{ "id": "p16022coll554:254", "object": "https://cdm16022.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/p16022coll554/id/254", "set_spec": "p16022coll554", "collection_name": "Immigrant Stories", "collection_name_s": "Immigrant Stories", "collection_description": "
Immigrant Stories is a research and archiving project run by the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) at the University of Minnesota. Immigrant Stories helps immigrants, refugees, and their family members create digital stories: brief videos with images, text, and audio about a personal experience.
\n\nThis project defines \"immigrant\" broadly. Our collection contains digital stories from people living outside their country of birth as well as stories created by their children and grandchildren. Immigrant Stories also welcomes stories from international students, international adoptees, and people who do not feel that their stories fit a particular, or just one, category. All stories are important, and we invite you to make a video and share yours with us.
", "title": "Steven Yang", "title_s": "Steven Yang", "title_t": "Steven Yang", "title_search": "Steven Yang", "title_sort": "stevenyang", "description": "Steven Yang is an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota.", "date_created": [ "2015-09-22 - 2015-12-21" ], "date_created_ss": [ "2015-09-22 - 2015-12-21" ], "date_created_sort": "2015", "creator": [ "Yang, Steven" ], "creator_ss": [ "Yang, Steven" ], "creator_sort": "yangsteven", "types": [ "Moving Image" ], "format": [ "Oral histories | http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300202595" ], "format_name": [ "Oral histories" ], "dimensions": "0:05:40", "subject": [ "Origin United States", "Ethnicity Hmong" ], "subject_ss": [ "Origin United States", "Ethnicity Hmong" ], "language": [ "English" ], "state": [ "Minnesota" ], "country": [ "United States" ], "continent": [ "North America" ], "parent_collection": "Immigrant Stories; https://cla.umn.edu/ihrc/immigrant-stories", "parent_collection_name": "Immigrant Stories", "contributing_organization": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center", "contributing_organization_name": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center", "contributing_organization_name_s": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center", "contact_information": "University of Minnesota, Immigration History Research Center. 311 Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 - 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455; https://cla.umn.edu/ihrc", "fiscal_sponsor": "This work is made possible through the generous funding of the Digital Public Library of America Digital Hubs Pilot, which is supported by the Digital Public Library of America with funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.", "local_identifier": [ "cla-ihrc-is-0213" ], "dls_identifier": [ "cla-ihrc-is-0213" ], "rights_statement_uri": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/", "transcription": "Steven N. Yang Transcription\n“Tearful Melodies”\n\"Kuv tsis tau pom koj Txiv quaj kiag li - txij thaum ub ob tug ntxhais ho tso peb tseg tom.\nNplog Teb, kuv yeej tsis pom nws poob quamuag.\"\n(Translation: “I have never seen your father cry, even when we lost our two daughters in Laos. I’ve never seen him shed a single tear.”)\nMy grandmother said this to my mother one night during my grandfather’s late stages of illness and age. Since the day I was born, sounds were always something that stuck with me as it resonated with my experiences and a part of my identity. My mother would always sing her traditional pieces of personal poetry called, “Kwv Txhiaj,” which expressed how she would feel at the time. Doing so, she would often cry while singing her poetry.\nIn my efforts to understand my mother, music and poetry happened to be one of the core ways in which I could understand and interpret my parents’ experiences, but things took time, and even with time, there were bridges that had to be built to establish connections and understandings.\nAs a Hmong American born in the United States, I grew up losing much of my native tongue. With the loss of my native language, the gap between my parents and my grandparents also widened. The cultural barriers became something that would create distance between their worldview and mine. But I’ve learned to use the performing and written arts to connect with my family members and relatives.\nAs I grew older, my music interests began to stray away and were greatly influenced by the variety of cultures in America. I can recall my early years of childhood gravitating toward Korean, Japanese, Thai, Laotian, Indian, and American music. Although my influence in music has also shaped my perspective and world, the music of the Hmong culture and heritage is also deeply ingrained within.\nWhether it be the timbre of strings sliding up against the metallic cords of an string instrument, or the sounds that come from leaf blowing, they are all sounds that give me some sense of life and connection to my Hmong identity. With this identity, I began to understand and empathize with the cries of my parents, my grandparents, my brothers and my sisters.\nTo this day, tears that fall bring some warmth to me as an individual. Sometimes, the only things that connect me with my parents, my grandparents, or my ancestors are the tears that I’ve seen, expressing emotions from their dismay to their excitement or surprise. My mother once told my siblings and I when there was a dispute:\n\"Nej Txiv tsis cia nej pom nws quaj, tiamsis nej tsis paus tias nws poob quamuag rau nej\nua ntej nws ho mus pw.\"\n(Translation: “Your father never lets your see him cry, but you don’t know that he cries because of you all before he goes to sleep.”)\nLike my father, tears fall from my eyes every now and then, bringing a sense of connection to those around me.\nSimilarly, like music connecting individuals and groups of people, walls collapse as the overwhelming knots in people become undone. But because tears drip with wonder, with sadness, with thoughts and experiences, it becomes easier to smile. I think we, as people, find it will be easier to smile after crying, just like the sound of music when it enters our body and moves our muscles, intertwining our minds, our bodies, and our spirit.", "kaltura_video": "1_ghhm5e84", "page_count": 0, "record_type": "primary", "first_viewer_type": "kaltura_video", "viewer_type": "kaltura_video", "attachment": "231.pdf", "attachment_format": "pdf", "document_type": "item", "featured_collection_order": 999, "date_added": "2021-01-26T00:00:00Z", "date_added_sort": "2021-01-26T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2021-01-26T00:00:00Z", "_version_": 1710348538329694208, "type": "Moving Image", "collection": "p16022coll554", "is_compound": false, "parent_id": "254", "thumb_url": "https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/1369852/thumbnail/entry_id/1_ghhm5e84", "thumb_cdn_url": "https://dkp5i0hinw9br.cloudfront.net/5e83ed7f127e06141b8536bc3616dbebeac65e69.png", "children": [ ] }