Far East movement

How's this for an example of the Internet shrinking the globe -- and maybe even boosting the survival of one people's culture?

According to local Hmong rap star Tou SaiKo Lee , there are Hmong break dancers in Minnesota whose YouTube videos are making them famous in other Hmong population hubs in Australia and France. Lee, 32, is even working on a Hmong-language album so he can tour France and other countries and still have his rhymes understood.

"The war tore apart our culture and separated our people all over the world, but the Internet is bringing us all back together," Lee said.

Hip-hop is connecting Hmong youth worldwide, Lee believes. That's the main reason he is putting on Boom Bap Village, a Hmong celebration of hip-hop Friday at Hamline University in St. Paul, timed to the 30th Hmong International Sports Tournament and Freedom Festival at nearby Como Park.

Although Lee and another rapper from California will perform, Boom Bap Village actually centers on break dancing. A dance competition will take place Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. at Hamline's Student Center Ballroom. A movie about Hmong breakers in California and Oklahoma, "Among Boys," will be screened at Hamline's student center Friday at 2 p.m. and again Saturday at 6 p.m. in Concordia University's Buetow Auditorium.

Breaking is booming among Southeast Asian youths. "It's an art form they can pick up that doesn't require a lot of money, and that crosses language barriers," Lee theorized.

Lee himself embodies a bridge between the old-world and modern Hmong culture. He spent the first two months of his life in a Thai refugee camp. His family wound up on St. Paul's East Side, where Tou devoured hip-hop culture at Johnson High School. He's known from the group Delicious Venom and the ICE open-mike nights.

To Lee, "We Rock Long Distance" is proof of hip-hop's connective powers.

"Just being a part of the Twin Cities hip-hop community -- where Maria Isa, M.anifest, Brother Ali, Toki Wright, you name it, are all part of one scene -- that's an inspiration for Boom Bap Village, and in everything I do."