Wausau

The first stop on the Hmong Cultural tour was at a Hmong Christian Church in Wausau. Reverend Herr told us that the first Hmong people were converted to Christianity in 1950 in Laos. He had been raised Christian in Laos. When the Hmong converted, they kept the traditions of New Year’s and the annual Harvest festival. They also still do traditional sewing and needlework, and keep the same clan rules as traditional Hmong have.

In the normal services they use instruments like the guitar and drums and piano, and sing a lot of songs like “Amazing Grace” and “The More We Get Together.” They have Sunday school. The main room where they preach and pray and hold ceremonies is a lot like any other church’s main room I have been to.

Their traditional services are mostly done in Hmong. Reverend Herr said a lot of the elders attend the traditional services. The church still sends out missionaries to countries like Laos and Thailand. The missionaries are the ones who translated the songs they sing into the Hmong language.

One banner at the front of the main room says “The Christians are the Light of the World.” It seems like Reverend Herr likes being Christian a lot, and also respects the traditional Hmong culture.

–Dylan

When Hmong people convert to Christianity, most of them think it’s absolute (and so did I) meaning that they thought if they converted they couldn’t practice anything traditional. Not so. The church even has a Hmong New Year. The church has two services—one traditional and one contemporary. Most of the older action goes to the traditional service. The traditional service is given in Hmong and has a slower pace. The contemporary services are given in English and have a faster pace.

–Tim

Many Hmong in Wisconsin are members of this church, as it was the first Hmong Christian church. After converting a person to Christianity, the church tries to slowly let go of the beliefs and traditions of traditional Hmong. For example, the belief in spirits is replaced with the belief in God. Even so, the church still celebrates Hmong New Year, because that’s a tradition that just cannot be let go of.

Reverend Herr told us about two different services. The traditional service has more praying and moves at a slower pace, and is usually done in Hmong. The contemporary service, on the other hand, is completely in English, sings American songs, and moves at a faster pace. Reverend Herr says the number of people who attend each is the same but that older people tend to go to the traditional service. Aside from the two main services, they have Sunday school, a time where kids can come and learn about being Christian. They have videos about God and Jesus and curriculum pages like “a place in God’s plan.” The kids all do a lesson and sometimes they watch videos, sing songs, or play games.

Adults sing songs, too, such as “Amazing Grace.” The contemporary Service usually sings them in English, while the songs are translated into Hmong at the traditional service.

This experience helped me understand that Hmong can be all kinds of religions other than Hmong, including Jewish, Christian, and even others. Even if they aren’t playing the keng or talking with spirits through Shamanism, the Hmong can still get together and sing and pray, be it to spirits in traditional Hmong culture or to God in Christian culture.

–Sarah M.

There are about 200 workers at Lemke Cheese, and about eighty of them are Hmong. In 1997 they only had twenty employees. When they hired Hmong people they took a risk of not knowing their culture very well. The toughest thing between the Hmong and Caucasians was the language barrier. There were also some stereotypes against the Hmong people at first.

–Dylan

Chang was hired for the job because they already had some Hmong people working there and they needed to have a person who could speak in at least Hmong and American English. Chang hired more and more Hmong people. A big problem was that the Americans thought that the Hmong were going to take over their jobs. This problem was resolved by Chang playing golf with the Americans and for the American people to understand how nice Chang is and that he wouldn’t take their jobs away.

–Jeremy

Why hire Hmong workers? You might think it’s because, well, Chang is Hmong, and he favors Hmong people, so he hires them. If that’s what you thought, you were dead wrong. It’s because they’re good workers A lot of minority groups are good workers. Now, that doesn’t mean that if a Caucasian was a good worker, he wouldn’t hire them. It’s just that a lot of Hmong are good workers. What is a good worker? A good worker is someone who has experience and whose performance is good.

–Benjamin

We talked with Chang and Dick Price, the Chief Financial Officer. Dick said that it was important for the company—and cultural diversity—to hire Hmong workers. The Hmong population is also a great resource for employment—in other words, the company wanted Hmong workers.

