Monkey Dance and Laotian Women

Monkey Dance and Laotian Women
Brandy Zeng
4/25/17

The film Monkey Dance described the lives of a few Cambodian immigrant families and how they try to adapt to life in the U.S. The Cambodian genocide tried to stamp out their culture, but after immigrating, they try to revive their culture with the Monkey Dance. They mix their native culture with their new culture, adding new aspects to the Monkey Dance like break dancing. There is a hegemonic view of Asian American male's masculinity being inferior. However, they also try to fit in by joining groups that usually aren't Cambodian like Sam joining the gymnastics team, when most of the other athletes are white.

In the article Laotian Daughters by Bindi V. Shah, the author describes how youth organizations help to influence political decisions important for immigrant's rights. Many policies in schools deny equal access for students coming from lower class families, where schools have low funding. Other laws like Proposition 227 take away rights of immigrants. Because it removes bilingual classes from schools, many students had difficulty learning because they could not understand English. This causes many to drop out of school because they feel hopeless and helpless. Parents also have difficulty with being involved with their child's school and education because of language barriers and not being familiar with American school practices. The lack of counselors in high schools also leads to more dropouts because students can't find the help and guidance they need to succeed. Through APEN, a student run organization, they were able to secure many rights for students in lower income schools and for immigrant families.

I think that it was great how the students were able to form their own group and how they had the courage to fight for the rights they believe they should be entitled to. These two excerpts, Monkey Dance and Laotian Daughters are similar because they both describe the difficulties immigrant families have, many being lower middle class, and the struggles immigrant students go through, having to learn in a completely new language.