The preservation of Hmong intangible cultural heritage in American museums

A powerful but currently underutilized tool in the American museum community is integrating intangible cultural heritage (ICH) into museum activities, where ICH is defined as a community’s oral traditions, performing arts, and other expressions that help maintain cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. To understand how American museums can work to serve communities, museum exhibits that involve the ICH of the Hmong, a group that mostly came to the United States beginning in the 1970s from Southeast Asia in the wake of the Vietnam War, will be examined in this thesis. A review of relevant literature and three case studies of museums and their Hmong-related exhibitions is conducted, followed by a discussion on how such museums have worked to preserve Hmong ICH. It is concluded that American museums must go “outside of their walls” and engage directly with the community to preserve Hmong ICH.