The Hmong are a tribal people originating from the mountainous region at the intersection of of China, Laos, and Thailand. They were American allies during the Vietnam War and after the fall of Saigon the United States began taking thousands of them in as political refugees. According to reports, 60,000 Hmong live in the Twin Cities. 5,000 more are on their way to St. Paul this summer, direct from the Wat Tham Krabok shantytown in Thailand.
Some observers have expressed concerns over the ability of the city to successfully assimilate such a large group of folks coming from such a primitive area of the world, especially in this era of high competition for social welfare resources. A legitimate concern for what the Star Tribune described as "a wave of immigration unparalleled in recent history."
Let your concerns be eased ever so slightly with this announcement from the Pioneer Press:
... a bilingual health educator, [May Thao-Schuck] has produced a Hmong exercise video, which she says is the first of its kind in the country.
Thao-Schuck, who graduated from the University of Minnesota in kinesiology, created "Get Fit With May" for beginning exercisers. She shot the video in her home, an environment she felt was more inviting than a gym. She uses familiar, inexpensive items for the workout - cans of soup, a phone book, a gallon of water and a chair, not expensive gym equipment. The video costs $20.
According to the article, Hmong obesity is an increasing problem due to cultural factors (back in the old world, chubbiness is a valued trait, a sign of wealth) and the American lifestyle (lots of food, survival not dependent on backbreaking manual labor). We wish May all the best in her efforts, especially if this video helps our newest citizens acclimatize to mass prosperity. And nothing says mass prosperity more than spending $20 on an exercise video that doesn't even feature Suzanne Sommers.
But that's not to say slimming down this audience still doesn't have some unique challenges:
Throughout the 45-minute video, Thao-Schuck speaks mostly in Hmong. She uses English only if there are no equivalent terms in Hmong. Take the word "squat," a type of lower-body exercise. "I'll say, 'Pretend you're going to poop,' " she says. "You have to be very blunt."
That sounds like trouble waiting to happen. Call me a xenophobe if you will, but just to be safe I'm making a point of not standing next to any Hmong in my advanced step and squat aerobics class at Bally's. And I pray there's nothing in that video about the clean and jerk.
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