57 pages • 1 hour read
Kao Kalia YangThe Latehomecomer
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PROLOGUE
Reading Check
1. At an early age, what does Yang come to believe Hmong means?
2. How many Hmong died during the Secret War in Laos/Vietnam?
3. Where is Yang born?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why do Yang’s parents believe it is important to teach her she is Hmong at an early age?
2. What is the prerequisite for Hmong survivors to emigrate to the United States?
3. What is Yang’s reason for writing this memoir?
CHAPTERS 1-3
Reading Check
1. What does the Lao People’s Party vow to do following the end of American involvement in Vietnam?
2. To what does the author compare her grandmother and the surrendering women?
3. What distinguishes the two groups, the White and Green Hmong, at the refugee camp in Thailand?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the Secret War impact the Hmong?
2. How does the author describe the feat of entering Thailand?
3. What is the importance of Hmong cloth and embroidery?
Paired Resource
“Embroidery: Stories” and “The Fabric of Memory: Story Cloth as Art and History for Hmong in USA”
- These resources display Hmong tapestry embroidery created to preserve and pass on important cultural stories, practices, and Hmong history.
- This information connects to the themes Cultural and Familial Ties as a Source of Resilience, Spirituality, and Minority Identity.
- Compare the tapestries depicting accounts of wartime experiences and Hmong spiritual beliefs with those in The Latehomecomer. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each storytelling medium and how might both forms represent the resilience and adaptability of the Hmong?
CHAPTERS 4-6
Reading Check
1. What does the story of babies coming from the clouds and choosing parents suggest about how Hmong parents view children?
2. In the Hmong worldview, what is the strongest element holding the people together?
3. Which countries accept Hmong refugees?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the importance of the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp to Yang and why is it so difficult for her to reconcile her view of life there with that of her elders’ experiences?
2. What are Yang’s father’s reasons for applying for asylum in the United States?
What is the importance of Yang’s relationship with her older sister, Dawb?
Paired Resource
- This resource from the Hmong Museum layers Yang’s father’s song poetry over her own English writings. The poems explore his childhood experiences of loss and the sadness of living through war.
- This resource connects to the themes Cultural and Familial Ties as a Source of Resilience.
- Compare Bee Yang’s evident traits in “Love Story” to his characteristics depicted in The Latehomecomer. In what ways does love for family influence his choices in both?
CHAPTERS 7-9
Reading Check
1. How does young Yang view her father?
2. What is the one thing family could rely on in the US?
3. In the US, how does Yang view money?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why is Yang’s father’s quest to find her a restroom in Tokyo significant to Yang?
2. Why is Dawb’s $50 spelling bee win so important for the family?
3. What is the source of the ambivalent feelings toward babies born in America?
Paired Resource
“Meet Kiari, the First Gerber Baby of Hmong Descent”
- This brief article touches on the significance of the use of Kiari’s face by Gerber for marketing to changing US demographics.
- This article connects to the theme of Minority Identity.
- Consider the complexity of both being assimilated and remaining Hmong, as explored in The Latehomecomer. In what ways might choosing a Hmong representative for a trusted national brand represent both the community’s hopes for their descendants and their fears?
CHAPTERS 10-11
Reading Check
1. What does the family find under the carpet in their new house and what was it for?
2. Who does Yang write would have been at home in the new family house based on its appearance?
3. What difficult situation does the family face in 1996?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Yang mean in Chapter 10 when she writes, “Before I learned about light particles and the color spectrum, I believed in the dragon”? Include 2 examples in your response.
2. For the Yang family, what is the significance of owning a house?
3. What is the cause of Yang’s sickness in high school and how does she find a way toward a cure?
Paired Resource
“Hmong Religiosity and Shamanism in the Twin Cities: Hmong Shamanism”
- This resource from Carlton College outlines the role of shamanism in the Hmong diaspora of Minnesota and explores how it might work alongside Western medicine.
- This resource connects with themes of Spirituality, Minority Identity, and Cultural and Familial Ties as a Source of Resilience.
