Milwaukee

Dang Yang (pronounced Da Ya in traditional Hmong) was born in Laos, high in the mountains. He learned to make and play beautiful instruments when he was a child. In 1958 his family moved to Kaos, a little Hmong village. Dang’s family stayed there while his father went out to find and bring back Dang’s father-in-law and brother-in-law. But a messenger came and told the family that the Communist army had killed Dang’s father. They were very sad, and for months they cried. The people in the village had a party for them. There they played a song on the Hmong violin that was happy and joyful. Dang has remembered the song to this day. All of a sudden, the cloud of darkness over Dang’s family vanished.

In 1967 Dang’s mother married again. Soon after that the Communists started to take over the country, and Dang’s family was forced to move from town to town. In 1968, at the age of 15, Dang joined the army. He was the one from his family chosen to go, because in Hmong tradition it is the eldest son who goes. If the father leaves the family, it is very bad luck. Dang stayed in the army for seven years. In 1975 he returned to the village he had lived in, hoping to find his family, but there was nothing. No people, no houses—just pigs, cows, chickens, sheep and horses the villagers had left behind in their flight from the Communists.

When Dang finally found his family, they traveled together through the jungle. While they were walking through the huge jungle, Dang’s mother and father died of water poisoning. The journey took Dang and nine others one month and 15 days. On foot!

On July 22, 1980, Dang arrived in America. For the first two years he lived with a sponsor in Manitowoc. For a hobby, Dang and his friends played soccer! See—he isn’t much different from other Americans at all!

In the summer of 1982 he moved to Milwaukee. Somebody told him about a job opening, and needing a job he quickly accepted, even though it only paid three dollars per hour. In 1983, Dang realized that he was very lonely. Right around that time he met Lee. Lee told us that whenever she saw Dang he was sad and crying in loneliness. He asked her to marry him, and even though she was only 15 she agreed. It might seem a little strange to think about marrying so young, but in Hmong culture that is the custom. However, Lee tells HER daughters that they must finish high school and college before they can marry, because times have changed, and it is very important to have a good education. Now Lee and Dang speak very good English (as well as Hmong, Laos, French and Thai!) and are living in a house in Milwaukee. So I think that they are adjusting well to American culture.

–Sarah M.

Dang Yang’s father died when Dang Yang was seven years old. It must of been sad for him, really sad.

–Mariah

When Dang went to America he played songs about his mother and father. That made him sad, so he cried a lot.

–Nate

Every New Year Lee makes Hmong clothes [for the family]. Dang’s clothes are black with orange designs. Their daughter is the best dresser in her school. Lee says that she wants her daughter to always dress good.

–Pao

Dang Yang was born in Laos in 1953. The village he lived in was small. Dang’s father died when he was seven. His mother married a second time. Dang’s family moved from town to town for a while until 1968, when Dang was fifteen and was drafted for the army. By the time he got out, his whole village was gone.

–Alex

Lee married Dang in America when she was 15. The Hmong traditionally marry early. Lee wants her daughters NOT to marry that young. She wants them to go to college, to have an education, and to take care of themselves, and then marry. But if someone special comes along, she won’t outlaw marriage as a possibility.

–Erika

Lee wants her children to learn how to sew and Dang wants them to learn how to make and play instruments. They tell their children Hmong folktales. Their family sometimes goes to Shamans. Lee got married when she was 15, but she wants her children to finish college.

–Gabby

Dang makes many beautiful and unique instruments, including the qeej, a Hmong violin, a Thai recorder, and two different flutes. The Hmong violin is called a violin, but it is VERY different than the picture that comes to mind. I’ll start describing it from the bottom, and make my way up. On the bottom there is a hollow 3D circle, a bit bigger than a softball. There is a little piece of wood with holes on it to let the sound out. Connected to this bottom piece is a maple tube about two feet long, with two strings. Strangely enough, the horsehair bow is attached to the instrument between the two strings. After that there is a piece with four knobs to tune the strings, and then…a beautifully painted snake’s head. Not many people know how to make the carved oak snake’s head—only about ten in the whole USA! This awesome instrument makes a somewhat scratchy sound, but it is also quite pretty sounding.

The Thai mouth organ is definitely my favorite of the many instruments Dang brought in. It has 16 bamboo pipes in all, 8 laid over 8. One layer consists of eight pipes, starting with the shortest, second shortest, and so on, each being about an inch or two longer than the last. The pipes and layers are bound together three times (once at the bottom, once at the middle, and once at the top) with beautifully embroidered two inch wide strips of heavy cloth. The player blows into a tube in a hollow wood sphere.
I love the sound.

Dang also brought in two flutes and a Hmong recorder. The two flutes are made out of bamboo, with five holes. At the top, in a tiny rectangular hole there is a piece of metal with a tiny hole in it to let sound out. The recorder is like the kind we use in Music class, but is made out of polished, light wood, and has tattooed designs and only six holes.

