Gary Lee interviewed by Peter Parkhill [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 341271
- Format:
- Audio
- Author:
- Lee, Gary Y. (Gary Yia), 1951-, interviewee
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research; written permission required copying and public use during the lifetime of the interviewee.
- Description:
-
- 2000
- 8 sound discs (CD-R) (ca. 458 min.)
- Summary:
-
Lee speaks of growing up in Laos, the range of music in Laos, his father owned a gramophone, radio broadcasts were chiefly traditional music with live performances in Lao towns and villages, the khaen (the Lao and Hmong mouth organ), how the American influence reshaped music in Laos, how traditional singers were used to disseminate propaganda, lam (traditional song) was improvised during performances, Molam (traditional singers) were sponsored by Americans, the popularity of the lam genre, his father owned a rice field, explains the ritual and spirituality within the family, shamans and spiritual healing, Western medicine compared to Hmong healing, how the Hmong were treated at the schools in Laos and the cultural mix at school, khaen playing requiring a symbolic language expressed through musical tones, Thai and Lao historical saga which include their own versions of the Mahabarata and the Ramayana.
His household chores before and after school including working the padi field and grazing the buffalo, the French system of school and work was followed with a mandatory siesta, the routine of a typical day, lam performances and festival celebrated in a Lao village, the local temple as the focus of community life, regional styles of lam and molam, the interaction between performers and audience, his primary education using French textbooks and the colonial education system, Lao attitudes to the French following their independence, Westernisation of the Lao, scholarships lead to higher studies in France, Western musical influences, how he started college (lycee) education in his home town, the use of corporal punishment at school, civil war in Laos forced him and his family to flee into the jungle after his first term at college and find another town with an American base, the scale of American bases in Laos in 1961, living conditions during their civil war.
How the Vietnamese attacked the U.S. base but his family was airlifted to Vientiane and he was accepted into the college there, America's role in the civil war, his education reading French literature, French teachers and their attitudes towards Hmong students, how he came to study in Australia under the Colombo Plan, his reactions to Australian life and homesickness, taught in Special English classes and Australian attitudes towards Asians, negative attitudes at his Cranbrook school, how he returned to Laos in the school holidays to visit his family and work as an interpreter for CIA prisoners, how he entered University of N.S.W. to study international social work and community development, the communists take over Indo-China in April 1975, his decision to do a doctorate in anthropology, his tutor Professor Geddes and his own doctoral thesis questioned because of CIA involvements, how Hmong culture has suffered in Australia particularly their ancestral spirit worship.
He explains many animistic beliefs and shamanistic practices of the Hmongs, funeral ceremonies of the Hmong, the lack of competent khaen players for ceremonies, history and cultural development of Hmong people and some of the ethnic factors behind the Laos civil war and the Vietnam Conflict in particular the history of Hmong leader, Vang Pao, and how the CIA used him to create a secret army to wage a CIA-backed secret war, the Hmong resistance after the American collapse and their precarious position in Thailand and the use of reeducation camps, his current work for the Ethnic Communities Council as a youth worker particularly young refugees without families, local Lao community well organised to lobby for cultural support, his own work with the Indochinese Study Centre in Minnesota in the mid-1980s and his travels to Thailand to determine Hmong treatment, his work at NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission since 1987 which remains well-funded despite more stringent.
He discusses the struggle for the Lao and Hmong cultures to perpetuate themselves in Australia and the importance of traditional music in migrant communities using youth bands, radio shows, and video movies to maintain the language and culture.
- Biography/History:
-
Gary Lee - anthropologist.
- Notes:
-
- Recorded on Mar. 3, Mar. 10, Mar. 31 & Apr. 7, 2000 at Ashfield, N.S.W.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Timed summary available (11 p.)
- Subject:
-
- Lee, Gary -- Interviews
- United States. Central Intelligence Agency
- Hmong (Asian people) -- Laos
- Folk songs, Lao -- Laos
- Hmong (Asian people) -- Music
- Hmong (Asian people) -- Thailand
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Secret service -- United States
- Anthropologists -- Australia -- Interviews
- Hmong (Asian people) -- Religious life
- Laotian Australians -- Cultural assimilation
- Folk music, Lao
- Folk music, Lao -- Australia
- Hmong Australians -- Cultural assimilation
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Campaigns -- Laos
- Laos -- Songs and music
- Occupation:
- Anthropologists
- Other authors/contributors:
- Parkhill, Peter, interviewer
- Also Titled:
- Gary Lee discussing Lao and Hmong traditional music and culture, the political history of Indochina since 1945 and how these migrant communities maintain their cultural identity in Australia
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2070 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 2000
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
Request this item
Request this item to view in the Library’s reading room.
Feedback
Similar items
- The Hmong / text by Robert Cooper ... [et al.] ; drawings by Nanthapa Cooper
- Kamphā læ nok : nithān phư̄nmư̄ang phao Mong / hīaphīang læ tǣm dōi Chư̄vư̄
- Ambiguity of identity : the Mieu in North Vietnam / Nguyễn Văn Thắng
- Dan toc Mong o Viet Nam / Cu Hoa Van, Hoang Nam
- The Hmong of Australia : culture and diaspora / edited by Nicholas Tapp and Gary Yia Lee