- According to the article, what are some areas in which shamanism either complements Western medicine or treats illness more effectively than Western medicine? How might understanding shamanistic belief systems illuminate Yang’s understanding of her own illness and necessary path toward recovery?
CHAPTERS 12-15
Reading Check
1. How does the calling to be a shaman manifest itself in people?
2. What does Yang’s grandmother request instead of the traditional slaughter of animals for her funeral?
3. How many direct descendants does Yang’s grandmother leave when she dies?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Yang mean in Chapter 12 when she writes, “By documenting our deaths, we were documenting our lives”?
2. What is the importance of food in both healing her grandmother and supporting her funeral rites?
3. Based on the ceremony Yang recalls, how do the Hmong view death and why does this belief add to the complexity of living in the US?
Paired Resource
“Unforgotten: An Intergenerational Project with Hmong Veterans”
- This resource from the Hmong Museum features short film projects created by younger generation Hmong with the purposes of telling the stories of Hmong Secret War veterans and helping them connect to their elders’ experiences.
- This resource connects to the theme of Cultural and Familial Ties as a Source of Resilience.
- How might storytelling provide avenues for reconciling intergenerational gaps following the disruption of the Secret War and forced emigration? How does storytelling honor and empower both the storyteller and the listener?
Recommended Next Reads
The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father by Kao Kalia Yang
- Following the life of Yang’s father Bee, The Song Poet explores the ways in which outside forces like the death of his father and the Secret War shaped Bee’s youth. It also illuminates how Bee’s role as song poet recording his people’s tragedies, joys, and losses helped him to survive and later to enrich the lives of his family as they struggled as refugees in Minnesota.
- Shared themes include Cultural and Familial Ties as a Source of Resilience.
- Shared topics include the Secret War, Hmong culture, and supporting family through hardships.
- The Song Poet on SuperSummary
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
- Western doctors diagnose Lia Lee with epilepsy, but her Hmong community in Merced, California, believes it is “qaug dab peg” caused by her wandering spirit. Though doctors and family all want the best outcome for Lia, strict cultural beliefs leave Lia caught in the middle. This true story explores the ways in which opposing worldviews and cultural misunderstandings can have complex ethical and medical implications.
- Shared themes include Spirituality and Minority Identity.
- Shared topics include Hmong culture, shamanism, and assimilation.
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
PROLOGUE
Reading Check
1. Contained (Prologue)
2. Approximately 1/3 during the secret War and 1/3 after (Prologue)
3. Thailand, in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp (Prologue)
Short Answer
1. As Yang is growing up in a Thai refugee camp, and as the Hmong people have no homeland, the only way to remain Hmong is to pass on the culture by word and action. (Prologue)
2. Hmong survivors must pass an exam and attest that they supported the United States during the Secret War from 1960-1975. (Prologue)
3. Yang writes to search for herself and her people, and to provide a voice that represents their history, culture, and traditions. (Prologue)
CHAPTERS 1-3
Reading Check
1. Destroy the Hmong through genocide (Chapter 1)
2. Elephants (Chapter 2)
3. Their dialect (Chapter 3)
Short Answer
1. During the Secret War, their largest covert operation to date, the CIA recruited men from Hmong villages. When the men died, the CIA recruited their sons, leaving women and children to contend with bombings that disrupted farming. When the US withdrew, civilian aid ended, leaving villagers both starving and without protection from retaliating Lao and Vietnamese soldiers. (Chapter 1)
2. The author describes escape as a miracle because the family flees a Lao prison camp and swims the ¾ mile-wide Mekong River through waters patrolled by armed Lao soldiers. Additionally, Yang’s grandmother’s prayers for her captured uncle appear to work, as he and his family later turn up at the refugee camp. (Chapters 2-3)
3. Embroidery is a sign of historical resistance and cultural preservation as well as a spiritual implement. Barred from writing or speaking their language in China, Hmong women hid the written language in intricate embroidery on such garments as those mothers pass on to their daughters to keep so that after death they can be reunited. (Chapters 2-3)
CHAPTERS 4-6
Reading Check
1. Hmong parents view babies as blessings. (Chapter 4)
2. Blood/Family ties (Chapter 5)
3. The United States, France, and Australia (Chapter 6)
