. 1 2 Vang, Chia Youyee (2009-06-25). Hmong in Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN   9780873517379.
  6. ↑ Moua, Mai Neng (2014-12-06). Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans. Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN   9780873516556.
  7. 1 2 Cha, Dia (January 1, 2005). "Hmong and Lao refugee women: reflections of a Hmong-American woman anthropologist" . Hmong Studies Journal (Essay). Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center. 6. GALE|A207351169. Retrieved 31 July 2019– via Gale Academic OneFile.
  8. ↑ Vang, Nengher N. (June 22, 2017). Vang, Chia Youyee; Nibbs, Faith; Vang, Ma (eds.). "Claiming Place: On the Agency of Hmong Women" . Journal of American Ethnic History. University of Illinois Press. 36 (4): 98–100. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.36.4.0098. ISSN   0278-5927. GALE|A503309920. Retrieved 31 July 2019– via Gale In Context: U.S. History.
  9. ↑ Hickner-Johnson, Corey (July 1, 2016). "Taking care in the digital realm: Hmong story cloths and the poverty of interpretation on Hmongemboridery.org". Journal of International Women's Studies. Bridgewater State College. 17 (4): 31+. GALE|A472266220 – via Gale OneFile: Business.
  10. 1 2 Cha, Dia (March 2004). Hmong American Concepts of Health. Routledge. ISBN   9781135944391.
  11. 1 2 "Professors visit the Hmong of Vietnam | Asian American Press". aapress.com. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.