Moon un

The first years of life (1970-1975)

Un was born in 1970 in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), the exact date of her birth is unknown, since after the rise to power, the Khmer Rouge destroyed many birth records of people in different cities of Cambodia. Un was the sixth child (and the third of four girls) in a family of seven. Her brothers and sisters were (in seniority):

1. Meng
2. Hoi
3. Kieu † - died of poisoning in 1977
4. Kim
5. Chow
6. Moon
7. Geak † - went missing in 1978

Lun's father, Sem In Un, was born in 1931 in the small village of Tro Nuon in Kampongtyam Province ^[1] . Mother - Ai Cheon Un - was a Chinese woman and moved with her family to Cambodia as a little girl. They married against the will of her parents, and later lived with their children in an apartment on the third floor in the center of vibrant Phnom Penh. Due to the long experience in the government of Sihanouk , Father Un was forcibly called up to work in the government of Lon Nol, becoming a high-ranking military police officer . Un's mother did not work and did household work.

The Un family lived quite prosperously - they had two cars and a truck, the house had running water, a sewer, and an iron bath. There was a telephone in the apartment, and the family used the maid every day. As a family, they watched movies at a nearby movie theater and went swimming in the pool at a local sports club. By her own admission, Lun led a happy and carefree life in a friendly and loving family, until April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia and evacuated Phnom Penh.

Evacuation (1975)

Lun played in the courtyard when the soldiers of the Polpot army entered the city. For a population of more than two million Phnom Penh, forced evacuation was announced “in view of possible bombing by US aircraft.” Un's parents loaded the acquired student into a student and set off. When the truck ran out of fuel, they left some of the things, and continued their journey in a huge pedestrian convoy from the other evacuated. On the way, they stopped for the night in an open field. Lun's father introduced himself as the head of a peasant family, which allowed him to get a pass at the checkpoint at Kom Baul and at the same time avoid detention - the new authorities saw potential enemies in the townspeople, as many evacuated were killed by Polpot soldiers when they tried to flee to the countryside ^[2] . On the seventh day of the journey, the Un family was found by their own uncle, who agreed to bring them by rail to the village of Krang Truop.

The Un family stayed there only a couple of months - the head of the family was afraid that others evacuated from Phnom Penh would recognize him and give him to the Khmer Rouge. He wanted to take his family to Battambang , to the village of Lun's grandmother, but the Polpot did not allow him to carry out his plan. Instead, the Un family, along with three hundred evacuated families, were forcibly driven to the village of Angluntmore, where they remained for five months. During this time, more than half of the new arrivals died of hunger and disease ^[3] . Realizing that the disclosure of his ties with the Lon Nol regime would become inevitable, Lun's father began to beg the guards to take his family out of there. The Khmer Rouge ordered him to go to Ro Leap, where about sixty families arrived on the same day.

Labor Camp (1976-1978)

Ro Leap became the new home for the Un family over the next 18 months. Cut off from the outside world and living in constant fear, they were forced to work from dawn to dusk for a cup of rice or liquid baland. Constant hunger and exhaustion became part of their new life in the village, which was polotpotovskie soldiers and day and night patrol - soansroki . A couple of months after their arrival in the village, the family was divided: the eldest of the Un brothers - 18-year-old Men, 16-year-old Hou, as well as her older sister, 14-year-old Kieu were sent to work in other camps. Six months later, Kieu died of poisoning in a teenager's labor camp, Kong Cha Lat, and in December two soldiers came to Un's hut and demanded that her father help free the jammed wagon; since then no one has seen him again.

Lun, her brother, 11-year-old Kim, and her two sisters, 9-year-old Zhou and 4-year-old Geak, remained with their mother in Ro Leap until May 1977. They were saved from starvation by Meng and Howe, who brought them some food from their labor camp. Kim, risking his life, stole corn from the warehouse with crops guarded by soldiers at night. On the night of May 1977, Ay heard screams coming from a neighboring house, after which the family living in it disappeared without a trace. Frightened by what had happened, Ai persuaded Lun and Zhou to pretend to be orphans and never return to the camp. Lun and Zhou found shelter in a children's camp near Ro Leap, where they believed and even received extra rations, and in August 1977 the seven-year-old Lun was mobilized as a soldier.

For the next seventeen months, Un spent in a military camp, where she was taught to fight with the Vietnamese. On an autumn night of 1978, without command permission, she left the camp and returned to Ro Leap, hoping to meet her sister and mother there. However, upon arrival, she found the hut abandoned, although all the belongings of her relatives remained in their places. A neighbor told her that Ai and Geak had been taken away by the half-soldiers, and since then no one has seen them again.

In January 1979, the Vietnamese army liberated Phnom Penh and continued its offensive to the west of Cambodia. Artillery attacks on the camp where Un lived, forced those who were there to flee. In the ensuing turmoil, her brother Kim and sister Chow were able to find Un on the road and together they went on foot to the city of Pursat , stopping only for food and overnight. A few days later they managed to find shelter in a refugee camp, which was under the control of friendly Vietnamese troops. The camp was regularly attacked by half-soldiers, and the nine-year-old Lun became a small witness to the horrors of a new war.