–Tim

When Chang Yang came to Lemke, he learned every single job. Once he knew everything, so to speak, he stepped into the role he plays today, official hirer and firer. Even now, he does some work everywhere—from Human Resources Director to a lowly production worker.

–Tim

The toughest thing between the Hmong and Caucasians was the language barrier. Chang always encourages people to take ESL classes if they don’t speak English. It is still hard to communicate across language barriers.

–Dylan

Many Hmong workers have a childcare problem: in Laos, people wanted as large a family as possible. Many Hmong people still have large amounts of children. Therefore, most of the Hmong women who work at Lemke work second shift, when their husbands aren’t working at other jobs.

–Tim

Chang Yang said we had to put on hairnets, plastic coats, and for Mr. Wagler a beard net. It’s pretty funny, huh? We had to wear that so we didn’t bring in any germs and get the cheese dirty.

The factory used to make cheese. But they decided to change the company to a packing factory. It packs and labels the cheese. Chang said, “In this factory, we work like family, brothers and sisters.”

–Cristina

In this company they have levels, so if you’re doing great, they move you up to the next level. The levels are production worker, cheese cutter, material handler, team captain, supervisor, and manager. If you’re a manager and still doing good, you get extra money, gifts, and a bonus.

–Cristina

Race doesn’t affect what level a worker is in. It just matters what the worker is good at.

–Abigail

The factory receives 100-pound blocks of cheese. The blocks are cut into pie-slices, blocks, or shreds. The cheese is then packaged, labeled, and sent off to stores to be sold. In every single step, the cheese is checked carefully for germs and bacteria and the room is made as germ-free as possible.

–Abigail

Different cheese-making places send them huge blocks of every kind of cheese. It goes into the big freezer warehouse, basically a giant fridge with lots of shelves piled with chunks of cheese. (Very strong smell.) Then they cut it into the desired shapes (blocks, slices, shredded, etc.) then they wrap them and send them out.

–Emily

Chang works with all levels and tries to bring the factory together. “Get everybody on the same page,” said his boss. He encourages Hmong workers to take ESL classes, and teaches them more about other cultures. He teaches the non-Hmong about the Hmong, too. Each day the Hmong workers improve their English. The company “acts as a family,” helping each other, getting along nicely.

–Abigail

There is Nothing Like a Cheese Factory
by Nate

The aroma of many cheeses overwhelms our nostrils
Packages of shredded and block cheeses
emerge from the wide-open mouths of machines…
There is nothing like a cheese factory.

At WAHMA (Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association) we spent the afternoon with two youth groups. The groups [were established] to keep young people out of trouble. The first one showed us a game that involves teamwork. We had to build a structure using ten straws, fifteen marshmallows, and one balloon. Later, another youth group came and taught us some Hmong games. One was the Ball Toss.

In this game you get a partner (normally a girl if you’re a boy) and you toss a ball made of fabric. If you drop the ball you owe the other player a piece of jewelry or money. In another game, we’d lined up and when the line started to run around the leader tries to catch the person at the end. The last game we played was like Duck Duck Goose, but instead of tapping the person you leave a small object behind his back.

–Thomas

In Wausau at WAHMA some teenagers taught us how to play some Hmong games played in Laos and Thailand. First, we played a game called Ball Toss, a simple game where you toss a ball back and forth. This game was played mainly for the Hmong New Year. The game was made for boys and girls to talk to each other.

The second game we played has many different names such as Dog Chases the Tail and Caterpillar. You have a line of at least five people holding on to each other, and the person at the front tries to catch the person at the end without breaking the line. This game is harder than it sounds. [In Laos] they would play this game all night. The third game is kind of like Duck Duck Goose…

–Alex

The first game we all tried was Ball Toss. Hmong people play this game at the New Year, mostly a boy and girl toss the ball to each other so they can get to know each other. Usually two people toss a ball with only one hand. The other game is called Caterpillar. The way you play it is a group of people holds each other on the waist and then the person at the head needs to catch the person at the tail. It keeps going in different patterns. I’m pretty sure this game was made to [create] community. This game shows me that whatever we do we need to keep hold of our friends…