I learned a ton from Dang. He kept me very interested. Instead of just talking about one thing (which would get boring) he talked all about his life in Thailand and Laos and America, and his instrument making. I hope we get to see Dang and Lee and experience their awesome work again.

–Sarah M.

Dang made his violin in Thailand and brought it to America in 1980. The Hmong violin looks like a banjo. The bottom has a drum-like piece. Covering the drum is a slab of white pine. In the middle, is a bar below the strings made out of maple. The head on the violin is made from a very strong wood. The bow is made of horse hair and bamboo. It goes in between the two strings so that you can not take it out of the violin.

The har flute is a very small flute that has a sound that can travel one mile. Young men and women used the flute to communicate with each other. It has a very high sound. Dang can only play three or four songs on the har flute.

Dang and Lee want their children and grandchildren to know about their culture. They want their boys to have the knowledge [about instruments] Dang does. And they want their daughters to do needlework and have the knowledge Lee does.

–Dylan

Dang Yang was born in Laos. When he was very young, his father showed him how to make instruments. By the time he was four, he had made an instrument. When Dang was still young, his father got killed by Communists. He, his mother, sister and brother, cried and cried. To cheer them up, his uncle threw a party. There was a mouth organ player and a person who played the Hmong violin, which Dang made later on in his life.

The violin that Dang makes has a serpent’s head on it. That is not really traditional, but the violin is of a very high quality. To play a Hmong violin, the bow must be under the strings, not over them. There were flutes and a recorder, too. One flute is used to court. The boy plays the flute and chases the girl. Another, a tiny one, is used to wake girls up at night and talk to them.

–Izzy L.

The mouth organ is used to talk to girls when it is evening. They like music better than talking ’cause it’s more interesting. “You don’t got this, you got no girl,” Dang says.

–Erika

The little Hmong flute is used to communicate with the ladies while they are farming. [To reply] The ladies would take a banana leaf and blow on a piece of it to say come over here! So the guys would do that, back in Laos.

–Mark

The sound of the little flute goes a mile, so you can talk to far away friends. In his country, they use the flute instead of cell phones.

–Emma

Dang makes the violin with different woods for different parts. These woods are maple, white pine, oak, and another. The bow is made from horse hair. The strings are the same as guitar strings, but how they are tuned makes them sound different. Dang uses no fancy tools, just a knife, to make the parts. He also puts decorations on it. “I am not an artist,” he said. But the instruments looked really good to me!

–Izzy S.

What I learned when Dang came is that people can make flutes. I learned that they can make a qeej pipe with just one knife. Dang taught me to believe in people who make things.

–Cristina

His dad taught him how to make instruments. He just looked at his father’s hand, and started to copy him.

–Mark

In Laos, people play the Hmong violin to soothe worries about their future. The Hmong mouth organ has 16 holes and can produce over 100 sounds. Not many people can play it. When Dang’s father was killed, they played the Hmong mouth organ.

–Jeremy

Dang Yang is an instrument maker and player. He makes and plays the Hmong violin, Hmong flute, Hmong recorder, Laos mouth organ, and many more. The Hmong violin looks like an American violin, but has only two strings, and the bow is attached to the instrument. The Hmong recorder looks exactly like an American recorder except that it gets narrow at the end and is made of bamboo. The Laos mouth organ looks like a pan pipe.

–Sara K.

At the Hmong American Friendship Association we were met by a women named Seng Lo. She’s lived in Milwaukee for over twenty years by now. She told us the Hmong American Friendship Association is so named because Hmong and American people work there and because everyone helps each other and, in doing so, learn each other’s language.

–Maggie

When I got to HAFA, I thought the vast, enormous building would be all fancy and filled with the flowery smell of funny incense that makes your nostrils quiver. But, gee, was I wrong! Sure, it was big but it was definitely NOT fancy. It was cool!

–Mariah

We walked into a room with the biggest story cloth I’ve ever seen: six feet high and eight or more feet long. That is taller and much wider than me!

–Emma

The first room we went to was the sewing room. Old grandmas were sitting in there, cutting out paper.

Seng Lo told us about the story cloth. It had a teacher and a little boy or girl. It looked like the little boy or girl was going to get hit.

–Pao

Seng Lo guided us through the museum. It was cool because they had lots of things like the rice mill…, shamanism stuff like the horns, money and bells and stuff like that. Then we moved on and she talked about the rice grinder…and some blacksmith stuff. There were knives, a gun they used to use to kill animals and a crossbow. The crossbow was for shooting birds in Laos (the crossbow was probably the most useful thing to use).

We moved on and saw the enormous and most beautiful, brightly colored Hmong women’s clothes. In the gift shop there were so many cool designs, I couldn’t believe my eyes because there were so many bright colors. The designs on the clothes were marvelous and hand made.

