The Impossibility of Self: An Essay on the Hmong Diaspora

The Impossibility of Self: An Essay on the Hmong Diaspora
ISBN-10
3643102585
ISBN-13
9783643102584
Category
History
Pages
309
Language
English
Published
2010
Publisher
LIT Verlag Münster
Author
Nicholas Tapp

Description

This is a work of ethnographic reflection on Hmong society, history and culture, dealing with questions of the self and the notion that a romantic self inspired the ethos of hedonism associated with the consumer economy. A Hmong identity is shown to have been historically constructed through the works of colonial missionaries, linguists, and anthropologists. Yet Hmong voices have also been powerful in this process. Based on recent fieldwork in Asia and overseas, the Hmong diaspora is examined. The modern Hmong self is presented as a prospective one, constructed in diaspora and through the use of the internet and other modes of modern communication in a movement towards a virtual future which, despite the dissonance of voices appealing to an ideal unity, is one still rich with potentiality.

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