“The first time she looked into the mirror and noticed her brown eyes, her dark hair, and the tinted yellow of her skin, she saw Hmong looking at her.”

Immediately after Yang is born, her parents instill their Hmong heritage in her. Throughout her childhood, her parents continually ask Yang “What are you?” and she always answers, “I am Hmong.”

For Yang’s parents, it is especially important for Yang to know her roots because the Hmong people have never had a homeland—their people, their unity, that has been their home. Her parents are stressing that to born Hmong means that Yang is part of something much larger than herself.

“Because her people had only been reunited with a written language in the 1950s, in the break of a war without a name, they had not had the opportunity to write their stories down.”

This is Yang’s reason for writing her memoir. Yang’s family constantly tells stories of their past, how they survived war and starvation and refugee camps, but she is afraid that once they die their stories will die with them. Writing this memoir has allowed Yang to immortalize her family’s rich Hmong heritage in ways that would have otherwise been lost. 

“When the murders started, and the last of the men and boys began disappearing, the Hmong knew that the only thing coming for them was death.”

During the Vietnam War, the Americans sought the help of many Hmong boys and men. During this time, the Hmong had American protection and aid. However, once the war ended, the Americans left Laos, and the remaining Hmong were systematically killed by the communist government as vengeance for helping the Americans.