Escape from the country (1979-1980)

Education

Career

In 1995, for the first time in 15 years, she visited Cambodia. She managed to find out that most of her relatives were killed or died during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. After some time upon returning to the United States, Un moved to the District of Columbia , where at the end of 1996 she got a job at the Vietnam War Veterans Fund (Vietnam Veterans Association), an international charity that provides assistance to hospitals and rehabilitation centers in many countries of the world, including in Cambodia.

In 2005, Lun made her twenty-fifth trip to Cambodia this time as a representative in the Vietnam Veterans Association as part of an international anti-personnel mine ban campaign. Since 1991, the association has helped more than 15,000 victims return to normal. Chairman of the Veterans Fund, Bobby Muller, repeatedly noted the significant contribution of Lun to the activities of their organization, and in 1997 the activities of the association were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ^[4] .

Lun, Men and Kim returned to Bat Deng in 1998 to meet with Hou, Zhou and other surviving relatives, including their 88-year-old grandmother. Un held a funeral ceremony in memory of her parents, who fell at the hands of half-soldiers, hundreds of relatives and friends of Un attended the ceremony. Two years later, her first book was published. In 2002, Un married her classmate, Mark Primer. Her second book was published in 2005.

Currently

The following is a snippet of the article “Cambodian refugee had new difficulties after move to US” published in the Nashua Telegraph on April 17, 2005:

Original text

Ung recently moved to suburban Cleveland where her husband grew up. He knows, though, that someday he'll probably be living in Cambodia where Ung owns 2½ acres and plans to build a home. For now, she keeps plenty of reminders of the country in her fourth-floor home office - a statue of Buddha, a photograph of a palm tree and rice field that she feels captures the country beauty. Her office overlooks a wood deck that has been painted rusty red to remind her of the soil of her native home. She's working on her first novel, set in 1148 in Cambodia. She's shy about revealing the plot. Again, she's sure it will only sell 10 copies.

From 1975 to 1979 — through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor — the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country population. This is a story of survival: my own and my family's. Though these events constitute my own experience, my story mirrors that of millions of Cambodians. If you had been living in Cambodia during this period, this would be your story too.

They first killed my father (2000)

The first book of Un was sharply criticized by representatives of the Cambodian diaspora of the United States, many of whom found the book more as a work of art than a reliable autobiography. Un was accused of distorting the image of the Cambodian people by imposing ethnic stereotypes in favor of self-aggrandizement and excessive dramatization to increase sales ^[5] . One of the arguments of her opponents is that due to her age (at the time the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Un was only five years old), she could not remember what was happening in such detail as described in her book ^{[5 ]} .

Critics point out inconsistencies in describing some events. So in the first book of Un published a family photo of 1973-1974. with the signature: "on excursions to Angkor Wat ." However, at this very time, a civil war was in full swing in the country, the province of Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is located) was under the control of the Khmer Rouge since 1973, and the complex itself was inaccessible to tourists. According to critics, in reality this could not be, but the photo probably captures the monastery of Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh. This is cited as evidence of the unreliability of Un's memoirs ^[5] .

• Denise Affonso
• Somalia Mom

• Adam Jones. One Girl's Story: Loung Ung // Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. - New York City: Psychology Press, 2006 .-- P. 196-197. - 430 p. - ISBN 978-0-415-35385-4 .
• Paul Robert Bartrop. A Biographical Encyclopedia of Contemporary Genocide: Portraits of Evil and Good . - Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO , 2012 .-- P. 191-193. - 403 p. - ISBN 978-0-313-38678-7 .

Bibliography

• Loung Ung. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. - New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000. - ISBN 0-06-019332-8 .
• Loung Ung. Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind. - New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2005. - ISBN 0-06-073394-2 .
• Loung Ung. Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness. - New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2012 .-- 368 p. - ISBN 0-06-209192-1 .

• Long Un's autobiography on her official website
• Related news on the C-SPAN website

Reviews

• Juliet Wittman. “Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness” by Loung Ung . The Washington Post (May 25, 2012).
• “Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness” by Loung Ung . Kirkus Reviews (March 15, 2012).
• Angela Carstensen. “Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness” by Loung Ung . School Library Journal (April 27, 2012).
• Rick Roche. “Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness” by Loung Ung . RickLibrarian (April 27, 2012).
• Book Excerpt: 'Lulu in the Sky' by Loung Ung . Asia Society (April 6, 2012).

Interview

• Sharon May, Loung Ung. Surviving the Peace: An Interview with Loung Ung // In the Shadow of Angkor: Contemporary Writing from Cambodia. - University of Hawaii Press, 2004 .-- T. 16 .-- P. 49-53. - 236 p. - ISBN 0-82-482849-6 .
• Jim Russell. Interview With Loung Ung . asiaXpress.com . Archived on September 28, 2011.
• Liane Hansen. 'Lucky Child' Details Flight from Khmer Rouge . National Public Radio (May 8, 2005). Archived on September 29, 2015.
• Melissa Block. Khmer Rouge Convictions Offer Small Solace For Cambodian Victims . National Public Radio (August 7, 2014).
• Cecily Kamps. Interview: Genocide Survivor Loung Ung Reclaims Life, and Light, in New Memoir . Asia Society (April 18, 2012). Archived on May 23, 2015.
• Loung Ung. How I survived the Khmer Rouge: Cambodian activist Loung Ung . South China Morning Post (December 6, 2015). Archived December 5, 2015.