Sheng Lo said you could tell if someone is white or black Hmong by their clothes because they each wear different clothes.

Emma put on the Hmong clothes. I think she was happy, I could tell by the smile on her face. Then some of the other girls got into the Hmong clothes. I think they were happy like Emma because of the smiles. Everybody looked like they were having fun. I was glad they were happy.

–Mark

In the first display case were things a shaman (Hmong doctor) would use like goat horns (used to see if the shaman made a successful journey to the spirit world), cymbals and gongs that the shaman’s assistant uses to make the shaman’s army stronger to fight the evil spirits, and a split, doughnut-like thing the shaman uses to see if he has caught and returned the spirit back to the body.

–Jeremy

There were Hmong clothes that people used to wear in Laos. The cloths were old fashioned with many designs on them. There were corn leaves used for wrapping things up. There were pictures of the Hmong people leaving Laos and heading for the United States, gardening, playing games, doing needlework and just looking at the camera.

–Pakou

There were hollow rings with bells inside them, used when the shaman gallops off to the spirit world. The bells jingle pretty loudly.

There was also a Hmong soldier’s uniform and boots from the CIA (secret) war. Sadly, there were many young soldiers and many of them died.

–Izzy L.

There was a rice grinder which is just a bowl with a big fat stick in it because there were no machines to do it for them.

There were also big silver necklaces. Every girl should have one.

–Gabby

The bow and arrow was practically made of wood alone, including the arrows! The girl’s necklace looked like silver and gold. I wonder how much it cost? I bet it probably cost a whole lot of money, or maybe I am wrong, maybe they cost less.

–Nico

There were Hmong rifles filled with black powder, knives and even Hmong mouse traps!!! Last but not least there was a cool Hmong violin with a big dragon head and red eyes!”

Hmong women always carried their babies on their backs using only very tough rags that were sewn together.

–Nate

A story cloth is a “quilt” woven by the Hmong women to represent their journey and culture to other people. For example, we have a story cloth in our classroom showing everyday life in Laos before the Vietnam War. Another example is being displayed at the Hmong American Friendship Association in Milwaukee. This storycloth shows [the journey] from life in Laos to the new life in America.

–Jeremy

Story cloths are kind of a mixture of books, tapestries, and quilts. They have pictures, look like blankets, and are hung on walls. They remind the Hmong people of Laos, family, the hard journey, and life here in America—hardships, losses, kindness, and hope for a better life here. Story cloths tell of many things us Americans don’t understand. They have maps, traditions, ways of traveling, places in Laos, loved objects, and memories and stories from long ago. They’re like books, only without the hard-cover beneath the cloth, no words, either—just pictures, cloth, and memory.

These special things are made in Laos, Thailand, China, refugee camps, and here in America. Often, there is a mountain design border near the edge. In the middle, there are pictures. Traditional animals are often there: pigs, cows, roosters and bulls. One of the things I found interesting was the size of them. Most of them are rather small, a few are medium, but a couple of them are HUGE! The largest one I saw was 5 by 8 feet. The bigger it is, the more story it contains. On this huge story cloth there were stages, villages, oceans, animals, and much more. It showed Hmong buildings, soldiers, aircrafts, people fleeing, and the Mekong River. The Mekong River was a large stretch of water that the Hmong people from Laos had to cross to get into Thailand, where they would be safe. But enemy soldiers guarded the shores. If they caught you, they would shoot you.

–Maggie

When we got off the bus to go inside the Hmong American Friendship Association, all I saw was a small building with windows. I had no idea what a huge amount of Hmong culture would be inside.

We met Sheng Lo, the teacher of a sewing class. She showed us a huge story cloth, six feet wide and eight feet long. It was covered by plastic for protection. The story cloth showed four different places: China, Laos, Thailand, and America. It was divided in half by the Mekong River. The story was the history of the Hmong. First, it showed them escaping from China into Laos, where the cloth showed them farming and living a peaceful life. Then it showed the Americans coming and asking the Hmong to participate in the CIA “secret war”. Many Hmong were killed and many escaped into the jungle. They could spend years in the jungle, living on roots! [The cloth showed how] some Hmong finally escaped to the Mekong River, but only some. The Communists found out where they were hiding and poisoned the water that they drank. The storycloth shows people escaping across the Mekong in boats, or with bamboo under their arms, or swimming. Sheng Lo told us that a man drew the story cloth and a woman embroidered it.

–Izzy L.

At the Hmong American Friendship Association there is a 5 by 8 story cloth made by a 67-year-old woman who lives in Thailand. It showed all of the Laotian Hmong’s history—coming to Laos, their life before the Vietnam war, the CIA secret war, escaping Laos, crossing the Mekong River with Communist soldiers patrolling the bank, life in a Thai refugee camp surrounded by barbed wire, the buses to Bangkok, and a corner for modernized America.
It was amazing.

–Tim