A Multicultural Life Moved by the World

In addition to the work Kao-Ly Yang does, steadily and passionately, in research and teaching in Hmong Studies, far from home, she also experiences a multicultural life through her meetings with people of all cultural backgrounds, heartbreaking or unique events, soulful places that come into her ordinary life, and that have transformed her understanding of life. She wishes to share them here with her readers to inspire them to believe in a life full of optimism, and to pursue their search of meanings in their life.

Four figures who have shaped my way of thinking and being.

People
Marcel Mauss, Anthropologist & sociologist
Paj Cai Vwj (PaChay Vue), Hmong freedom fighter
Kaii Higashiyama, Japanese painter (picture)
Elisabeth Sisi, Empress of Austria
Colette Kouchner, mentor
Marie-Claude Delafont, mentor

Films & TV Series
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (L'Insoutenable légèreté de l'être) by Philip Kaufman with actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche et Lena Olin. (Picture)
Three Lives, Three Worlds and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (三生三世十里桃花) by Lin Yufen, Yu Cuihua and Ren Haitao with actors Mark Chao Yu-Ting and Yang Mi.
Porco Rosso (紅の豚) by Hayao Miyazaki.
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (달마가 동쪽으로 간 까닭은?) by Bae Yong-kyun with actors Lee Pan-yong, Sin Won-sop and Yi Pan-Yong.
The Motorcycle Diaries by Walter Salles with actor Gael García Bernal.

Books
A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust.
One Thousand and One Nights (Les Mille et Une Nuits)
Spring Moon by Better Bao Lord.
All books by Elizabeth Goudge, Lin Yutan, Shen Congwen, Pa Kin, Lao She, John Steinbeck, Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Henry Gougaud, ...
Eugene Guillevic's poems
Anthropologie et Sociologie by Marcel Mauss ...

Places
The Village of Ash (aka Keo Patu (Glass Door)), Xieng Khouang, Laos. (Picture)
Looj Hej (Non-Het), Xieng Khouang, Laos.
Looj Ceeb (Long Cheng), Xieng Khouang, Laos.

Nîmes, hometown, France.
The Plateau of Valensole, Les Alpes de Haut Provence, France.
Paris, France.
San Francisco, US

Songs
Muaj ib Hnub (There is One Day) by Lou Yang (Luj Yaj): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AhzDryynrQ
" 等你等了那么久" (Waiting For You For so Long) by Qi Long (祁隆) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_ygkcMOtYI (Picture)
You Have Been Loved by George Michael. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACD0AgnhzM
Dej Ntws Tau ces Cia Dej Ntws (Let the River Run), Hmong sung poem.
....

Influential Events.
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, China
The first trip to China in the provinces of Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, 1994.
The first trip to the United States during 4 months touring from the East to the West Coasts, 1999.
The series of Hmong teen suicides in Fresno County, California, 2000's.
The 2007 Hmong White-Shirt Demonstrations against the imprisonment of former General Vang Pao, California.
The columns of Syrian refugees, escaping war, 2010's.
(Picture) ....

Artists.
George Michael, English singer
Nat King Cole, American singer
Tong Li, Cantonese singer
Xanakee, Hmong Band
Maiv Kiab Muas, Hmong singer
Marc Chagall, painter
Kaii Higashiyama, Japanese painter
Arthur Rimbaud, French poet
Better Bao Lord, Chinese American writer
Jean Giono, French Novelist

Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese Filmmaker
Ang Lee, Taiwanese Filmmaker
Jean-Jacques Annaud, French Filmmaker
Tran Anh Hung, Vietnamese-born French Filmmaker
Bourvil, French actor
Juliette Binoche, French actress
Hiroyuki Sanada, Japanese actor
Fran Dresher, American actress
Mark Chao Yu-Ting, Taiwanese-Canadian actor