All posts filed under: Horror

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Lao Films and Films about Laos

Published by Bryan Thao Worra

This week kicks off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, so you can expect lots of Celebrasian puns in various news articles. Not to be confused with Celebraisin, which would be one of those dancing claymation raisins from the 80s. This year marks the 40th anniversary since the first Asian Pacific American Heritage Month was recognized by Congress and the White House in 1978. For those of you who were curious, the month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. And of course, everyone knows the significance of May to Lao because of the incredible lessons we all get about our journey to America in history class, right? Recently, community members have been asking Little Laos on the Prairie for movie recommendations involving Laos, especially in the aftermath of that Angelina Jolie movie about our …

From Secret Wars to Spinosaurs

Published by Bryan Thao Worra

A few weeks ago, Little Laos on the Prairie co-editor, Bryan Thao Worra presented in Minneapolis at Rev. Matt’s Monster Science on the dinosaurs of Laos. Here are some highlights! Strangely enough, dinosaurs aren’t the first animals you think of when it comes to the land once known as the Realm of a Million Elephants. However, as we draw nearer to the release of the new Jurassic Park movie, it’s as good a time as any to think about the Terrible Lizards of Southeast Asia! For our Minnesota readers, a little bit of context, we have almost 13,000 Lao and 60,000 Hmong who came to this state after the Secret War in Laos, which took place concurrently to the Vietnam War. Many of you may not realize that Laos is about the same size as Minnesota or Utah and nearly 70% of our homeland is covered in dense forest and mountains, as well as vast limestone caves and swamplands that would easily rival any episode of Land of the Lost. However, dinosaur research in Laos was understandably slow considering that …