Cover image for The bride price : a Hmong wedding story
The bride price : a Hmong wedding story
Title:
The bride price : a Hmong wedding story
ISBN:
9781681340364
Physical Description:
230 pages ; 24 cm
Contents:
Prologue -- Poob plig (soul-loss) -- The trouble with me -- Niam's bride price -- Unanswered questions -- Who owns what -- Doing the right thing -- Marriage talks -- Damaged goods -- To save a life -- It takes a family -- Not good for the family -- Captured -- Being Hmong and American -- The wedding, take one -- The wedding, take two -- You may now begin your life -- A knot between two clans -- What is it worth? -- When Niam and I last talked -- Hu-plig (soul-calling) -- Finding grandfather -- Finding father -- The truth -- Finding family -- Made whole -- The garden full of weeds -- The year without Niam -- Risk -- Saying nothing at all -- A new beginning.
Summary:
"A principled decision brings unexpected consequences for a Hmong American woman struggling to reconcile the two cultures--and to be a good daughter while breaking the rules. When Mai Neng Moua decides to get married, her mother, a widow, wants the groom to follow Hmong custom and pay a bride price, which both honors the work the bride's family has done in raising a daughter and offers a promise of love and security from the groom's family. Mai Neng, who knows the pain this tradition has caused, says no. Her husband-to-be supports her choice. What happens next is devastating, and it raises questions about the very meaning of being Hmong in America."--Provided by publisher.
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