Kao Kalia Yang speaks on becoming the impossible, shares educational journey

Hmong author, teacher and activist Kao Kalia Yang spoke at a BYU forum assembly on Sept. 24 in the Marriott Center titled, “When You Are the Impossible Happening.” This is the first in a series of forums centered around the theme “In Pursuit of Democratic Character” planned for 2019-20.

During her speech, she not only told the story of her people but also her own journey immigrating to America and receiving an education.

Yang was born at the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand — a camp where people were only fed three days a week and where suicide was the highest cause of death. Yang was taught that she looked down at her parents from the clouds as an unborn child and decided that, amidst the persecution the Hmong faced, she would begin her journey on Earth.

Part of that journey was to obtain an education. Yang recalled being tested with other refugee children around the time she was in first grade. One woman asked her to recite her ABC’s.  Not understanding what the woman asked, she replied, “A, B and C.”

The woman asked again: “Say your ABC’s.”

Once again, she replied, “A, B, and C.”

When she started school in America, she struggled. Yang talked about how difficult it was for her to learn English. Instead, she cultivated a talent for writing.

Throughout school, her grandmother, who had no education and could neither read nor write, offered her words of encouragement.

“She said that education was the garden that I cultivated in America and that one day we would make the harvest together,” Yang said. Unfortunately, Yang’s grandmother passed away and was unable to see Yang finish high school.

“Life continued as if she had never lived. And I remember taking out that first piece of paper, telling my heart that I was going to write everything that I would never forget about my grandmother on that piece of paper,” Yang said.

37 pages later, her father walked in on her and asked what she was doing.

“I’m writing my final love letter to my grandma,” she said.

Moments from her childhood and the letters she wrote to her grandmother were the memories and stories that Yang later continued to preserve through writing — a talent she cultivated when it was too difficult for her to speak. She has since written books dedicated to the words of her grandmother and books that contain words from her father, who was a songwriter and poet.

“…the dream never dies.  It always only grows bigger,” Yang recalled her father saying.

From the pages of memories, Yang was able to cultivate her love of writing to not only share her life but to also give voice to other Hmong people through the many books she has published, including “The Song Poet” — a memoir of her father and the Hmong people — and “The Latehomecomer” — a memoir dedicated to her late grandmother.

“Hmong is a people, not a country. They say thank you for telling our stories,” Yang said. “That’s what we’re here to do — to share our stories not only of a people, but of a young girl who rises up … who understands that from the moment of her birth, the impossible happens every single day.”