Loung Ung
Author of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
About the Author
Loung Ung is a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World, a program of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
Image credit: Loung Ung, author and human-rights activist, by RogerK (talk). Original uploader was RogerK at en.wikipedia
Works by Loung Ung
Associated Works
Reader's Digest Today's Best Nonfiction 60 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Ung, Loung
- Birthdate
- 1970-04-17
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Cambodia
- Birthplace
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Places of residence
- Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Essex Junction, Vermont, USA - Education
- St. Michael's College, Winooski VT
- Occupations
- Author
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 2,499
- Popularity
- #10,269
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 67
- ISBNs
- 60
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 1
Until the Khmer Rouge took over and their world was turned upside down. Everyone living in the cities was forced to go the country villages for agrarian work.
Even a hint of being a member of the previous regime was enough to doom one and one’s family to death. In addition, Loung’s mother was Chinese and and so the family fell under the Khmer Rouge's ethnic cleansing of non-Cambodians and their mixed children. After a hardship filled trek with little food and water, they arrived at a small village where an uncle lived and were taken in. As the revolution continued, the political situation changed from lionizing the Khmer Rouge to becoming a cult lionizing the brutal dictator.
Being in a small village was not enough to save them, especially as the long time villages and the 'new people' were kept separately with the new people being treated more harshly. Eventually, the family's secret was betrayed and as the title says 'first they killed my father.'
Of the genocide itself, Wikipedia states “…Mass killings of perceived government opponents, coupled with malnutrition and poor medical care, killed between 1.5 and 2 million people, approximately a quarter of Cambodia's population…..”
Heartbreaking to read, this is an important look at a regime that was little known to the west when the genocide was occurring.… (more)