Price: US$14.37 (S$24.00*)Region: Cambodia
Format: Paperback, 263 pages
Published: 2005, United Kingdom, 1st Edition
ISBN: 1904132782
SB#: 037687
By FONG LEONG MING
The New Straits Times (Malaysia)
March 22
DAUGHTER OF THE KILLING FIELDS
ASREI’S STORY
By Theary C. Seng
(Fusion Press, 262 pages)
I MUST have been out of my mind. This is as difficult a book to read (and review) as it is to fathom the pain and the tears, as surely the author must have felt and shed penning this journal of sorts of the hell that is Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia.
It is a book that makes hearts horribly heavy, sending the imagination on a downward spiral to a scary dimension peopled by twisted minds.
Hell on earth it must be, for how else can one rationalise the wanton murders of innocent civilians, already dragged deep into the mire of poverty and ruthless regimes for years?
Imagine the sound of axes falling on torsos and heads, bodies kicked ruthlesslessly into freshly dug pits, children decapitated at will, pregnant women sliced open for sport.
The violence is numbing and the figures are no less staggering: As many as two million people died from starvation, over-work or execution during the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge. To what aim? To ruthlessly erase all vestiges of modern life in their drive for an agrarian utopia. One can only shake one’s head at the senseless barbarity.
This book is the product of one survivor’s desire to document what she and her family went through, though she is at pains to explain that her memoirs will be by no means perfect due to the passage of time and her tender age.
Memories after all, she says, will always be selective and tainted by new experiences and opinions.
Theary C. Seng, nicknamed Asrei, was born in Phnom Penh in early 1971. Which makes her only four when the nightmare started. Under the Khmer Rouge, she lived in Svay Rieng province bordering Vietnam where the killings were most intense and where she spent five months in prison.
When the regime came to power, among its first edicts was the forced evacuation of residents from Phnom Penh to the countryside. Some 20,000 Cambodians died in the mass exodus.
Theary was among the evacuees. A child holding fast to her mother’s hand, her innocence was quickly lost in the savagery swirling around her. Time may have clouded most of her memories now but she merges historical fact ably with what she went through to give quite a dramatic account.
With father, mother, maternal grandparents, three aunts and four brothers, they struggled out of the city. I can only imagine the chaos, the desperation and the fear gripping them and the general populace. Masses of bodies grappling with personal belongings and family members to head largely for the unknown.
Other than the killing fields (yes, that hugely popular 1984 movie) in Choeung Ek, where thousands of Khmer Rouge victims were butchered and buried three decades ago, she also elaborates at length on another infamous place — the Tuol Sleng prison.
A former high school in southern Phnom Penh, it served as the interrogation, torture and extermination centre of elements thought to oppose the new Democratic Kampuchea, the ironic name of the Leninist-Marxist regime.
How many died there is matter of dispute but surviving records indicate that 16,000 inmates were routinely tortured, raped and murdered. This figure does not include the large number of children who were killed there.
“Death surrounded us, hunger suffocated us and made us delirious,” wrote the author, documenting her family’s perilous journey to freedom.
Her parents did not survive. Her father was killed just after they left Phnom Penh while her mother died in 1978 in a prison compound somewhere in western Svay Rieng where history books say close to 30,000 were believed to be murdered.
Theary’s story ends 21 years later, finally confronting the man she holds accountable for the death of her parents and for the blood of millions others in the genocide. Who that is — and I can assure you he is notoriously famous — is for you, dear reader, to find out.
Be forewarned: This is not a book for those languid, lazy afternoons where one sits with tea in hand and hopes to enjoy a good book to lift one’s spirits. The gloom is real because the suffering is real. The other niggling thought: Do we really want to read such troubling stuff?
Grudgingly, a waste of a nice languid afternoon notwithstanding, I would say ‘yes’ — not so much for its literary benefit but because it records this terrible blot on the human race of which I, shamefully, belong. For if Man can inflict such madness on his fellow creatures, is it not our duty to read, remember, act and ensure such horror does not recur?
“We were invisible to human eyes as half of the world slept and the other half busied themselves handling modernity — all oblivious of the evil convulsing Cambodia,” writes Theary.
Man’s silence to the killing fields was, indeed, deafening.
This novel is a difficult labour, not of love, but of duty. It’s a record of personal suffering, of cruel soldiers, ubiquitous landmines, bleak refugee camps and unrelenting death. It’s a terrible realisation of the depths of perversion that Man is capable of in a society without morals, laws and proper leadership.
