Hmong

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, tells the story of struggles suffered by a Hmong family, the Lees’, and what they had to endure when relocated from their origins of Laos to America. The Lee’s and Hmong in general are special when it comes to acculturation because they did not have an option to leave their country they were refugees. While fighting the Vietnam War the CIA recruited Hmong to get a leg up on the communist forces. After the United States pulled out from being a part of this war, around 150,000 Hmong families had to flee their homes to escape the Vietnam government. Forced to relocate in America, a place most never wanted to come in the first place. The good majority of Americans had no idea of the Hmongs’

The Lee family is just one example of a family having to move countries and redefine their lives in this new place. All over the world, people move every day, to and from so many places. When moving within a country it is hard because you are still having to accommodate to this new society. However, here we are looking at the change from one country to another, completely changing cultures. When going through the initial culture change there are four stages: euphoria, cultural shock, anomie, and finally either assimilation or adaptation. First euphoria, when moving to a new culture it is that new and exciting feeling, one might not understand the shock soon to come with this new change. They just feel that overwhelming sense of excitement, they are ready experience this place and all it has to offer. I can imagine for many that euphoria never really lasts long before the overwhelming sense of judgment and lost come through. No two places are ever the same and with moving across cultures comes the change in cultural and social norms. For example, one culture might believe that when meeting someone new it is rude to look