Short Answer
1. Ban Vinai is the last place where the Yang family lived together, so Yang remembers her birthplace fondly. Relatives, however, remember being imprisoned by soldiers who might beat or sexually assault them, being unable to farm or forage, and having to rely on the camp’s inadequate food, medical care, and facilities. As a child, Yang was sheltered from such things, so she recalls feeling protected. (Chapter 4)
2. The refugees are trapped in the camps and cannot leave; consequently, there is no life for Bee’s daughters. He fears the Thai government may repatriate them to Laos where they will be hunted and killed. He is also facing increasing pressure to take a second wife to bear him sons, and he does not want to lose Kalia’s mother to the second wife. (Chapter 5)
3. Though she experiences complications from childhood polio, Dawb watches out for her younger sister, keeping her safe and trying to help her in her English studies, and Yang returns the support by posing as Dawb for the health exam so that they can leave Thailand. This system of mutual support helps them stay strong. (Chapter 6)
CHAPTERS 7-9
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. For the first time Yang sees her father as a struggling man with weak English skills and unsure of himself, but because he perseveres, she is very proud of him. (Chapter 7)
2. For Yang’s parents, education is the key to success in America; to them, Dawb’s ability to bring in a sum of money from school proves their belief. (Chapter 8)
3. Yang’s family is overjoyed not just to have a son and brother, but because babies born in America would not suffer the harshness of a life in hiding in the jungles of Laos or of containment in refugee camps in Thailand. In being American Hmong, however, they would not know the hills of their ancestors, so there are also feelings of loss for the new generation. (Chapter 9)
CHAPTERS 10-11
Reading Check
1. $100; to appease the spirit of a boy who died in the house (Chapter 10)
2. Laura and Mary Ingalls (Chapter 11)
3. End of the welfare program; danger of deportment if they cannot pass the citizenship test; family from California comes to stay in their small house (Chapter 11)
Short Answer
1. For Yang, her cultural beliefs and spirituality predate Western explanations for the world; consequently, despite being asked to assimilate in school, she retains her primary animistic beliefs. These allow her to see the ghost in her new home or to accept the role of the elephant bracelet and her grandmother’s intervention in healing her. (Chapters 10, 11)
2. Because of the repercussions of the war in Laos, Yang’s family survived without permanent housing in the jungles, lived in shared dwellings in the Thai refugee camps, and utilized Section 8 housing in the US. Buying a home means a kind of permanence and personal ownership of their fate and survival. (Chapter 11)
3. Though the doctors diagnose her with “baby lupus,” Yang believes that the source of her illness is her divided heart caught between her upbringing in Thailand and her new life in the United States. Though she takes the medicine, her grandmother also provides traditional healing; eventually, Yang learns that one half of her heart can help the other. (Chapter 11)
CHAPTERS 12-15
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. In recording the stories of elders, like Yang’s grandmother’s many tales of when she was young in Laos and her people’s experiences during and after the Secret War, the Hmong can preserve their oral traditions, beliefs, and memories on their own terms, without a Western filter. (Chapter 12)
2. Traditional foods bring memories and comfort to her grandmother when she returns weakened from the hospital. Similarly, the foods help those participating in the funeral rites to feel strength, comfort, and connection with a place long ago and far away. Foods also play a role in Hmong spiritual beliefs and can heal (as well as make sick). (Chapters 14, 15)
3. Based on the ceremony in which the elder tells Yang’s grandmother the directions home, the spirit returns after death to their place of birth, then to their mother or father’s place of birth, to the Hmong homeland from which they were driven, and into the place beyond that. This belief adds to the complexity of living in the US since the spirit’s return across oceans and to camps or places destroyed by war is difficult; for those who never saw the place of their parent’s birth due to war or who have never lived outside the United States, finding their way back might be impossible. (Chapter 15)
Related Titles
By Kao Kalia Yang
Featured Collections
Asian History
View Collection
Audio Study Guides
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Immigrants & Refugees
View Collection
Inspiring Biographies
View Collection
Memoir
View Collection
Mythology
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
Poverty & Homelessness
View Collection