Loung Ung, at KSC on Tuesday Sept. 7. (Keene Equinox 2010)Author tells the story of her escape from her war-stricken homeland
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
By Meredith Shepherd
Equinox Staff
“I believe we have to teach the art of peace because it is in all of us,” Loung Ung, author and lecturer said.
Ung said she is an activist, author, and lecturer, who for the last fifteen years has been supporting equality, human rights, and overall justice worldwide and in her native land, Cambodia.
Ung presented her memoir, “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” to Keene State College on Tuesday Sept. 7 in the L.P. Young Student Center’s, Mabel Brown room.
Her memoir is about how the two million Cambodians out of a population of seven million died because of the Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979. She writes about her survival and courage through the war and efforts to escape.
Ung said out of the nine members in her family, only five survived the war, including herself. “My brother had to choose one sibling to take on the boat with him to America in order to escape the war. I was the lucky child,” Ung stated.
“I didn’t want to leave my siblings or Cambodia, but my brother convinced me we would all meet again. It would be fifteen years before we reunited.”
Furthermore, Ung said she started a new life with her brother and the Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Holy Family Church when they arrived in Essex, Vermont after a long journey at sea. “We arrived in Essex in June 1980. It was so nice and new, but freezing,” Ung said. “I was not use to the weather being that cold. I am use to 110 degrees of humidity.”
Ung attended school in America and said she started acting like an American, but with the soldiers and the past always in her dreams and in the back of her mind.
“I was suffering post-traumatic stress and needed to get the words out,” she said.
“When I couldn’t speak the words, I could write. I have kept a journal since high school.” Ung said someone presented her with Viktor E. Frankl’s 1946 book, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
She said it changed her life. In 1995 Ung said she reunited with her family in Cambodia and she was amazed at all the tragedies around her. “It was so nice to be there with them, but so sad all at once,” she said. Ung is a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
She has also written, “Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind.” Within it she writes about her changes to life without her family and about living in America. KSC student, Megan Cowic said, “Her presentation was amazing, it made me want to give her a hug.” Loung Ung’s lecture was sponsored by the KSC’s Woman’s Culture Club and the Northeast Cultural Co-op in Amherst, New Hampshire.
“Peace is not an automatic, it all matters. We provide a safe place here, hopefully it will ripple to another place,” concluded Ung.
Meridith Shepherd can be contacted at mshepherd@keeneequinox.com
Ung said she is an activist, author, and lecturer, who for the last fifteen years has been supporting equality, human rights, and overall justice worldwide and in her native land, Cambodia.
Ung presented her memoir, “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” to Keene State College on Tuesday Sept. 7 in the L.P. Young Student Center’s, Mabel Brown room.
Her memoir is about how the two million Cambodians out of a population of seven million died because of the Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979. She writes about her survival and courage through the war and efforts to escape.
Ung said out of the nine members in her family, only five survived the war, including herself. “My brother had to choose one sibling to take on the boat with him to America in order to escape the war. I was the lucky child,” Ung stated.
“I didn’t want to leave my siblings or Cambodia, but my brother convinced me we would all meet again. It would be fifteen years before we reunited.”
Furthermore, Ung said she started a new life with her brother and the Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Holy Family Church when they arrived in Essex, Vermont after a long journey at sea. “We arrived in Essex in June 1980. It was so nice and new, but freezing,” Ung said. “I was not use to the weather being that cold. I am use to 110 degrees of humidity.”
Ung attended school in America and said she started acting like an American, but with the soldiers and the past always in her dreams and in the back of her mind.
“I was suffering post-traumatic stress and needed to get the words out,” she said.
“When I couldn’t speak the words, I could write. I have kept a journal since high school.” Ung said someone presented her with Viktor E. Frankl’s 1946 book, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
She said it changed her life. In 1995 Ung said she reunited with her family in Cambodia and she was amazed at all the tragedies around her. “It was so nice to be there with them, but so sad all at once,” she said. Ung is a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
She has also written, “Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind.” Within it she writes about her changes to life without her family and about living in America. KSC student, Megan Cowic said, “Her presentation was amazing, it made me want to give her a hug.” Loung Ung’s lecture was sponsored by the KSC’s Woman’s Culture Club and the Northeast Cultural Co-op in Amherst, New Hampshire.
“Peace is not an automatic, it all matters. We provide a safe place here, hopefully it will ripple to another place,” concluded Ung.
Meridith Shepherd can be contacted at mshepherd@keeneequinox.com
33 comments:
God bless Ung!
