Minnesota has had a strong contemporary history in the development of Asian communities that have immigrated to the North Star State. The 70s saw the migration of Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Southeast Asians in the late 1970s and 1980s, including Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese made a home here, and more recently refugees from Tibet, Burma and Thailand have become a part of the dynamic Minnesota Asian community.
MPR has been recording decades of material that reflect the Asian experience in Minnesota directly from the voices of members in the community. The wide-ranging subject matter of immigration, civil rights, politics, arts & culture, music, education, and business are captured in the stories, recollections, adaptation, and traditions.
October 15, 2002 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Mai Nemg Moua, author and editor of "Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong-Americans," which features stories, poems and essays written by the first generation of Hmong to grow up in the United States. It is the first Hmong anthology ever published.
October 30, 2003 - MPR’s Steve Nelson reports on St. Paul being the center of an emerging group of Hmong writers. That's may not seem all that remarkable, until you consider that Hmong people had no written language at all until 1952. Before then, Hmong story-telling relied on oral traditions. Now, writers in St. Paul are turning those stories into literature and history.
March 9, 2006 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann interviews Lee Pao Xiong, director of Concordia's Center for Hmong Studies, about the first ever International Conference on Hmong Studies. Academics from around the world are coming to Concordia University to talk about a culture undergoing dramatic transition.
August 28, 2006 - On this segment of MPR’s “Notes from Home,” Chris Roberts looks into the local music scene in Hmong community.
November 17, 2006 - It’s been thirty years since Hmong began arriving in Minnesota. MPR's Toni Randolph interviews Leng Wong, one of the first arrivals that came in the mid-70s. That small initial group now is a community of more than 50-thousand strong.
May 1, 2007 - MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews author and teacher Wang Ping, who says her Chinese history is the result of some curious twists of fate.
May 11, 2007 - MPR’s Roseanne Pereira speaks with buddhist monks at the Gyuto Wheel of Dharma Monastery in Minneapolis, as they prepare to take part in a tantric choir performances in Minnesota.
July 19, 2007 - MPR’s Roseanne Pereria reports that while farming runs deep in the Hmong culture, many Hmong farmers are isolated both by culture and language from the rest of U.S. agriculture. They often have difficulty getting resources and finding information. Pereria interviews one local grower who work towards changing that.
December 7, 2007 - Pakou Hang was just days old when her family immigrated to the United States in 1976. They were part of the first wave of Hmong refugees to come to the United States. Now, the family has lived here far longer than they lived in Laos, and Pakou Hang fits in quite well in her community. She recently ran for a seat on the St. Paul City Council, but challenges still remain as an immigrant living in America, as demonstrated through this interview with her mother, Phoua Hang.
December 14, 2007 - In a crowd, it's easy to overlook Mayda. But on stage, it is hard not to notice her. MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles the Korean songwriter and musician from St. Paul.