The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, ad the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne  Fadiman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. 

Culture Clash

The book is about a culture clash between a Hmong family with an epileptic little girl, Lia Lee, living in Merced, California during the 1980s. Hmong have Shamans and believe in spirits called dabs. The Hmong saw epilepsy as a spirit inhabiting the little girl.

Western Medicine

There were communication problems between the medical staff at Merced Community Medical Center, and the child’s family. This was due to both different languages and different cultures. California Child Protective Services got involved because there was some concern whether the family could properly take care of an epileptic child.

The Hmong Migration from China

Miao is the Chinese name for the Hmong in China. There are 5 million Miao in China. Some centuries ago, many of the Miao/Hmong in China migrated to the highlands of Laos.

Hmong Refugees Come to America

General Van Pao, a Hmong, lead the Armée Clandestine, which helped the Americans fight the Communists in Southeast Asia. Because the Hmong helped us fight the Communists, we took them to our country as a reward. If they had stayed in Laos, they would have been imprisoned or killed by the Communist Pathet Lao.

Agriculture

In Laos, the Hmong practiced slash-and-burn farming (swiden). So even if the Hmong refugees had been given farmland in Merced, it would have been difficult for them to become farmers. Instead, they have been disproportionally receivers of welfare.