Tebchaws: A Theory of Magnetic Media and Hmong Diasporic Homeland.
Author(s):
Ogden, Mitch
Format:
Journal article
Citation:
Hmong Studies Journal, Volume 16, (12/22/2015). pp. 25-Jan.
Language:
English
Abstract:
This article theorizes forms of magnetic media "audio and video recordings" as a metaphor for diasporic memory. It then posits three versions of Hmong diasporic homeland imagination from the most immediate (a return to Laos), to ancestral China, and finally to an imagined utopic homeland theorized as tebchaws (DAY-char)-a term connoting place, land, and nation at once. Tebchaws becomes a critical piece of terminology that contributes to a theorization of Hmong diasporic homeland imagination. Examples of archival audio and video recordings are interpreted as manifestations of tebchaws, which draws heavily upon ecological sonic and visual images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]