Artist(s): Sheng Vang
Genre(s):visual arts
Medium/Media: textile, paj ntaub dab neej (flower cloth of people and customs)
Material(s):cotton/polyester fabric; cotton embroidery floss
Technique(s): embroidery, piecework
Dimensions: 32-3/8" x 30-1/2"
Date made: c. 1980-85
Where made: Ban Vanai, Thailand
In whose collection: Collection of Michigan State University Museum
Collection# (s):MSUM Acc# 6057.3
Photograph of work by: Instructional Media Services
Rights to photograph courtesy of: Michigan State University Museum

This cloth is typical of the textiles Laotian-Hmong women began to make when they lived as refugees in camps in Thailand and continue to make as settled immigrants in the United States, France, Canada, and Australia. The textile depicts the traditional Hmong story "The Woman and the Tiger," also called "The Tiger and the Hunter." This story is frequently told to children and often appears as a subject of story cloths. Story cloths are called "paj ntaub dab neej" in Hmong which translates in English as "flower cloth of people and customs." This cloth was acquired from Yer Vue, Sheng Vang's sister, who immigrated to Lansing, Michigan in the early 1980s. The cloth was part of "Stories in Cloth," a research and exhibition project, coordinated by the Michigan State University Museum and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.