Monkey Dance 4/25 Journal - Leigh Bagood

The film Monkey Dance related to everyday forms of resistance as it portrayed the lives of Cambodian-American youth from refugee families challenging the struggles of their circumstances through everyday activities. As most of their parents work low-wage, blue-collar jobs, these children of immigrant families grow up in mostly poor communities where they are vulnerable to poor living conditions, gang and criminal activities, and other bad influences. In addition, they are pressured by restrictive stereotypes, as well as the conditions of their home country where their parents’ culture was stamped out by the Khmer Rouge. A lot of their resistance to these vulnerabilities are forms of cultural resistance, as they try to avoid falling into the traps of their situation to lead a more stable lifestyle. This includes joining sports teams, which concurrently challenges hegemonic notions of Asian-American masculinity; working and spending wages on cars; and putting their own twist on the traditional monkey dance to maintain a connection to Cambodian culture.

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