I thought this woman was hateful of the Khmer people, wasn't she? In her book, the portrayed the Khmer people as evil and butcherors, but she contrasted her ethnically "Chinese milky white" skinned people as the innocent victims of the dark/brown-skinned Khmer people. As it turns out at the end, the highest ranking top leadership of the so-called dark/brown skinned Khmer Rouge look exactly the color of Luong Ung herself. What irony! Lol. From Duch to Pol Pot to Ieng Sary to Kieu Samphan to Noun Chea, etc...they are all of the lighter-skinned people just like Luong Ung. Pol Pot for example was decribed by Westerners to have the exquisite smooth milky white skin. Hahha. What irony at the end. Luong Ung wants the world to hate the dark/brown skinned Khmer people, but the world knows that Luong Ung's type was the evil ones. Now Luong Ung preach forgiveness???? To save her "Chinese milky white skinned people"? Hahaha. Luong Ung is a hypocrite who caters her writing and books to only the WHITE folks. Luong Ung has never been Khmer because she is hateful of the Khmer people. That is the whole truth about her. She bought many acres of land in Cambodia with American dollars. However don't expect her to report it to the IRS when she liquidates her land properties in Cambodia.
They Royal Government of Cambodia must say "NO" to thiefland on this restoration. We, Khmers, are more than capable to restore these temple ruins. They are ours and siems need to get out and go away!
They Royal Government of Cambodia must say "NO" to thiefland on this restoration. We, Khmers, are more than capable to restore these temple ruins. They are ours and siems need to get out and go away!
the world is not enough ever whatever you are !
8:52 AM How do you know that she is going to sell her land in Cambodia ?
Are You a tmill khmao that she want to talk about , the real killer in the Pol Pot regime ?
If yes you are the real killer , have the courage , like Duch , to report your-self to the khmer rouge tribunal in Phnom-Penh. Good Luck SOB.
She lost her family and also other Khmer. They deserve to be anger.
If you did not lost your family; just shut up.
She can be rich, purchase more land is her personal. She made money in USA.
May our Lord Buddha bless her family.
she was angry and vulnerable. she fell into an arm of deceit. then she had a bigotry tendency and has been selling it for years in her sympathy pleading book. her white husband probably re-enforces that idea too. Gallic, I want any Cambodian to be successful and famous but in the right and appropriate way.
All of you Stupid commentators up above just face it Khmer Rouge Communists were brainwashed by the Chinese, Vietnamese communists which are all white skinned!!!!!! They've been working on paving the way for more white skinned Chinese, Vietnamese population to flow inside Cambodia with ease!!!!!!! That's what happen's when you have a king and Khmer Rouge dictator falling for the potion mixed in the "Chinese hot pot" and "Vietnamese pineapple soup" you lose everything to your chefs!!!!!!!
Ung was a child when the Khmer Rouge all wore uniforms in black during the time took control of Cambodia. Her mother, father, brother and sister disappeared one by one by this black uniform men. So that how a dark skin Cambodian printed in her saddest memory. Also those tops leaders may be white, but they used the one from the country side as killer. Cambodian from the country side are dark by an intense hard work under the sun. That's just too bad. None can blaime her for what she had said. Many of us know exactly what happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Yes, many dark skin Cambodian were powerful. They were powerful enough to give each and everyone inside Cambodia who was considered as an ordinary citizen between life and death sentence, but if you to ask Noun Chea or Khiev Samphan, they will tell you that they didn't know anything about it. Nop. none yeah right.
King Norodom Sihamoni today looks about the same about the land grabbing and our Khmer Krom issue. You be the judge.
that was how ung conveyed in her book and not the general public misconstrued it. 11:37am is trying to white wash ung's ulterior motive with a child perception and down playing it. it is not going to cut it. why did she many years later into her adult still write with these false memory? Now everybody is questioning her motive and not buying her story except some naive foreign folks. she should know better since she was growing up in the usa. or may be she has a motive......
Her book was written from a child perspective dummy 11:55am. Go and read it again.
The world is just so amazing and incredible thru the eyes of a child.
Love you Ung
Nice! from a child perspective on national crime and tragedy. That sums it up. Then it can not be taken seriously on many accounts.
