Childrens Book Review of Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella by Jewell Reinhart Coburn and Tzexa Cherta Lee

The name Jouanah can be translated into English as “young orphan.” Hmong counts among the languages of Laos. Its mountain tribe speakers employ the language to preserve a realistic tale -- with some motherly magic -- about a farmer’s daughter and a village elder’s son. In their homeland, the Hmong people typically engage in:

• Growing crops;
• Making jewelry and textiles;
• Raising livestock high up in the mountains.

They therefore furnish Jouanah with an agricultural, rural background as the only child of farmers. Jouanah gets a stepmother and stepsister after her father:

• Loses a steaming hot rice soup-eating contest;
• Makes her mother into a field-plowing, grain-carrying cow;
• Marries Ding’s widowed mother.

She thenceforth has to clean, cook, and cut wood.

Disguised as an arboreal spirit, Ding’s mother advises Jouanah’s father to:

• Burn three joss stocks near the forest edge’s giant dead tree;
• Destroy silken threads spun by the cow for Jouanah’s dowry.

Jouanah’s bovine mother and then her guilt-ridden father die. Ding’s mother disrespects Jouanah’s grief. She has Jouanah spend the first two days of New Year celebrations separating rice kernels from miniscule pebbles.  Her mother’s sewing basket contents make Jouanah the latest but prettiest third-day celebrant, with:

• Apron, blouse, skirt;
• Coin-decorated purses;
• Dainty shoes;
• Headdress;
• Silver necklace.

Handsome, learned, qeng-playing, tall, wealthy Shee-Nang matches a puddle-trapped slipper with Jouanah’s lone shoe. He weds Jouanah in the presence of:

• Her mother’s cowhide and sewing basket;
• His parents.

Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella can be accessed through Shen’s Books in:

• English;
• Hmong, by Tzexa Cherta Lee and Jean Moua;
• Spanish, by Clarita Kohen;
• Teacher’s guide format.

Printed in Hong Kong and published in 1996 for five-year-olds and kindergarteners upward, it honors:

• Dr. Jewell Reinhart Coburn’s and Tzexa Cherta Lee’s adaptation;
• Ann Sibley O’Brien’s art;
• Greta D. Sibley’s design;
• Norman Sibley’s decorative patterns;
• Mai Kou Xiong’s cultural consultations.

Its Blue clan context interpolates Cinderella-like stories of:

• Ngao Nao and Shee Na, by Dia Cha and Norma J. Livo;
• Nkauj Nog (“Young female orphan”);
• Ntsuag Nos (“Young orphan [female or male]”);
• The Poor Girl, by Blong Xiong.

It is a family-friendly, “must-have” book for:

• Cultural enrichment;
• Educational entertainment.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Intricate roof of bamboo crafted by Hmong villagers: Hmong people are skilled jewelers and weavers.
Chiang Mai, northwestern Thailand: Paolo (Macro-roni), CC BY-ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/fallkniven/11831219284/

Cow (Bos) in northern Thailand: In the Hmong Cinderella story, Jouanah's father turns her mother into a cow, with disastrous results.
Pai River at Pai, Mae Hong Son province, upper northwestern Thailand: Davidlohr Bueso (Dave_B_), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/daverugby83/4493414410/

In the Hmong Cinderella story, Jouanah's prince, Shee-Nang, is a queng player.
Hmong musicians perform on qeng, traditional Hmong musical instrument with multiple bamboo pipes.
Upper Langde village, Leishan County, eastern Guizhou Province, southwestern China: Michael Mooney from Chicago, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miao_musicians.jpg

Hmong girls at New Year's celebration: Jouanah stands out as the fairest of all during New Year's festivities in the Hmong Cinderella story.
Phonsavan, Xieng Khouang Province, northeastern Laos: John Pavelka, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/28705377@N04/5305322669/

"Jouanah, A Hmong Cinderella Story" (12:02)
Uploaded March 22, 2021, by Ana Xiong to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR0O-6s1zFc

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Cha, Dia; and Livo, Norma J. 1991. Folk Stories of the Hmong: Peoples of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited World Folklore Series.  

Chan, Sucheng. 1994. Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America. Chicago, IL: Temple University Press.

Coburn, Jewell Reinhart; with Lee, Tzexa Cherta. 1996. Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella. Arcadia, CA: Shen's Books.

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• Available at: http://www.hmongnet.org/

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• Available at: http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-clans-and-kinship.html

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• Available at: http://vangclan.weebly.com/hmong-history.html

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• Available at: http://allpointseast.com/blog/tour-info/thailand/blue-hmong/