Hmong in NC see inspiration in Suni Lee's gymnastics gold
Posted August 17, 2021 4:06 p.m. EDT
Updated August 17, 2021 4:26 p.m. EDT
Chapel Hill, N.C. — When Suni Lee won gold in the women’s gymnastic all-around event this year, it was a win for women all around the world – women of Hmong descent who finally saw themselves represented on an international stage.
Women like Sendra Yang, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who watched her 5-year-old daughter somersault in front of the TV and say, “Mommy, she's just like me. She's Hmong just like me.”
Yang said, “This was very significant because growing up I never saw anything like that. It's a very powerful message because now our children can see their reflection in these individuals, and they could think anything is possible.”
Twenty years ago, as a student at UNC-CH, Yang founded the Hmong Student Association of Carolina to create, “an avenue to form stronger bonds, to be able to share [Hmong] culture with the university community and to bring awareness to who [they] really are.” This organization still upholds those goals and values today.
This year’s president, Augusta Vang (‘21) reiterated the importance of both the organization and Suni Lee’s shining performance.
Vang said, “Suni Lee did more than represent the Hmong community. She brought the Hmong community from all across the U.S. together and showed us how much love the Hmong community has to offer.”
The state of North Carolina has the fourth largest Hmong population in the United States. Vang explained, “The majority of Hmong people live in western North Carolina in Hickory, Newton and Conover.”
But she added that even in areas with a lesser concentration, “Hmong people always help each other. It’s how we’ve survived being part of a diaspora. It’s how we’ve survived moving to a new country where we couldn’t even speak the language. And, it’s how we’ll continue to thrive.”
Both Vang and Yang highlighted the value of Suni Lee succeeding specifically as a young woman in the Hmong culture, where, “it is common practice for families to keep their daughters as close to home as possible until they are married in order to protect them in the best way they know how. This prevents them from chasing dreams that might take them hundreds to thousands of miles away.”
Vang said, “Suni Lee’s accomplishments are an inspiration for change. It permits young people, both boys and girls, to chase after dreams that are an uncharted territory for the Hmong community.”
Yang added, “America has such a melting pot. That's why we are at this stage and why we've been so successful throughout history. If we continue to nurture this difference and teach our children that that's one of our strengths, it will propel us even further into the future.”
Julia Fairchild Roth is a junior at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media specializing in sports broadcast.
