Yellow Rain (poetry collection)

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Yellow Rain: Poems
"Yellow Rain" by Mai Der Vang book cover.jpg
Author Mai Der Vang
Publisher Graywolf Press
Publication date
September 21, 2021
Pages176
Awards Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
ISBN 978-1644450659

Yellow Rain is a 2021 poetry collection by Hmong American poet Mai Der Vang. [1] Her second book of poems, the book's title is a reference to yellow rain, a chemical that was investigated during the Cold War for its possible use in biological warfare against Hmong refugees and others. [2] Nominated for several prizes, it won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 2022. [3]

Contents

Background

In the late seventies, during America's withdrawal from Mainland Southeast Asia, Hmong people reported a "mysterious, lethal substance" called yellow rain. In 1981, the United States government accused the Soviet Union of biological warfare, identifying yellow rain as trichothecene. Later, in 1985, a study in Scientific American argued that yellow rain was merely feces released by apis dorsata, a type of honeybee in the region. Despite an investigation between governments and scientists, as well as the United Nations, ensuing henceforth, a conclusion to the matter of yellow rain has never been institutionally declared. [4]

Vang was born shortly after her parents resettled in the United States, becoming Hmong Americans. Her parents had been in a refugee camp when yellow rain was being reported. [5] While in college, Vang learned about yellow rain, but it wasn't until a controversial Radiolab episode on the topic aired in September of 2012—which involved a provocative exchange against Hmong refugee Eng Yang and his niece, Kao Kalia Yang—that, in Vang's words, "yellow rain blew everything open in my life". [6] [7]

From then on, during her attendance of the Columbia University MFA program, Vang read articles, reports, and books on yellow rain as part of her research to "offer an extended rebuttal but also to provide another version amongst the many versions that I imagine are out there." [7] Altogether, Vang conducted "ten years of research" which included her survey of declassified government reports and wrote the poetry collection during the last years of her research. [5] In Electric Literature, Vang continued:

"The book is my attempt to collate into one place everything I had been thinking about that I felt was part of the answer. It’s also the stark realization that the privilege of a definitive answer and of knowing, or the privilege to inflict uncertainty on someone or a community, is a privilege that continues to elude the Hmong people. To control, withhold, and obscure truths and answers—this is the work of empire." [7]

Critical reception

The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, making Vang the first Hmong American to be recognized by any Pulitzer Prize. [8] It was also a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry. [9] [10]

Gasher Press wrote: "Weaving together the strands of personal testimony, declassified U.S. government documents, and personal research, Vang reframes the narrative of yellow rain, giving crucial weight to the witness of Hmong survivors." [11] New York Journal of Books called the book "a meticulous history lesson and a revelation, unearthing too-long ignored truths about the US government’s culpability for the brutal suffering of the Hmong people in the mountains of Laos". [12] The Montreal International Poetry Prize, in an online review, stated: "Through striking formal organisation, contrasts between the sterility of government documents and resounding natural imagery, and a thread of hope, Vang creates a collection that demonstrates the power of poetry and narrative for retribution and testimony." [13]

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 Asia 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 Mainland Southeast Asian countries 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 and community leader

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">Robert Krulwich</span> American radio and television journalist (born 1947)

Robert Louis Krulwich is an American radio and television journalist who co-hosted the radio show Radiolab and served as a science correspondent for NPR. He has reported for ABC, CBS, and Pacifica, with assignment pieces for ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight, as well as PBS's Frontline, NOVA, and NOW with Bill Moyers. TV Guide called him "the most inventive network reporter in television", and New York Magazine wrote that he's "the man who simplifies without being simple."

<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.

Yellow rain was a 1981 political incident in which the United States Secretary of State Alexander Haig accused the Soviet Union of supplying T-2 mycotoxin to the communist states in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for use in counterinsurgency warfare. Refugees described many different forms of "attacks", including a sticky yellow liquid falling from planes or helicopters, which was dubbed "yellow rain". The U.S. government alleged that over ten thousand people had been killed in attacks using these supposed chemical weapons. The Soviets denied these claims and an initial United Nations investigation was inconclusive.