10:05 you f*cking sh*t. Stop talking about the color black, you stupid a-hole. What will become of you when you are no longer alive, fool. The "Tmil" do not ever have to be "black", you racist lowlife worm. F*ck luong Ung and her family and sh*t. Who the f*ck care? HITES (Europeans) also die and Khmer people also died, you f*cker! Stop blaming the FOLLOWERS, you f*cker. That is why they get DUCH and not the actual persons who carried out the order, you f*cker. That is why Angkor Wat is credited to Suryavarman and never to the actually builders, you f*cker. F*ck you and your family and that Luong Ung the hater of the Khmer people, fool.
See how EVIL Loung Ung really is at this website below.
http://www.khmerinstitute.org/articles/art04.html
This author self-glorifies her Chinese side and puts down native Khmers. If you don't believe me please read her book First They Killed My Father.
I recommend the book When Broken Glass Floats, its much more in-depth and has real accounts of events.
1:34pm, as you pointed it out. It is very sad then that this author after all is a very shallow person. With all her zeal and enthusiasm on her personal and country of birth tragic saga, she turns out to be a racist and bigot. It did not even bother her that the co-conspirator and supporter of the Khmer Rouge was the communist CHINESE.
1:07pm, thanks for the link. Yes, people are not as dumb as this woman has been taking them to be for quite sometimes now. They have been dissecting her to pieces and finding her true color. Her credibility has been shattered. Only a few ill informed and fantasy seeking individuals are listening to her because they don't know any better.
Let me tell you all the tmills are kmao, they are descending from the immigrants from Tamil Nadu. The aboriginal people of Cambodia are khmer with lighter skin look like as the leader of khmer rouge Noun Chea.
.......................................................The khmer history.
You stupid posters and your comments on skin colour.
get over it would you.
we barangs were like you once but not for the last thirty years.
grow up!
this autho is bitches she admire her fucking china ancient. to let this fuck head chines khmer should know that eng kek ive is china name and skin also kill their fucking china people too. pol pot also have a white skin too, eng sary the samething. why don't your fucking blame those people too? and who support polpot? chinese government also stay behine these too. fuck you loung Ung. china government also kill their own people too if we look at the famourse brige of china.not just khmer people
we said it because the fucking head of Loung Ung who said she chinese and smooth skins and got kill. but chinese people in srok khmer are the one who kill their own people why don't you blame on it?
Some of bloggers are so dump to understand.
We could not generalize.
Dark or light skin Khmer-rouges could be kind or bad.
But people with light skin in that time were not appreciated.
Some were killed just because of that.
50% of Khmer-rouges were very kind.
50% of non-Khmer-rouges were very bad;
Kid doesn't know how to lie. They tell what they see. Many of those killers were having dark skin and for crying out loud they also wore black uniforms everywhere. It frightened the hell out of Ung. Four of her family members were gone death and finished and you still won't give her the credit she deserves. You're scumb bag. Go and bring her family back. Now!
this Loung Ung is bitches, she think only her familly are dies because white skin? well my father and his familly all are dies probably about 10 people on my father dies during pol pot and all are dark skins non of them are white fuck you loung Ung.
the idea of the killer are light skins and also chinese too. pol pot light skin , eng sarry light skin, eng kek ive light skin, keve sompone light and smooth skin these are the massive idea killer the dark khmer skins one are the followers fuck you 2:47 Am .
Don't we all know that Cambodian had two colors skin? Even they're all coming from the same parents dummy. So stop the crap. Dark skin KR killed Loung's family. That's just too bad so sad and tough shit.
yeah, loung ung tough shit that your parents got killed. millions of cambodian with different color skins got perished and yet they don't utter a word about their skin colors except that they got slaughtered by criminals.
fuck this Ung stop to buy her book as long as she write non sense.
6:35am, you can go right ahead to tell the rain to stop from falling off the sky. Sure you can buddy. Jealous ass. you dwarft.
I was touched by this Cambodian Lady Ung. She spoke from her bad experiences and I believed her.
8:52 AM
How can you accused her of having so much hate towards her own people, after all the Communist leaders were all Sino-Cambodian just like her?
Go to aefek.free.fr. you all will learn that most high ranking during King Sihanouk reigned and ruled were Sino-Cambodian.
Gen. Lon Nol himself was not Mon-Khmer as he claimed to softened his people's hearts, he was also Sino-Cambodian. Don't believe me then search for "secret meeting between Zhou Enlai and Pham Van Dong and Sihanouk." Do not try to argue taht Lon Nol was not a Sino-Cambodian because his skin was dark. That is not correct. Look at Ms . Seng, Theary and her siblings, they're Sino-Cambodian but their skin is dark like African.
Ok now under ah Samrae Hun Sen, do you see most of them are Viet Congs?
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