Introduction - SEAsite - Northern Illinois University

Prentation Abstracts
with no existing resources and infrastructure. The following are major points for
both the opportunities and challenges for the business people to consider.
Opportunities:
• US is biggest world economy
• 500,000 strong Laotian-Americans
• US serves as a sources for funding, professional skills and technologies
to Laos
• Existing and emerging Lao-American entrepreneurship
• Lao-American investments in Laos
• Young Laotian-American professionals and entrepreneurs
Challenges:
• New comer and has to compete with the existing network of other Asian
businesses
• Political factionalism of Laotian-Americans in the United States
• Quality of goods and products from Laos and the price
• Business ethic and professionalism of Lao business people in Laos
• Transportation
• Banking
• Insurance
• Distribution channel of goods through out the US
Recommendations:
• Creation of national network of Laotian-American businesses who are interested
to engage in US-Laos trade and investment opportunities. (US-
Laos Trade and Investment Group) to promote the trading and investment
opportunities and address the emerging issues.
• Organize the conference and seminars to attract the mainstream American
corporations and businesses to invest and trade with Laos.
Shoua Thao* and Kristin Espinosa** listed but only Thao
Hmong in Wisconsin: Attitudes toward Minnesota’s Hmong
Marriage Bill
*McNair Scholar, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
**Professor Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Wisconsin, USA
“Mai Xiong died while riding as a passenger in a car driven by her husband,
Nhia Xiong. Mai’s and Nhia’s minor children...filed a variety of claims against
Nhia, including a wrongful death claim. The trial court, however, determined that
the wrongful death claim belonged to Nhia, not his children, and therefore dismissed
it. As the “surviving spouse,” Nhia was first in the line of priorities as
provided by [Wisconsin statute]. The minor children contended that their parents’
marriage was invalid and thus their wrongful death claim should be reinstated.”
(Blinka and Hammer, 2002)
A young pregnant Hmong woman married her boyfriend, the father of her
child, in a traditional Hmong marriage. They later divorced, and now with two
children, she cannot claim child support or any marital benefits in the U.S. court,
because there is no legal documentation of the marriage (Heng, 2004).
These are two examples of the consequences of marriage in the Hmong
tradition, which is not legally recognized by U.S. law, whether the marriage took
place before or after arrival in the United States. To prevent such complications,
Minnesota State Representative Andy Dawkins proposed a bill in 1991 in the Minnesota
state legislature that would legalize the status of marriages conducted in the
Hmong tradition. This bill, the Hmong Marriage Bill (HMB), was intended to help
legalize, prevent, and clarify Hmong marriages in order to prevent further legal
problems such as child support, insurance, and specifically taxes. It would alleviate
certain legal disadvantages, but it would also significantly alter crucial aspects
of the Hmong marriage tradition.
In this study, I surveyed individuals in the Hmong community in Wisconsin
(Milwaukee and Green Bay) to analyze their perspectives on Hmong traditional
marriage and, more specifically, the HMB. I evaluated the attitudes of people in
the Hmong community, focusing on whether and how demographic factors, such
as education, gender, and age, influence those attitudes toward the HMB. In addition,
I conducted unstructured interviews with Hmong community leaders and
elders. The purpose of this research is to explore how Hmong’s perception on
traditional marriage and practices might have potential affects on attitudes toward
the HMB.
Hongvilay Thongsamouth
Lao-America and the Laws That Shape It
Gokhokho Publishing, Inc., California
Before 1975, only about 500 Lao* had been admitted into the United States.
Today, almost 400,000 individuals from Laos reside in the United States as lawful
permanent residents and citizens.
The mass exodus following the American withdrawal from the Vietnam conflict
forced the United States to develop extensive refugee resettlement laws and
policies. These policies, in turn, have largely shaped the formation and character
of the Lao-American community as it exists today.
From early resettlement policies to current laws affecting detention and the
threat of possible deportation, this presentation seeks to explore the history of Lao-
American immigration and the specific laws that have shaped and that continue to
shape the community.
*Lao in this paper refers to all ethnic groups from Laos (e.g. Hmong, Mien,
Khamu, Tai Lue, Tai Dam, etc.)
Susada Viravong
The Image of Women in the Sex Trade
Washington
An old profession, a modern problem in today’s society is prostitution.
Women in the sex industry are on the rise no matter how much effort we try to
control the problem. This is the result of modernization where people’s desire
(tanha) for money and material things are on the rise.
Whether that these women are willing or not, society’s view of them and
their profession is still seen as negative. These women cannot face people in society
because even money can buy their body and their integrity, reducing their
worth. Now, these women’s old profession is no longer taboo, instead, their profession
is more visible and out in the open for society to see and buy their service.
The above concept influences the painter’s creativity studies and researches
on prostitution. From painting and researching the theme of Women in the Sex
Industry, which the paintings capture real life problem, the painter would like her
work to act as a social criticism towards our apathetic society. The painter also
wishes that her work will educate society about the problem of prostitution and
hope that her work will motivate other potential artists and researchers to use her
work to further their studies about prostitution as a theme for their artwork.
Prayut Wannaudom
The Cultural Collision between folk Performing Arts
“Molam” and Culture Industry
Ph.D candidate of Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University,
Thailand
In the past , Molam is a form of folk performance of the north-eastern region
of Thailand. It was performed in special occasions such as in a traditional ritual or
ceremony. At present, due to the more advance technology in mass communication,
Molam is more popular. This is because mass communication, which is the
Culture Industry acts as media through which Molam can reach various audiences.
Mass communications play significant roles in producing more Molam and transforming
Molam into a modern performance.
Finally, Molam is promoted to be global performance because it is managed
to be cultural commodity by mass communication. Many entertainment enterprises
and industries bring efficient management system to serve every process of the
production of Molam, for example, Molam becomes live show recorded in to the
VCD format, tape cassette, audio CD, VCD karaoke for mass distribution into the
market.
Nowadays, we can witness the cultural effects of the phenomenon of Molam
as Global performance as follows:
1. The more Culture Industry exercise its roles in society, the more Molam
displays its unique identity because Culture Industry contributes in distinguishing
the differences between global performance and local performance. As a result, we
can better perceive the differences of these two forms of performance.
2. When the rise of Culture Industry brings the Western performance to
Thailand, there is the resistance from conservative Molam artists. Especially the
traditional Molam artists try to maintain their identity by negotiating with the