Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States
Sucheng Chan
Wars in Southeast Asia drove unprecedented numbers of Cambodian refugees to settle in the United States. From southern California to New England, Cambodian communities took root amidst struggles of assimilation and triumphs of adaptation.
In Not Just Victims, Sucheng Chan offers 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. Eschewing victimization narratives, these accounts provide vividly detailed descriptions of Cambodian refugees building new lives in the United States. Chan's introduction places their stories against the backdrop of recent Cambodian history, from the civil war through the bloody Khmer Rouge revolution to the Vietnamese occupation. In addition, Chan includes an essay on oral history.
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About Sucheng Chan
Reviews for Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States
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 “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