Hmong Culture Research Paper

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Marie Wallace
Dr. Butts
Eng 364 I
14th May 2014

Arranged Marriages in the Hmong Culture versus American Culture The ability to make decisions for who to marry is not up to the bride and groom in Hmong culture.
The mother’s and father’s usually have the say and authority of accepting a marriage proposal. In the
United States people who do have arranged marriages are seem to be unhappy or forced into them for money or based on successfulness in the spouse and not because of being in love. One of the most important freedoms we have in America is being able to make our own choices and our freedom to marry whom we truly love. The Hmong people believe in arranged marriages that benefit not only the bride and groom but also the families, offspring or clans in their native villages. People in the United
Adults in the United
States enjoy and expect the right to choose their own spouses. In the Hmong culture who you marriage is usually chosen for you. Although People in the United States feel that forcing who your children will marry is wrong, the Hmong culture believe that it is for building stronger bonds within families and prevents future issues within a marriage.
The United States allowed Hmong people to immigrate because they had helped in several ways with Americans fighting against the communists during the Vietnam War in 1975. The Hmong people came to the United States after soldiers invaded their homelands in Laos. The Hmong loved their freedom and knew they would not get that if they stayed in Laos if the Communists were to win. But once the Hmong people emigrated to the United States they tend to seclude themselves from the
American culture. Not just because they do not like the American culture, but because the Hmong

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people just like American people, they like having their freedoms and living their lives based on what their cultural beliefs are.
To many Americans, an arranged marriage can seem out of the norm but for the Hmong
Why he was only two at the time!” (pg 12)

For the Hmong people an arranged marriage is an important part of their traditions and when

Tao is told to meet his “financé” he was planning on breaking it in order to pursue his love interest with
Gao. Whom was his first marriage proposal that was not accepted by Gao’s father and mother. Even
Tao’s parents, especially his mother, was not okay with the idea of Tao and Gao marrying each other.
Although arranged marriages are viewed as a negative social norm in American society, in the Hmong culture it is used to help better their children and is suppose to be a harmless traditional fulfillment. The
Hmong people are an extremely family oriented society and handle their family upbringing quite differently from the American culture. The Hmong people believe that their sons are suppose to help take care of them when they reach old age. And Tao is the child his parents needed to help take care of them since they were getting older. “He was an only tub (son), not to mention their only child, and the

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