–Pakou

“When all is said, and all is done, working together does not just bring out the best in all of us, it brings out the best in each of us.” That is one of the first things Mai Kao Moua told us. She is the director of the Hmong Women’s Circle. The group is fairly small, but Mai hopes that it grows to be like the Girl Scouts, and that teenage girls all around [the state?] can be in the program. One of the group’s main foci is on working together and teamwork. Hmong people are very much an ethnicity where others come first. “Back in Laos, you’d take care of your family and friends’ wants and needs before you take care of your own wants and needs,” Mai said.

Mai taught us a game that, although it wasn’t played in Laos, requires a lot of team work. My group was trying to make a structure of fifteen marshmallows, some straws, and a balloon. After the structure was completed, an egg would be dropped from above and the structure would have to support it. The game required a lot of teamwork, because it’s hard if one person tries to take over, but it’s also a problem when nobody wants to give ideas.

Three other games we played are traditional Hmong, and were played back in Laos. The most common game is Ball Toss, and it is still played at Hmong New Year and other times big groups of people get together. (My family and I saw it played at the Madison convention center during Hmong New Year this year.) The game is played with a teenage boy and a teenage girl. You simply toss a ball back and forth and chat to get to know each other.

Another game played back in Laos is very similar to Duck Duck Goose, but instead of tapping people on the head, the “it” hides a small object (such as a rock) behind one of the people in the circle. That person tries to chase “it” back to his/her place.

The last game we played can get pretty wild. In this game, a line of people hook on to each other, holding on to the back of the person in front of them. The line of players runs and wiggles while the person in front tries to touch the person in the back. Usually people get unhooked. We played with half a dozen kids at a time, but back in Laos they could play it with more than fifty!

–Sarah M.

This is a very fun and frantic game. First everybody gets in line with their hands on the other person’s shirt. You run around, and the person in front tries to touch the person in the back…. In Ball Toss, you toss a ball back and forth while having a conversation. The game is used by teenagers getting to know each other—especially girlfriends and boyfriends…

–Emily

On our Hmong cultural tour, we went to a radio place. There we talked into a microphone about our trip, and how it is important to us. First we introduced ourselves, then we started to answer questions, like “how is it meaningful, how does it help you understand, what is your goal for the trip?” So we answered it.

–Pao

They record your voice on a computer and they cut out the bad parts, (then) burn it and play it on their next show. This radio program is not live so the people can make mistakes and they will just cut it off.

–Jeremy

Also the microphone is very sensitive—if you speak very soft it will still pick it up. On the computer you can change the pitch and how loud it is.

–Nico

We stopped for the night at WAHMA, Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Assistance. WAHMA has a dance group. We saw about six or seven of the dancers, mostly girls about 10 to 12 years old. (All were related, except for the girl in the green dress.) They all wore traditional Hmong clothing. The skirts they wore had very small pleats and looked too heavy to dance in, but they did fine. Most of the dance was girls walking into formations, turning around, and stepping side-to-side with their hands and arms in different positions. The song they danced to was about a girl saying to her ex-boyfriend that she wished time could turn around, and at this point in the song the girls started turning around and walking away from each other…

After a little dancing, they invited us to come up for a dance lesson. First, they taught us to step side-to-side. Next they taught us the peacock movement, here you put your pointer finger and your thumb [in the air] and twist your wrists…The dancing was great.

–Martha

On our trip we got to learn a Hmong dance. The people who taught us were children! The girls wore traditional Hmong clothes. It is rather hard to explain the dance, but it was basically side-stepping and turning with the feet and legs and LOTS of graceful movements with the arms and hands. That dance was so beautiful when the Hmong girls did it, but I felt clumsy. Now that I know a couple of Hmong dance moves I could probably make up my own Hmong dance. What I learned from this besides the dance was that all cultures have dances and all of the cultures’ dances are different. I never really liked to dance until I learned that Hmong dance.

