Jerry Zbiral, a free-lance photographer who has recorded the home life and rituals of Chicago`s Hmong community, says, ”Before the Hmong left Laos, the only pandau was cross-stitch and applique.

And then, a lot of the work that we do is in tradition with American embroidery, too, American cross-stitch. But the funny thing is a lot of Hmong embroidery is actually embroidery, but there's a ...

Yang's parents are Hmong refugees. Thao was born in Laos and lived there until 1975 when she fled the country as a young girl to a refugee camp in Thailand.