Minnesota has had a strong contemporary history in the development of Asian communities that have immigrated to the North Star State. The 70s saw the migration of Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Southeast Asians in the late 1970s and 1980s, including Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese made a home here, and more recently refugees from Tibet, Burma and Thailand have become a part of the dynamic Minnesota Asian community.
MPR has been recording decades of material that reflect the Asian experience in Minnesota directly from the voices of members in the community. The wide-ranging subject matter of immigration, civil rights, politics, arts & culture, music, education, and business are captured in the stories, recollections, adaptation, and traditions.
January 7, 1994 - Pai Yang wrote a commentary for MPR about what happened when she left Minnesota and went to college at Harvard. Yang reflects on what it means to be Hmong.
August 24, 1994 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Yee Chang, Pioneer Press library researcher and Hmong Youth Cultural Awareness Project coordinator; and Pang Xiong, a project contributor, about student written book, A Free People: Tracing Our Hmong Roots. Chang and Xiong describe the purpose of book is to better connect young Hmong students and their parents/grandparents through history of Hmong culture.
October 18, 1996 - MPR’s Lorna Benson profiles Pua Xiong, a first-year resident who works at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul. Xiong describes how her quest for a medical degree has forced her to confront a multitude of cultural barriers.
June 28, 1997 - MPR’s John Biscoff visits the teahouse in Como's Japanese Garden found at St. Paul's Como Park. The age-old ceremony is drawing people who are curious about Japan or who have simply heard that it's a good way to step out of the daily grind and enjoy a peaceful afternoon.
November 27, 1998 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports on thousands of people gathering in St. Paul’s RiverCentre to celebrate the Hmong New Year. It's a time of cultural and commercial significance as people visit friends and family, browse Hmong merchandise, and watch performances of both traditional and modern dances. Nyman speaks with various participants at the event.
March 12, 1999 - Midday presents a MPR documentary special by MPR’s Lynette Nyman about the Hmong people in Minnesota, called “This Is Home: The Hmong in Minnesota.” Program explores the ways members of St. Paul's Hmong community wrestle with issues of culture and identity, with maintaining ties to the past, and seeking to thrive in modern urban America.
June 29, 1999 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman visits Camp Ajawah to profile a new Girl Scout troop in Minnesota. It's not like most other Girl Scout troops in the state because Troop 2675 is for Southeast Asian girls. Born in the United States and growing up in the Twin Cities, these new girl scouts, who are mostly Hmong, are experiencing and learning in ways often unavailable in traditional Hmong homes.
September 25, 2000 - MPR’s Lynette Nyman reports on preserving the history and culture of the Hmong through the mission of an established archives in St. Paul, called Hmong Nationality Archives. Organizers hope to collect, catalog, and make available materials about or by Hmong in Minnesota, and eventually around the world.
November 24, 2000 - Nearly 100,000 people are expected in downtown St. Paul for the three day Hmong New Year, two Minnesota Wild games, and other events. The majority of the participants will converge on the city's RiverCentre to celebrate the Hmong New Year. MPR’s Tom Scheck provides a glimpse into the celebration.
February 20, 2001 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews Bo Thao, who proposed a new oral history project documenting the lives of Hmong women in the Twin Cities. Thao says she hopes the stories will empower younger women with the knowledge that Hmong women have always been leaders in their communities, especially in times of war.