This is something I've been thinking about for awhile, and I'm sure I'm not the first to frame it this way. But I never hear it explicitly laid out the same way, although maybe I just don't read a big enough variety of material...

Wikipedia defines diaspora in its opening sentence as

The term: diaspora (in Ancient Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering or sowing of seeds") is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their culture.

So usually we think of this dispersal in terms of say... Chinese Diaspora which I am a part of, and Hmong B-Boys can be considered a part of the Hmong Diaspora right?

When we think of Diaspora, we can also think of the changes in these peoples culturally too, like Chinese Americans and now the newer generations of Hmong Americans have changed in many ways culturally due to their placement/displacement in their homes outside the traditional homelands.
So what I'm getting to, for myself, being that I don't speak the Toy San (Taishan in Mandarin...) dialect my parents and grandparents speak, supposedly it doesn't make me any less Chinese.. well, it makes me Chinese American. But as a member of the Chinese Diaspora, I may be different, English speaking, different cultured, Hip Hop loving, but I'm still Chinese right? Cause diaspora not only changes the dynamics of where they land up, but they are changed by where they land up too.

So does this idea of Diaspora apply to culture and cultural forces that spread. Can we describe something like Hip Hop, with a definite homeland (Bronx, New York) and a spreading population around the world, in terms of diaspora? So thinking of Hip Hop in terms of Diaspora, Hip Hop launches and changes the dynamics of the people who embrace it outside the homeland, but also Hip Hop in its diasporic form takes on different shapes, forms and meaning in its new home, just as people do. Does that make Hip Hop any less Hip Hop? In this sense, no, right? It still is! I'm still Chinese aren't I?

Maybe Hip Hop in its new homes may down the line wish to reconnect with the Bronx (which often is the case) just like many of my peers feel the desire to take language courses, study abroad, or just vacation in Asia.

Now from some definitions there are conditions and events which lead to people leaving their "homelands" and creating/adding to diaspora, but are there events or conditions that provide for the spread of Hip Hop, or make it more ... um... for there its gravitation to certain peoples around the world?

I guess it's just another way I'm trying to frame B-Boying in the Hmong community...

Labels: concepts, diaspora, Hip Hop, metaphors