Dear Editor:
On April 17, 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge defeated Khmer Republic forces and proceeded to spend the latter part of the 1970s bringing misery and death to the Cambodian people. An estimated 25 percent of the country's population died under Khmer Rouge rule - a period in Cambodian history often referred as "the Killing Fields." Over 25 years later, many people still do not understand what happened in Cambodia during the 1970s. In fact, a new generation of Cambodian Americans have sprung up, yearning to learn about the experience of their parents, grandparents, and other older relatives during this time.
These young Cambodian Americans have come to view Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father, as the person who would tell them of the Killing Fields experience. Ung has responded by deftly manipulating the media in promoting her story and her book. Interested members of the public and these Cambodian American youths are drawn to her tales of horror and brutality. Her story has one tragic drawback however - it is so grossly inaccurate and inconsistent with other observations and documentation of the Khmer Rouge period as to be rendered essentially useless and illegitimate as an historic text.
Ung's description of Phnom Penh in 1975 just before the fall, for example, is completely devoid of the real sense of chaos and fear that the Cambodian people felt at the time. In her recollection, the author completely fails to mention the onslaught of Cambodian refugees who had fled into Phnom Penh to escape the fighting in the countryside. If her memory is so vivid that she is capable of writing a book, then Ung should have observed and recounted the social upheaval that enveloped the city, as reporters and other residents of Phnom Penh at the time have. Instead, while people were literally starving to death on the streets of Phnom Penh, Ung's narration focuses on her family's posh lifestyle, trying to make the reader think it is the norm by repeatedly referring to it as "middle class." Her family's three vehicles, household servants, and weekends at "the club," however, meant they were part of a rich elite whose corruption in fact contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge.
To sensationalize her story, Ung includes events in the book that are in all likelihood completely fictitious, such as a trip to the temple of Angkor Wat in 1974 which was virtually impossible due to the war. She even claims that as a malnourished seven-year-old child she handled and fired an AK-47 and physically overpowered a Vietnamese combat soldier. Not only does the author detail such implausible exploits, but she frequently misrepresents Khmer culture in the book as well. Ung's description of an alleged "Cambodian" tradition of passing out red envelopes stuffed with money during New Years, for instance, is completely erroneous.
The most offensive aspect of Ung's book is the racism inherent in her attempts to demonize ethnic Khmers. In her story, she portrays herself as a light-skinned Sino-Khmer heroine standing against the evil dark-skinned pure Khmers. Her insinuation that only lighter-skinned Sino-Khmers were victimized by the Khmer Rouge and that all dark-skinned ethnic Khmers are somehow to blame for the heinous crimes of the Killing Fields period is misleading and hurtful. To make such a claim leads readers into misunderstanding the Killing Fields as a period of ethnic conflict rather than what it really was - Communist fanaticism run amok. Cambodians of all ethnic backgrounds ended up suffering and dying from the Khmer Rouge's brutality and inhumane policies. Ung's claims of racist motives behind the Khmer Rouge's draconian policies does Chinese-Cambodians injustice by misleading them as to the real cause of their suffering. Equally troubling is the fact that it essentially discounts the immense suffering of millions of ethnic Khmers who also toiled and died under Khmer Rouge oppression.
For individuals who have lost family members in Cambodia's Killing Fields, there can be few things more upsetting than to see someone exploit the suffering of millions of Cambodians for personal fame and profit. Yet this is exactly what Loung Ung has done with disturbing disregard for honesty and accuracy. Despite the media's portrayal of her as a heroine, individuals who witnessed the Killing Fields or have knowledge of Cambodian history and culture can still see the many gaps and flaws in Ung's tale. By fabricating her way through what happened during this tragic period of Cambodian history, Ung misleads Cambodian American youth who wish to learn the truth about their ancestors' past and dishonors the 1.7 million Cambodians who died.
An in-depth analysis of Ung's book can be found in the articles section of the Khmer Institute's website (www.khmerinstitute.org). The article will give readers a better understanding of the injustice that the author does to the memory of our loved ones and their experience.
Sincerely,
Sody Lay
Executive Director
The Khmer Institute
