PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
March, 2007
New Video Artworks featured on Learn about Hmong Arts Website
SAINT PAUL, MN – Hmong Cultural Center has added 9 new videos of Hmong folk arts performances to
LearnaboutHmong.com, a unique multicultural arts education website: the Learn about Hmong website uses online
video clips and other multimedia technologies to teach about the Hmong folk arts while also promoting a better
understanding of the Hmong people and their experience in Minnesota and the United States. The new video clips
added to the website in early 2007 include the following:
• Wangsue Lee playing a song on the traditional Hmong Two-String Violin instrument
• Tougeu Leepalao orally reciting and performing 6 songs from the Hmong funeral ceremony on the Qeej
instrument (The Death Song, the Song to Resurrect the Horse, the Song to Give the Deceased Supper, the Song
to Give the Deceased Animals, the Song to Give the Deceased an Army, the Song to Send the Body to the Ground).
• Tougeu Leepalao Orally Reciting the Hmong funeral ceremony Song to Give a Blessing to the Deceased's
Family Through the Sacrifice of a Pig
• Tougeu Leepalao Orally reciting the Hmong marriage ceremony song Bringing the Bride to the Groom’s
Family
Click this link to view all of the 9 new videos
Click this link to visit the LearnaboutHmong.com website
Mark E. Pfeifer, advisor to Hmong Cultural Center stated: “We have found over the years that Hmong folk artists
often have trouble finding recognition in the mainstream arts community of their work. This is partly related to a lack
of easily available information about the Hmong folk art forms and also the fact that Hmong ceremonial arts such as
funeral and marriage songs are conducted in the Hmong language. Another problem is the lack of access many
Hmong folk artists have to creating resources such as audition video tapes or music CDs to showcase their work.
Our goal with these new video clips is to increase the public exposure to and knowledge of the various Hmong folk
art forms while also providing a forum to hopefully increase the acknowledgement of the skills and artistic ability of
traditional Hmong folk artists in the arts community.”
Txongpao Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Cultural Center summarized the broader ongoing purpose of the
multicultural arts website: “Our goal is to make a better environment through sharing the major Hmong folk arts
forms, not just for the Hmong but for everyone, so we can understand each other and respect each other.”
A special event will be held at Hmong Cultural Center in Saint Paul Tuesday April 10, 2007 from 5:00-6:30 PM
highlighting the Hmong folk artists featured on the website.
LearnaboutHmong.org/com is a multimedia website intended to advance public knowledge about the Hmong folk
arts and promote multicultural education about the Hmong people. LearnaboutHmong.com has been made possible
from 2004-2007 by support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the COMPAS/McKnight Foundation
Community Art Program, the COMPAS/3M Award for Innovation in the Arts Program and the Asian Pacific
Endowment of the Saint Paul Foundation.