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The ethnographic text centers on a Hmong refugee family who came from Laos to California and whose daughter, Lia Lee, develops a severe medical affliction that requires her family to regularly visit a U.S. hospital. It looks to examine the United States healthcare system as a thoroughly Westernized institution whose doctors are lacking in "cultural competence," leading to miscommunication and obstacles in the recovery of Lia. 

The text follows the narrative of the lives of the Hmong refugee family, specifically Lia Lee, the daughter. It is in chronological order and structured around a linear timeline, although there are flashbacks that allow the reader to gain a more in-depth knowledge of the Hmong people within Laos as well as the personal experiences of the Lee family as they flee from Laos to California. 

The cover is a simple picture of the daughter, Lia Lee, dressed in traditional Hmong attire. Looking at the picture, she is seemingly staring right into the camera without any overt emotion being expressed.

I think the discussion of power and how it operates in different ways at different scales was particularly interesting. While Kameko points out that this book was written in 1997, I think the descriptions of how power is expressed, fostered, and obstructed in this particular cultural context are pertinent to  examinations of power structures that are a continuing part of the refugee experience today. 

The sketch proposes adapting the book into a play or movie. Since one of the objectives of the book is to reach a wide audience, a movie would help spread Lia and her family's story and the socio-medical problems inherent within it. I think that's a good idea since movie screenings are a popular way to bring people's attention to a particular social problem. I think it might also be beneficial to turn it into a 10-minute animated short, like the kind designed for children.

I think it might also be beneficial to turn it into a 10-minute animated short, like the kind designed for children films. The way it centers on Lia's struggle with her medical disorder made it seem especially conceivable to have it made in a short. The fact that this book is about a young child also made me think that it would be a good idea to have the main argument of the book be put in a form available to young children, who might be also sick and visiting a hospital in the United States, and who also probably need ways in which they can be a part of their own healing process.

The text is laid out in a chronological order of events surrounding Lia’s condition. However, it does sometimes skip back in time to discuss the Hmong people in Laos or the Lee family’s personal experience during their time in and fleeing from Laos. The layout does not, in my opinion, aid in it’s argument however, as it is largely meant to be a narrative of this one story it does make it easy to follow and potentially available to a larger audience who are used to reading texts in this format.