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Mien Culture
by: Kim Chao and Kao Saechao


Introduction
Culture just may be the most powerful force in the modern world. Acquiring more awareness of culture and its influence in our lives becomes a basic skill in today's society. Becoming culturally aware requires an understanding of the processes of human perception and how multiple perspectives and diverse cultural orientations are basic to the forms of life among humans. Cultural awareness also examines closely our own personal life experiences. This means taking time to find out our own ethnic heritage, learn the specific details of different cultures, and becoming more aware of our surroundings. Cultural awareness can be explored by studying the conflicts in a society where contact and interaction between different people is a daily issue. Issues like ageism, racism, sexism, and classism all share certain basic cultural dynamics that if understood hold promise for a better opportunity for resolution and decision making.

Coming from a different background that is a pre-literate society has its disadvantages. To introduce our classmates to our culture, we decided to conduct a one day, three hour seminar to provide the social work students a better understanding of the Mien culture. The ethnic group Mien is also referred to as Yao. Yao is a name used by other ethnic groups when referring to the Mien people. A desire for propriety is a driving theme in the Mien culture. They are a dignified group of people. Their origin dates back two thousand years ago in southern China. In the nineteenth century, the Mien were persecuted by the Chinese government which forced their migration into Laos and nearby countries. More than seventy percent of the Mien population sought refuge in Thailand where they were placed in camps. Several years later, many Mien families were given the opportunity to migrate to the United States through a refugee program offered by the United States. A smaller number of families resettled in France and Canada.

Approximately 16,000 Mien have come to the United States since 1976 and most have settled in California, initially in neighborhoods where housing was cheap and rundown, but where they could have large extended families. Those who have managed to get jobs have begun to save money and move out of these ghetto neighborhoods, but many remain in areas of high crime and substandard housing. They worry about their safety, their children, and their future. The number of migrations into the United States decreased tremendously in the late 1980s compared to the earlier half of the decade. Two- thirds of the overall Mien population arrived to the United States before 1985.

It is important to remember that the Mien people have lived through war experiences few Americans can comprehend. They have all left relatives behind, and there is guilt. As refugees in America, those who have the necessary health, education, and skills to get jobs work very hard. Often both husband and wife are working to support a family. There is other less fortunate ones, who have suffered depression, cannot speak English, and have physical or psychological wounds. The Mien often have contradicting values when adjusting to the new environment in the United States. The Mien people are part of the non-dominant culture of this society and have learned to avoid conflict and contact with outside authorities whenever possible.

Statement of Need
To become better social workers, we must increase own awareness of others. Therefore, social work students must help each other to become aware of the diversity of ideas and practices found in human societies. Students must compare these ideas and practices and recognize their own cultural perspectives. For agencies to be efficient in providing for their clients, workers should have an understanding or basic knowledge of the cultural components for human service. Not all agencies are able to employ workers that understand ethnic groups. From our interviews with different agencies in the Redding community, we found that there is little information available about the Mien culture to the general public. This, in return, is causing misunderstanding within the communities that the Mien people reside in.

Description of the Intervention
For the intervention of our community project, we have planned to conduct a Mien Cultural seminar. Our research included a literature review and personal interviews with social workers and administrators in public social service agencies. We also created a questionnaire for the senior social work students. With our findings from the interviews and questionnaires, we were able to find out which areas of the Mien culture we needed to focus on. From the survey we found out that the students were interested in these topics: history, family values, gender roles, religion, and language.

After we compiled the findings from the interviews and questionnaires, we met with a guest speaker to plan and formulate topics for the seminar. Next, we created a flyer to distribute to the social work students announcing the date, time and place of the seminar. We also put together packets of resourceful information for the students to use on the day of the seminar. The packet included an agenda, an evaluation form, various handouts about the Mien culture, and a bibliography list for the students' future reference. According to the student's responses, our agenda is focused on covering four general aspects of the Mien culture: history, family structure, traditional customs, and religion.

Evaluation of the Intervention
At the time that we were preparing this web page, our intervention was not implemented yet. Due to this, we were unable to evaluate the intervention part of our project. However, we will evaluate the seminar after May 5, 1999. We plan to do this by using the feedback and responses on the evaluation forms that the students will complete after they have attended the seminar. We are asking the students to evaluate the following areas: topics, content, and speakers.

Reflections on the Project
Reflecting back on our initial plan for the project, we felt that we were not specific enough in clarifying who our targeted audiences were going to be for the seminar. From this experience, we've learned to be clearer in setting our goals and objectives for future seminars. If the seminar goes well and if the feedback that we get from the students and teachers is positive, then we hope to provide more seminars on the Mien culture for other groups of people, especially in social service agencies that serves the Mien population.

References
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Carrese, J., & Brown K. (1993). Culture, healing, and professional obligations. Hastings Center Report. 23 (4), 15-18.

Carrillo, D.F., & Holzhalb, C.M. (1993). Assessing social work students' attitudes related to cultural diversity: A review of selected measurements. Journal of Social Work Education. 29 (3), 263-269.

Coombs, G., & Sarason, Y. (1998). Culture circles: A cultural self-awareness exercise. Journal of Management Education. 22 (2) 218-227.

Dana, R.H., & Behn, J.D. (1992). A checklist for the examination of cultural Competence in social service agencies. Research on Social Work Practice. 2 (2), 220-234.

Dana, R.H., & Matheson, L. (1992). An application of the Agency Cultural Competence Checklist. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal. 15 (4), 101-106.

Doyle, E.I., Liu, Y., & Ancona (1996). Cultural Competence Development in University Health Education Courses. Journal of Health Education. 27 (4), 206-213.

Genesee, F., & Cloud, N. (1998). Multilingualism is basic. Educational Leadership. 55 (6), 62-66.

Jensen, A.A., Lorentsen, A. & Jaeger, K. (1996). Intercultural Competence A New Challenge for Language Teachers and Trainers in Europe: The Adult Learner. Retrieved September 17, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://wwwhum.auc.dk/i12/res/csis/pub/v2intro.uk.html

Otero, G., & Smith, G. (1994). Teaching about cultural awareness: An overview. Colorado Alliance for Asian Studies. Retrieved September 28, 1998 from the World Wide Web: http://www.php.com/kaiscult.html

Wright, L. (1996). Building cultural competence. Canadian Business Review. 23 (1), 29-32.



Interviews

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