Not Just Victims
Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States
Interviews Conducted by Audrey U. Kim
Cambodian history, migration, and resettlement in the U.S.
Paper – $30
978-0-252-07101-0
Publication Date
Paperback: 01/15/2003
Series: The Asian American Experience
About the Book
Not Just Victims contains twelve oral histories based on conversations with Cambodian community leaders in eight American cities -- Long Beach, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, and the Massachusetts towns of Fall River and Lowell. Unlike the dozens of autobiographies published by Cambodians that focus largely on their victimization, these narratives describe how Cambodian refugees have adapted to life in the United States. Sucheng Chan's extensive introduction provides a historical framework; she discusses the civil war (1970-75), the bloody Khmer Rouge revolution (1975-79), the border war during the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia (1979-89), and the additional travails faced by those who escaped to holding camps in Thailand. The book also includes an essay on oral history and a substantial bibliography.About the Author
Sucheng Chan is professor emerita and former chair of the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is the author or editor of many books, including Asian Americans: An Interpretive History, Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era, and Survivors: Cambodian Refugees in the United States.Also by this author
Reviews
"Not Just Victims allows for a new, 'whole' perspective about the Cambodian community to unfold."--International Examiner"A nuanced and moving portrait of a people actively struggling to overcome one of the twentieth century's most horrific wars."--Asian Affairs
"Not Just Victims is inspirational in the way it affirms the resilience of Cambodian culture. [Contains] a wealth of information for the resourceful ehtnographer who seeks to understand Khmer culture in transformation in the United States."--Journal of American Ethnic History
Blurbs
“Not Just Victims is of very high quality as a piece of scholarship. The review of the literature on Cambodia and Cambodian refugees is extraordinary. The book contains easily the single best synthesis of Cambodian history, migration, and resettlement I have ever read.”--Jeremy Hein, author of From Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia: A Refugee Experience in the United States
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