“Life is but a breath. Live passionately. Love deeply. Pray unceasingly,” concludes Theary. Amen to that.
(There is a happy ending, at least for Theary. She and her surviving family trekked across the border for Thailand in November 1979 and emigrated to the United States one year later. After graduating from Georgetown University in 1995, she returned to volunteer in Cambodia with various human rights and labour organisations.)
Note: Regime leader Pol Pot died in a remote jungle camp in 1998. Other former leaders including former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan have enjoyed amnesty since 1993 but are to finally appear before a joint UN-Cambodian tribunal later this year.
So far, only two former regime leaders are in jail awaiting trial — Ta Mok, a brutal military leader who ordered some of the regime’s worst purges, and Kaing Khek Ieu (alias “Duch”), a former mathematics teacher who ran the notorious Tuol Seng torture centre.
It is a book that makes hearts horribly heavy, sending the imagination on a downward spiral to a scary dimension peopled by twisted minds.
Hell on earth it must be, for how else can one rationalise the wanton murders of innocent civilians, already dragged deep into the mire of poverty and ruthless regimes for years?
Imagine the sound of axes falling on torsos and heads, bodies kicked ruthlesslessly into freshly dug pits, children decapitated at will, pregnant women sliced open for sport.
The violence is numbing and the figures are no less staggering: As many as two million people died from starvation, over-work or execution during the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge. To what aim? To ruthlessly erase all vestiges of modern life in their drive for an agrarian utopia. One can only shake one’s head at the senseless barbarity.
This book is the product of one survivor’s desire to document what she and her family went through, though she is at pains to explain that her memoirs will be by no means perfect due to the passage of time and her tender age.
Memories after all, she says, will always be selective and tainted by new experiences and opinions.
Theary C. Seng, nicknamed Asrei, was born in Phnom Penh in early 1971. Which makes her only four when the nightmare started. Under the Khmer Rouge, she lived in Svay Rieng province bordering Vietnam where the killings were most intense and where she spent five months in prison.
When the regime came to power, among its first edicts was the forced evacuation of residents from Phnom Penh to the countryside. Some 20,000 Cambodians died in the mass exodus.
Theary was among the evacuees. A child holding fast to her mother’s hand, her innocence was quickly lost in the savagery swirling around her. Time may have clouded most of her memories now but she merges historical fact ably with what she went through to give quite a dramatic account.
With father, mother, maternal grandparents, three aunts and four brothers, they struggled out of the city. I can only imagine the chaos, the desperation and the fear gripping them and the general populace. Masses of bodies grappling with personal belongings and family members to head largely for the unknown.
Other than the killing fields (yes, that hugely popular 1984 movie) in Choeung Ek, where thousands of Khmer Rouge victims were butchered and buried three decades ago, she also elaborates at length on another infamous place — the Tuol Sleng prison.
A former high school in southern Phnom Penh, it served as the interrogation, torture and extermination centre of elements thought to oppose the new Democratic Kampuchea, the ironic name of the Leninist-Marxist regime.
How many died there is matter of dispute but surviving records indicate that 16,000 inmates were routinely tortured, raped and murdered. This figure does not include the large number of children who were killed there.
“Death surrounded us, hunger suffocated us and made us delirious,” wrote the author, documenting her family’s perilous journey to freedom.
Her parents did not survive. Her father was killed just after they left Phnom Penh while her mother died in 1978 in a prison compound somewhere in western Svay Rieng where history books say close to 30,000 were believed to be murdered.
Theary’s story ends 21 years later, finally confronting the man she holds accountable for the death of her parents and for the blood of millions others in the genocide. Who that is — and I can assure you he is notoriously famous — is for you, dear reader, to find out.
Be forewarned: This is not a book for those languid, lazy afternoons where one sits with tea in hand and hopes to enjoy a good book to lift one’s spirits. The gloom is real because the suffering is real. The other niggling thought: Do we really want to read such troubling stuff?
Grudgingly, a waste of a nice languid afternoon notwithstanding, I would say ‘yes’ — not so much for its literary benefit but because it records this terrible blot on the human race of which I, shamefully, belong. For if Man can inflict such madness on his fellow creatures, is it not our duty to read, remember, act and ensure such horror does not recur?
“We were invisible to human eyes as half of the world slept and the other half busied themselves handling modernity — all oblivious of the evil convulsing Cambodia,” writes Theary.
Man’s silence to the killing fields was, indeed, deafening.
