Kou Yang (/kuː/KOO; White Hmong:[kúʝâ]; 1954–February6, 2021) was a Hmong American scholar, author, and professor at California State University, Stanislaus. He was a leading researcher in the field of Hmong diaspora studies and was one of the first Hmong to gain a doctoral degree and become a professor.
Early life and education
Kou Yang was born in Sayaboury Province, Laos, circa 1954. He was said to be 49 years old in 2006. His eighteen member family lived in a rural highland Hmong village.
His formal education began when he was sent to the lowland school Sayaboury Elementary School (Group Scholaire de Sayaboury) in the province's capital city Sayaboury, where he completed up to sixth grade. He continued at College de Sayaboury, the province's junior high school, and graduated summer of 1974. Briefly he attended Lycee de Luang Phrabang and Ecole Normal de Luang Phrabang to prepare for post-secondary education, but was unable to complete his studies when the Laotian Civil War ended in 1975.
Yang fled to a refugee camp in Thailand. In 1976 at 21 years old, he and three brothers resettled in New Orleans, Louisiana. He became a permanent US resident five years later in 1981 and petitioned for relatives to get travel visas to the US.
Although he had been studying for post-secondary education in Laos, Yang's early employment in the US was as a dishwasher. While Yang could read, write, and speak the Hmong, Lao, Thai, and French languages, he struggled to reach competency in English, which was a barrier to employment and education.
Dissatisfied with cuts to course offerings and delayed faculty recruitment, which was viewed as diluting the ethnic studies program, Yang was one of two ethnic studies faculty that announced in May 2013 they would resign at the end of the year. He retired from teaching December 2014. During his tenure at CSU, Yang was the Chair of the Ethnic & Gender Studies Department and became Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies. He was also part of the editorial review board of Journal of Southeast Asian American Education & Advancement, published by National Association for the Education & Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA).
In his work, Kou Yang proposed a framework that divides Hmong American history into three eras: the Refugee Years (1975–1991), the Turning Point (1992–1999), and the "Hmong American period" (2000–present). The Refugee Years are characterized by Hmong newly arriving in the United States in 1975 and interacting with social services. The election of Choua Lee to the Saint Paul, Minnesota Public Schools Board of Education in November 1991, who took office 1992, marked the beginning of the Turning Point, where Hmong became politically active and saw a wave of "secondary migration" from their original resettlement locations to one of several hubs of concentrated Hmong population in the US, particularly Saint Paul. Yang proposed the Hmong American Period from 2000 onward, and described it as sustained political success by Hmong candidates.
Yang argued that much of the early understanding of Hmong American history was inaccurate because of works that promoted unproven theories about Hmong history. Scholars whose work he criticised for inaccuracy include Jane Hamilton-Merritt and Anne Fadiman, who wrote the bestselling book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.
Another focus of Yang's work was Hmong ancestry in China. He gained attention from Chinese academics that study Miao peoples in China for his written scholarship and research travel connecting Hmong Americans to Hmong in China, particularly his commentary on how the Belt and Road Initiative would affect the rural Hmong who occupy the borders between China, Laos, and Vietnam.
Yang died at Kaiser Hospital in Modesto, California, on February 6, 2021. His family and news outlets reported his death as complications from COVID-19. He was buried at Turlock Memorial Park in Turlock, California, during a private service owing to COVID-19 restrictions.
Yang, Kou; Hartwick, Douglas A. (2013). Laos and Its Expatriates in the United States: A Memoir of an American Professor. Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica. ISBN978-1-4626-9305-4. OCLC855903711.
Yang, Kou; Church World Service; Asian Pacific Family Outreach, Inc (1980). Khaws kwutxhiaj hmoob (in Hmong). Long Beach, CA: Hmong Acculturation Classes. OCLC952500877.[verification needed]
Pfeifer, Mark E.; Sullivan, John; Yang, Kou; Yang, Wayne (2013). "Hmong Population and Demographic Trends in the 2010 Census & 2010 American Community Survey". The State of the Hmong American Community 2013(PDF). Washington, D.C.: Hmong National Development, Hmong American Partnership. p.8. OCLC854682252.
—— (December 1990). "The Mien Community in Fresno". Calisphere. Marshall (Brigitte) Files on Southeast Asian Refugees. Fresno, California: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive. Retrieved June 18, 2025.
—— (November 23, 2016). "XIONG YANG, PH.D. (PRAYATH NANTASIN): The First Hmong Scientist To Do Research In Antarctica". Hmong Times. Saint Paul, Minnesota. pp.1, 8–9. ProQuest1848788222.
Yang, Kou; Yang, Vungping; Vue, Yinkong (2019). Nuj Yob: the Hmong jungle book. Saint Paul, MN: HER Publisher. ISBN978-1-64410-006-6. OCLC1112365623.
Audio/video
Yang, Lang; Yang, Kou (1991), Sab nyob tom tsev (in Hmong), Nebo, NC: Lang Yang, OCLC43786570
Yang, Kou; Liaj Dawb Home Entertainment; Hmong International Filmmaker Organization (2010), Vim kuv yog hmoob = Because I am Hmong (in Hmong), St. Paul, MN: Liaj Dawb Home Entertainment, OCLC689033309
12California State University, Stanislaus Catalog 2001-2003(PDF). Turlock, California: California State University, Stanislaus. p.364. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 7, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025. YANG, Kou (1998), Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies; B.A. 1987, California State University, Fresno; M.S.W. 1991, California State University, Fresno; Ed.D. 1995, California State University, Fresno, University of Davis
12"Hmong Doctorates". LEARN HMONG LESSONS & TRADITIONS. March 16, 2025. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
12"Kou Yang Obituary". Turlock Memorial Park & Funeral Home. February 19, 2021. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
↑"Emeritus Faculty". California State University, Stanislaus. May 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2025. YANG, Kou (1998) Professor of Asian American Studies, Emeritus; B.A. 1987, M.S.W. 1991, Ed.D. 1995, California State University, Fresno, University of California, Davis
↑欣, 逄 (October 10, 2024). ""一带一路"背景下海外苗族纪实文学译介的学术价值与意义"[The academic value and significance of translating overseas Miao documentary literature under the background of the "Belt and Road" initiative]. 新楚文化[New Chu Culture] (in Chinese) (25). 同方知网（北京）技术有限公司. doi:10.20133/j.cnki.CN42-1932/G1.2024.25.013. Retrieved March 21, 2025.