Chapters 1-4:
- The book begins with background on Lia Lee and the Lee Family. Lia was born in 1982 in Merced, California. She was the only one in her family to be born outside of Laos. The first paragraph focuses on why Lia’s birth is so different than her siblings. While Lia has a United States birth certificate that includes a time and date of her birth, Lia’s siblings do not even have exact birthdates. With her other children, Lia’s Mother, Foua, gave birth without any assistance and did so almost silently. She then buried the placenta underneath the house. (The Hmong believe that the soul returns to the placenta once the person has died). With Lia, Foua had the placenta taken and incinerated so the risk of spread of Hepatitis B was as low as possible. In detailed fashion, the differences between the birthing process for the Hmong in Laos and the birthing process in America are spelled out. It is obvious that the Lee family is in a vastly new world, one where motivation for actions (like incinerating the placenta) are unfamiliar and illogical.
- The reader learns of the Hmong’s unfortunate history of oppression in China and how this history has shaped many of the beliefs and traditions of the Hmong.
- Later in this section, Fadiman describes Lia’s first seizure. While any physician would most likely describe the continued seizures as epilepsy, the Lee family saw it as something else. Quag dab peg, which means “the spirit catches you and you fall down”, describes the Lia’s affliction in Hmong culture. Essentially, the Hmong believe that Lia’s soul was taken from her body by a dab (a bad spirit). While this appears bad, the Hmong also believe that Lia is now the host for a neeb (a healing spirit), which is a great honor in Hmong society. Although painful and crippling, Lia’s condition would be looked upon as a blessing.
- Towards the end of this section, the author formally introduces Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC), which serves the 12,000 Hmong residents in the area. Without an interpreter or any ability to speak English, the Lees were unable to explain what happened to Lia during their first three visits to the emergency room. Eventually, an English-speaking cousin joined the family on their fourth visit to explain the seizures. Although drugs were prescribed for Lia to control her seizures, Lia’s parents never administered them. The main reason for this was the distrust that Hmong people often show towards Western medicine. The distrust stems from rude doctors who show little or no respect towards traditional Hmong ways of healing.