This novel is a difficult labour, not of love, but of duty. It’s a record of personal suffering, of cruel soldiers, ubiquitous landmines, bleak refugee camps and unrelenting death. It’s a terrible realisation of the depths of perversion that Man is capable of in a society without morals, laws and proper leadership.
“Life is but a breath. Live passionately. Love deeply. Pray unceasingly,” concludes Theary. Amen to that.
(There is a happy ending, at least for Theary. She and her surviving family trekked across the border for Thailand in November 1979 and emigrated to the United States one year later. After graduating from Georgetown University in 1995, she returned to volunteer in Cambodia with various human rights and labour organisations.)
Note: Regime leader Pol Pot died in a remote jungle camp in 1998. Other former leaders including former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan have enjoyed amnesty since 1993 but are to finally appear before a joint UN-Cambodian tribunal later this year.
So far, only two former regime leaders are in jail awaiting trial — Ta Mok, a brutal military leader who ordered some of the regime’s worst purges, and Kaing Khek Ieu (alias “Duch”), a former mathematics teacher who ran the notorious Tuol Seng torture centre.
27 comments:
terrible book. don't bother. there are better ones already out.
Ms. Seng deserves accolades for this fine book. In my opinion one of the best memoirs written on this topic. Her story is inspirational. She and her brothers, orphaned by the Khmer Rouge regime, have all gone on to become professionals (2 lawers, 1 doctor, 1 businessman, one banker) in this country.
Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields; Soul Survivors; The Tears Of My Soul; Getting Away With Genocide; Hear Me Know; Lucky Child; Why Did They Kill; Cambodia: A report From a Stricken Land; and First They Killed My Father are all better reads.
boo shit,,, this just another scam for the poor, and what about the daughter.. suffered too?..jeesh why can the write the real victims that cry everyday?..eeyore!
I saw her once on t.v I haven't read her book. During Khmer rouge 500,000,000 Milions Riel have no value. They are the Uncivilize regime viet minh evil doer. Who have helped viet cong to built the Ho chi Minh trails, supply them with weapons. Helped bringing Khmer rouge a pot to power? Sihanouk has done his big part to help Khmer rouge to power. And yuons done a big part to help the Khmer rouge.
that good you write about past, how about a street boys snifting clue..... any part from the gorvernment on this issue.... there are tousand of these kids everywhere, when you are on the bike car at any part of Cambodia you see this scen..... poor kid they all sleep on the street side without net or mat. what are their future doing to be????
Yesteryear, I was so emotionally excited and wanted to buy her book,
unfortunately, I could not find it in my state...
as much as i admire the author's plight and triumphs, i would have read her book if she would just stick to the story about her life, instead of try to convince the readers who she thinks is the real killers are.
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I used to read her short memoirs, and I'd love to have it. I'd collect Khmer books like this one for my library. A story of deep humanity, it is her own memoirs. She is brave real brave. It must be like a masterpiece and beautiful -yes terrifying and painful for her to write but she did and did well. I salute her work. I encourage her to write more and keep writings. She will be a literary supernova and you gentlemen shoud be ahsmed for what you have said about her.
A lady next door
No one book could ever adequately express the barbarism and cruelty of the KR years; nor could a thousand. Every story is different and the variety of memoires available are all valuable in their own right. To compare one with another is just plain stupid and only those who have no idea of life under the KR would bother to do so. I know Theary well; and I know her integrity and her sacrifice to work for a renewed Cambodia despite the odds. Her published story very well expresses an intelligent review of those horrific years.
As a Khmer Rouge survivor myself, I am sick and tired of these KR horror stories that provide no explanation for the regime except that it's "horrible" and "senseless". It's horrible, yes, but not senseless. Cambodia was a pawn in a chess match played by much more powerful foreign forces. Instead of trying to win sympathy from the Westerners, why not tackle the real issues, such as the American bombing campaign between 1969 and 1973 that killed nearly a million innocent civilians in Cambodia, that paved the way for Pol Pot's rise to power? Was this not a genocide in itself?
The truth behind this Killing Field
stories :
-Who created Khmer Rouge ?
-Who created the K-5 ? About one millions Khmer people have been killed, the by product of K-5.
-Who will benefitted from the KR trial ?
-The Viet Invasion and Vietnamization is covered up by this KR trial.
Nobody seemed to understand that
we, all Khmer people, are playing Viet game.
Hun Sen was really an accomplice of the Killing Field, and this Kr trial is benefitting for the invaders and their puppets.