–Mariah

We were learning the same song they danced and it was really hard! You have to be REALLY coordinated. A lot of us could do the stuff with our hands but not with our feet…. Their teachers, Mai Choua Mova and Pam Vue, are really good. They’ve made movies. They danced for us and they really know what they are doing.

–Gabby

I was the only one in the whole class who stayed at a Hmong house for one night. It was so fun. I had sticky rice and chicken for dinner and breakfast. The house was a one-floor, three-bedroom house. It was perfect! I loved staying there. It was home sweet home. They had seven kids. Pafoua and Lee were two of them. The mom worked at Kolby and Koby and the dad at the Hmong Association. I think the mom and dad married at age thirteen.

I really liked the decorations. There were fans and pretty fake flowers. Down in the basement, there was a music studio with a keyboard and boom box. The kitchen had a buffet table where you could get food. The living room had three comfy couches and pictures of Hmong culture.

I really liked it that they let us stay with them. I had good luck and a fun time.

L. Jay Incorporated was started so that Hmong refugees could get jobs. L. Jay Inc. works partly for a bigger shoe factory called Weinbrenner. Weinbrenner sends designs of shoes to L. Jay and then the people who work there sew different parts of the shoe and then sew all the finished pieces together to make a shoe. One of L. Jay’s biggest customers is Fleet Farm. Kao Lee is the son of the owner of the factory. He also works at a bank to help his family earn a living. Kou’s parents always want to get things done well no matter how long it takes. On the other hand, Kou’s generation wants to get things done as fast as possible…

–Nate

L. Jay Inc., a shoe factory, was founded in 1989 by Jay Lee. Lee is Hmong and all of the twenty or so workers there are Hmong. The factory gives the Hmong jobs they usually wouldn’t get because they aren’t fluent in English. Mr. Lee created the company with some clan members, but now he owns the whole thing.

L. Jay is a subcontractor to Weinbrenner Shoes. Weinbrenner sends the material to L. Jay, [where it is assembled into shoes]. Each worker sews or glues a different part [of the shoe] together at a different machine. There are about twenty-five machines for different steps and some extras just in case one breaks down. It takes about five minutes to make the upper part of a shoe and about an hour from first step to finish.

–Izzy S.

Kou said that when his father passes away or gets really sick, he will be the next captain and take charge. He said that his parents aren’t lazy, because they wake up at 5:00 in the morning and stay up until 10:00 p.m. They made this job so Hmong people could sew, because Hmong adults love to sew. One machine makes the shoelace holes. Kou’s brother could make holes in a pair of shoes in five seconds—probably a world record. It looked easy, but in real life it’s real hard. We imagined US doing the job like this: “Tick, tick, tick, Oh! My finger has a hole!”

–Cristina

Clans came together to form L. Jay Inc. in 1989. The factory used to sew clothes and make reindeer out of straws, but now it works for Weinbrenner making mostly outdoor shoes. L. Jay owns the factory. His son Kou Lee goes to the University of Minnesota and comes home on weekends to help. Kou has always been interested in business. He works full-time in a bank doing accounting and tax work. He’s in the Master’s program at the University. When his father dies, he will get the factory.

There are many differences between the [Hmong] generations. The older [generation] is willing to work from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The younger is only willing to work from 8:00 to 5:00, but has business knowledge and knows English. Also, since older people did sewing by hand in Laos, they had to get used to sewing machines. But after a few weeks they got the hang of it. If you’re Hmong, and you don’t know English, you could have a mighty hard time getting a job. Only half of the workers at the factory know English. But since all the workers are Hmong or Hmong American they can talk in Hmong! Each worker has a different machine for each step of making a shoe. There are twenty to twenty-five machines (including extras in case one breaks down.) It takes around an HOUR to make ONE shoe! That’s how many steps there are! The workers get bonuses if they do their job well—more pay, Christmas gifts, picnics, stuff like that. There must be a lot of bonuses because the workers work so well and fast!

–Abigail

This stop showed more of the modern Hmong in America. It was a heart-stopping experience—it really shows how hard the Hmong work.

–Mariah