Journal of Transnational American Studies

This essay draws on the framework of countercommemoration to reflect on the fif­tieth anniversary of Hmong presence in the US as a legacy of unresolved contra­­dictions that highlights Hmong acts of archiving, living, and refusing. It approaches the analysis through an examination of community archiving at an organization called Hmong Mu­se­um, refugee testimonies, queer mentorship, and performance, and grassroots orga­nizing to center how these acts of refusal can offer anti-imperialist frameworks and sub­jectivities in today’s precarious present. These acts of living are important sites of analysis because they reflect the ways Hmong refugee knowledge and ideas are rooted in actions that challenge imperialist paradigms of interpreting history and navi­gating contemporary politics while maintaining an embodied politics of relationality with others. Drawing from critical refugee studies and queer and feminist critiques, this essay investigates how queer and refugee livability asserts the bravery of survival and persistence in fashioning joyous lifeworlds outside the contemporary moment of fear induced through anti-queer and -trans violence and refugee deportations during Presi­dent Donald Trump’s first and second administrations. Building on the potential of critical refugee studies to push back against state violence, we suggest that by reframing Hmong’s historical entanglements with the US state through acts of resis­tance against rather than soldiering for empire, a unique Hmong refugee anti-imperial politics and subjectivity can emerge.