Assignment #8

Hey everyone and welcome to another week of blogging with yours truly!! Well we're almost done with this quarter which is unfortunate because there's still so much more stuff I wanted to find out and share with you guys. This weeks assignment is pretty cool because even though I can't give out some of the visual images due to lack of technology (well my lack of technology in itself), I can have a creative mind about it and explain to you guys what I'm imagining. I'm multi-tasking at this moment writing the blog and watching the Lakers game. As of right now they're losing and I'm loving it because I just hate the Lakers thus putting me in a even better mood to do this assignment. So let's get this started.

Idea #1














Remember in assignment #4 when I posted this picture up saying I was going to talk about it later on? Well I think this week's assignment is the perfect time to do so. There is a story to this statue which I will tell you guys right now.

Origins "One day around 2440 b.c., the battle between Ping Huang (Ping Wang), the emperor of China, and the King Kao (Kao Wang) was not going well. The emperor offered the hand of his third daughter in marriage to anyone who could chop off the head of his enemy. Many tried, but the only one who could manage it was P'an Hu (King Pan), a three-colored dog who hung around the emperor's court. Although the emperor was not happy, he fulfilled his promise and gave the dog his daughter. Then the dog and the emperor's daughter went away to live in the far-off mountains. They had six sons and six daughters who became the forefathers of the twelve clans of the Iu Mien." This may sound a little ridiculous, but that's actually what we believe in. I think this is a good starting point to this blog because it kinda tells how the Iu-Mien clan originated from in terms of folktale. I think it'd be super cool if I could somehow transform a dog into King Pan for people to see it visually. Idea #2 I was thinking of showing just how the Mien people, and Southeast Asians in general struggled just to get to the Thailand Refugee camp. Just think of a group of family members of all ages with no food, barely any clothes and lack of weaponry to fend of the communist soldiers walking on foot to Thailand. This is just to show how before these people could even immigrate to the U.S, they had to fight for their lives just to make it to the Refugee camp. Of course I would like to include how the Refugee camps were like in Thailand. My uncle explained it but I want to see a visual image or experience of it just like the rest of you guys. Idea #3 This idea was inspired by my uncles story. I was thinking of letting people do role play. Say you was the oppressors of the communist regime and you had just reached Thailand, but was denied entrance to the refugee camp. You have no home, and no place to go so you have no choice but to live in the jungles of Burma like my family did. I want you guys to experience what living in the jungle with little to no resources available to you while dealing with the treacherous weather, potential diseases and of course the wild animals out there. I don't want people coming into this thinking that they're going to actually live in the jungle because that could result in a lawsuit. I want them to experience what one of our classmates was talking about when you feel like you're in the war feeling and hearing the grenades going off but not getting physically or emotionally hurt. Idea #4 I wanted to rebuild the image of the neighborhoods that the Southeast Asians lived in when they got to the Bay Area/U.S between the years of 1975-1982. This is to show how Asian Americans were treated by the native people and I can tell you that not all were kind as I pointed out in those articles about the Vietnamese refugees and my uncles interview. This is not only to show how tough life was adjusting to a new culture of living, but also to show how far the Bay Area/U.S has come to accepting the Asians as one of their own. This can also be said for all immigrants of any race. Even though there were much negativity towards the Asian immigrants, there were also a lot of positives. School is a perfect example, as many tutors helped the immigrants learn from basically scratch as they knew little to no English. If it's possible to show the school atmosphere with the neighborhoods, then I think that would be a great idea showing integration of different cultures. Idea #5 I think a great idea would be to show you guys a religious ceremony of our Iu-Mien culture. I actually have home video of an actual ceremony being performed but I don't know if my family would want it to be shown as it's very sacred. It would be pretty cool though to show how and why we do these ceremonies as it takes many hours to complete so it takes a lot of preparation and work. I've come to acknowledge many different cultures and religions and I'm pretty sure you guys would be interested in seeing an actual ceremony by the Mien people. The shaman who performs it really amazes me because it seems like they memorize everything by heart and says his prayers for many hours in the Mien language, plus I think the traditional clothing is pretty cool to show off. So these were some of the ideas I was thinking of. By the way, Lakers lost!!