<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.

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

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.

<i>Radiolab</i> American radio program

Radiolab is a radio program and podcast produced by WNYC, a public radio station based in New York City, and broadcast on more than 570 public radio stations in the United States. The show has earned many industry awards for its "imaginative use of radio" including a National Academies Communication Award and two Peabody Awards.

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

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong American writer and author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir from Coffee House Press and The Song Poet from Metropolitan Press. Her work has appeared in the Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong literary journal, "Waterstone~Review," and other publications. She is a contributing writer to On Being's Public Theology Reimagined blog. Additionally, Yang wrote the lyric documentary, The Place Where We Were Born. Yang currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Hmong are a major ethnic group residing in Merced, California. As of 1997, Merced had a high concentration of Hmong residents relative to its population. The Hmong community settled in Merced after Dang Moua, a Hmong community leader, had promoted Merced to the Hmong communities scattered across the United States. As of 2010, there were 4,741 people of Hmong descent living in Merced, comprising 6% of Merced's population.

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.

The Hmong population in California is the largest in the United States. Most fled to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s due to their cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency operatives in northern Laos during the Vietnam War, or are a descendant.

Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, officially the Ban Vinai Holding Center, was a refugee camp in Thailand from 1975 until 1992. Ban Vinai primarily housed highland people, especially Hmong who fled the Hmong genocide in Laos. Ban Vinai had a maximum population of about 45,000 Hmong and other highland people. Many of the highland Lao were resettled in the United States and other countries. Many others lived in the camp for years which came to resemble a crowded and large Hmong village. The Royal Thai Government closed the camp in 1992, forced some of the inhabitants to return to Laos and removed the rest of them to other refugee camps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mai Der Vang</span> American poet

Mai Der Vang is a Hmong American poet.

<i>Afterland</i> (poetry collection) 2017 debut poetry collection by Mai Der Vang

Afterland: Poems is a 2017 debut poetry collection by Hmong American poet Mai Der Vang. It was published by Graywolf Press after Vang won the Walt Whitman Award in 2016, which included publication as a prize. Vang's manuscript had been chosen by Carolyn Forché. The book later went on to be a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry.

References

  1. ↑ Vang, Mai Der (September 21, 2021). Yellow Rain: Poems. Graywolf Press. ISBN   978-1644450659.
  2. ↑ Schlock, Kathleen (2022-05-13). "Fresno poet Mai Der Vang is a Pulitzer finalist for her book "Yellow Rain"". KVPR | Valley Public Radio. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  3. ↑ "Yellow Rain". Poets.org. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  4. ↑ Byrne, Malcolm (ed.). "From History to Poetry: Mai Der Vang Explores the Archival Record in Her Celebrated Volume "Yellow Rain"". National Security Archive. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  5. 1 2 To, Sydney Van (2022-02-09). ""The Sinister Undertones Underneath the Undertones": A Conversation with Mai Der Vang". DVAN. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  6. ↑ Yang, Kao Kalia (2012-10-22). "The Science of Racism: Radiolab's Treatment of Hmong Experience". Hyphen. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  7. 1 2 3 Yang, Kao Kalia (2021-09-21). "A Public Reckoning With the Truth About Yellow Rain and the Secret War". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  8. ↑ Panoo, Ashleigh (May 11, 2022). "Fresno author earns Pulitzer recognition for poetry about Hmong refugee experience". Fresno Bee .
  9. ↑ "Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists". PEN America. 2022-01-26. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  10. ↑ "History". Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  11. ↑ Kerutis, Whitney (2021-10-02). ""Ever Tenuous:" A Review of Yellow Rain by Mai Der Vang". Gasher Press. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  12. ↑ Gutowski, Sarah Kain. "Yellow Rain: Poems". www.nyjournalofbooks.com. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  13. ↑ Pate, Miranda. "Who Has Access to the Archive?". Montreal International Poetry Prize. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
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