Week 2

Vince Olanda

A01

Week 2

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Within this week's reading, Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation of Hmong Americans, I was fairly captivated when I was submerged into the life of a Hmong student. Particularly being a male gender, I was immediately taken back to my high school teachings about Chinese gender inequity. My AP Euro History teacher would constantly teach and inform us about events, bad and good, that occurred around the world. In particular,  this article reminded me of a documentary he had shown us following the lives of several Chinese students.

As I was watching the documentary initially, a recurring theme I had found within each students, specifically female, was that their parents drove them to pursue much higher academic success rather than males. I came to realize through these observations that a strong hand in academics is the only strength, in the so-called Hmong tradition, that females can provide to their families. Males will not marry outside the family, thus carrying on the family name, while providing an strong body to work. In contrast, Hmong tradition doesn't recognize a female to be as beneficial to the family, thus all she can do is to make herself appealing through her academic work to find a good suitor and marry into a good family.

Although this traditional perspective on Hmong gender roles is outdated and is a flaw that clearly needs to be fixed, one can still see the effect of this in China's demographic today. The men to woman ratio is completely off scale because Chinese families desire sons, neglecting daughters in the process. The fact that the demographic has changed so drastically calls for immediate action, or else it will only get worse. China has recently converted to a new two child policy due to the fact that there weren't enough babies being born. This could be because of the old one child policy, making each family very careful about entering the whole process. Although these are the steps necessary for change, only time will tell whether or not they were taken at the right time.

This article reminded me of a picture my teacher showed me as well, criticizing the fact that the one child policy that China implemented produced children that weren't capable enough to sustain the family that they were raised within.

References:

Two-child policy is essential if China is to avoid a demographic crisis

http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1875326/two-child-policy-essential-if-china-avoid-demographic-crisis


Mouavangsou, K. (2017). Hmong Does Not Mean Free: The Miseducation Of Hmong Americans.