As a young Khmer woman, born in Cambodia and is currently living in Cambodia myself, I strongly appreciate the great efforts of Ms. Theary in her writing though I haven't read the book yet and I don't even know how to get the book here. I believe that some comments are valuable but some are stupid coz there must be a good purpose in this piece of work and young Cambodians in particular must know their horrible history and convict those who were in the bad parts of such history. Thank you Ms. Theary and keep up your work and inspiration for our Khmer people.
PS: I really like your quote: “Life is but a breath. Live passionately. Love deeply. Pray unceasingly.”
Amen!
Every single book has its own core essence. Every writer has his or her own purpose in writing a book. Only those who do not read or do not know the benefits of reading or how to read will not appreciate it. Meanwhile, those who devalue the accounts of the suffering of the Khmer Rouge victims are those who devalue human life. After all, why do we need to have libraries? What is the purpose of collecting all books from every corner of the earth?
I am also a survivor. Born in 1966,lived through the same hell. I've lost 3 siblings, my father and countless other family members.
I blame the Soviet, the U.S, and China. It's a damn shame that the so called United Nations have done nothing to solve these crimes. I have yet to hear an apology from the U.S for causing the "domino affect" in Southeast Asia.
12:13pm IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! We should be proud of Ms. Seng, rather, than criticize her. And for those who think it's sensless to read these KR stories, then go read something else. There are millions of books out there....that will surely suit your preference! U all should be proud of your own people!
Any & all info should be welcomed and individually considered. I plan to read Ms. Seng Theary's book. As an American living in Thailand 1986-87 near border, I witnessed the flow of escapees trying to seek refuge. Erenow, 20 years past the memories remain. People the worldover must recognize the shortcomings of such regimes and avoid future atrocities. Technology must be amalgated with reconciliation at every level. No one person can afford to be excluded or forgotten...
Let's be honest. She can do whatever she wants. She shares her story and why don't others share their? Everyone of us have story to share, don't we?
Just remember that Cambodia and her people are not the only ones who went through sufferings or has about 2 million people died, other nations were too or worse just that they keep living and moving forward building their countries.
Cambodians many are full of blizzard of self pity looking for attentions.
The French before employed the Vietnamese said Cambodians are grotesque creatures had no rights to govern their own country.
May be Cambodians should look for something to fix their problems instead of this blizard self pity. If the books can help so go ahead write more, if not then wake up.
Keep writing any story you all can write.
Making money by writing books then do it.
Don't worry about the critics, because you cannot change what people think or say.
Wonder why Navy Phim does not open her blog to the critics? May be she is afraid she'd be chewed by the critics. I don't think she should be afraid of them.
First, my congratulations to Ms. Theary on her great achievement as a Cambodian writer who brings up past memories and set it in a such a way that inspires the next generation.
As much as I love to read the book, it would be quite interesting to see your own perspectives as a Cambodian American growing up and educated in the States on the causes leading to the killing field, especially the effects of cold war with few superpowers manipulating Cambodia around and America's parts in that.
I hope to see all these analysis and your judgements on the issue in your next publications if any.
Thanks Theary for being so brave to stand up for your rights and to be able to do on whatever you have to. I admired your hard works and efford that you have put into. You have done a great job. I also went through alot just like you have, eventhough i still have my parents with me but they are no longer the same parents like i used to have before Pol Pot. They have been truamatised by this regime and basically they are no longer the same people. I don't blame them 100% because they are also the victims of war. But your story basically tells all for who have been involved in this war crime against humanity and what it did to people individually, like the impact of physical, motional, psychological and social development. Theary, you are a very tallented woman and I praise you and hopping that God will be with now and forever. One last thing, don't let the negative comments to affect, just keep going because you are our voices for our rights and justices.
11;00am,
I read a few pages of Navy Phim's book and I forgot what that's all about. She won't open her blog to the critics because many people said her family members were Khmer Rouge.
Navy Phim feels nothing about Khmer Rouges. She was baby.
Her parents do.
His article is very interesting. I am very happy with your article, commentary is very clear and enjoyable to read. I will read all your articles.
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I am a middle-aged AMerican man living in the New York City area. I recently read this book and found it be outstanding.
The best way to get a copy of the book is to go online to Amazon.com or bn.com and to order a used copy of the book.
This was a very good review of Ms. seng's book. The book shares the story of her family and casts light from that perspective on how the actions of the government led to the abuse and destruction of those under its care. It is not a book to be read for amusement but to document a family's history and raise awareness of atrocities lest they be repeated.
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