Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Who would've guessed that the key to understanding The Spirit Catches You would be a steaming bowl of fish soup? Whether that sounds appetizing or like a particularly fragrant euphemism to you, here's the gist.
The whole idea stems from a story told to Anne Fadiman by a French professor. The professor had assigned his students to give presentations in front of class. On the day in question, a Hmong student is teaching the class how to prepare Hmong fish soup. It's a Hmong classic.
Basically, instead of just listing out a recipe, the student goes on a long, rambling narrative beginning with the actual ordeal of catching the fish and "continuing in this vein for forty-five minutes" (2.1).
To the teacher, this reflects the Hmong idea of quaj txub kaum txub, which can be translated as "to speak of all kinds of things." The Hmong believe that "the world is full of things that may not seem to be connected but actually are" and "that no event occurs in isolation" (2.2). That's pretty deep, yo.
We can see this belief reflected of all aspects of Hmong society, from religion to storytelling to economics to the issues surrounding Lia's illness.
This concept even affects the book's structure. Fadiman could have easily written a straightforward account with a chronological narrative focused just on Lia's family. But she instead looks to the collective history of the Hmong to contextualize one girl's life. Now that's thinking like a Hmong.