Chippewa Valley Book Festival – Pao Lor discusses Bamboo Son: A Hmong Refugee’s Search for Identity and the American Dream

Chippewa Valley Book Festival welcomes Pao Lor, author of the acclaimed memoirs Modern Jungles and Bamboo Son

Drawing on his lived experience, Dr. Pao Lor offers insight into how the Hmong people moved from an intricate, sophisticated, and vulnerable culture in the isolated highlands of Laos in the 1960s and 1970s to becoming part of the American and global landscape. While his memoirs—Modern Jungles and Bamboo Son—may appear at first to be deeply personal narratives, they ultimately trace his passage through centuries of human civilization and collective memory. His story becomes not only a Hmong story, but a shared human one. Audiences are invited to engage in dialogue with Dr. Lor around broader societal challenges, including immigration, forced migration, diversity, globalization, refugees, and displaced peoples.

Pao Lor is a professor of education in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. He previously served as associate dean for the School of Education at UW–La Crosse and as the budgetary chair for the Professional Program in Education at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, where he also held the endowed Patricia Wood Baer Professorship in Education. Prior to his work in higher education, Dr. Lor also served as a middle and high school associate principal, activities director, and classroom teacher. He lives with his family and their three cats in Kimberly, Wisconsin.