A World Without Boundaries

"The war not only escalated like a raging fire and outpaced our run, but also tripled the number of refugees running for their lives and enduring unimaginable suffering." Ge Xiong describes his experience in this extremely moving story.

More than a century after the Hmong fled atrocities in southern China, they became trapped in a long civil war in Laos and were involved in more than a decade-long alliance with the United States, fighting against the Communists' expansion in Indochina during the Vietnam War. The Hmong who sided with the United States in the war had faced two major impacts. First, the war had caused unimaginable suffering, a great loss of lives, and a dramatic effect on their natural way of life. Second, after the war, those who managed to escape to Thailand had felt their future was in limbo, while those left behind faced starvation, mass massacres, and persecution.

In A World Without Boundaries, Xiong weaves descriptive details of haunting and vivid accounts of the suffering of a people in a social and political culture that only perpetuated nepotism, corruption, and wars, but also fostered an inequality among ethnicities, genders, and social economic castes. It is a story of acts of bloodshed, and heartbreak, of love and sacrifice, and above all, of a people who continue to endure many difficulties, yet strive to achieve a better life in an increasingly complex world after they have lost everything.

 

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A World Without Boundaries describes the lives of the Hmong in northern Laos during the post-colonial era, especially during the Vietnam War and the period of its aftermath. A century after the Hmong had fled atrocities in Southern China, they had faced a drastic change in their lives as they became involved with the United States in the fight against Communists’ expansion during the Cold War in northern Laos. The phenomenon did not only challenge their natural way of life and belief that the world was without boundaries where they could find places to live in peace, but also exposed them to more human interconnections, which made them feel increasingly vulnerable in man-made boundaries and devastating conflicts.

This story of a secret world, written by an insider, exposes the suffering of a people in a social/political culture that not only perpetuated wars, but also fostered an inequality among ethnicities, genders, and social economic castes.