University, Ung postponed graduate school and
became a spokesperson for the Campaign for a
Landmine-Free World.
Published by HarperCollins in 2000, First
They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia
Remembers received several awards including the
2001 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature
and the 2002 Books for a Better World Literary
Awards. Ung’s memoir was, however, received
unfavorably by some Cambodian-American com-
munities. Critic Sody Lay, for example, describes
the memoir as a “sensationalization and over-dra-
matization of the Killing Fields” (173) and ques-
tions the authenticity of her narrative. Ung also
received death threats from those who accused her,
an ethnic Chinese-Khmer, of speaking on behalf
of all Cambodians. Nevertheless, her memoir was
published in 11 countries, translated into several
languages including Khmer (Cambodia’s official
language), and adapted into plays.
First They Killed My Father is written in the
present tense and from a child’s point of view,
creating a raw experience for the reader. Ung uses
family photographs, refugee identification cards,
and a family tree to authenticate her narrative. In
writing this testimonial literature, the author uses
her personal and family experiences to represent
the collective experience of the Cambodian people
under the Khmer Rouge regime. In the author’s
note, Ung writes, “Though these events constitute
my experiences, my story mirrors that of millions
of Cambodians.” The theme of survivor’s guilt
is also prevalent in Ung’s memoir, as the young
Ung struggles with the fact that she survived,
while others, like her sisters and parents, perished.
Other topics include memory and trauma, writing
and healing, oppression and resistance, literature
and history, dehumanization and (de)evolution
of self, gender and ethnicity, and the strength of
family love.
Ung is probably the most popular Cambodian-
American writer writing today. She has traveled
extensively, giving public lectures on land mines,
women’s issues, racism, child soldiers, and her
experiences under the Khmer Rouge regime. She
has also made appearances on radio and television
shows. In 2005 Ung published her second mem-
oir, Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites
with the Sister She Left Behind.Bibliography
Lay, Sody. “The Cambodian Tragedy: Its Writers and
Representations.” Amerasia Journal 27 (2001):
171–182.
Bunkong TuonUpadhyay, Samrat (1964– )
Samrat Upadhyay is the first Nepal-born South
Asian writer to gain prominence in the West. He
came to the United States at the age of 21 and
now teaches creative writing at Indiana University,
Bloomington. His first book was a collection of
short stories entitled Arresting God in Kathmandu
(2001), which won a Whiting Award. His second
book is a novel, The Guru of Love (2003), which
became a New York Times Notable Book, San Fran-
cisco Chronicle’s Best Book of the Year, and a final-
ist for the Kiriyama Prize. His third book is also a
collection of short stories, Royal Ghosts (2006).
Upadhyay’s primary preoccupation as a writer
has been to foreground ordinary people’s sex lives,
proclivities, and fantasies. His first anthology, Ar-
resting God in Kathmandu, consists of nine short
stories, all of which explore very carefully how ev-
eryday people in Nepal experience their sexuality.
For example, in “The Good Shopkeeper,” he writes
of how Pramod, who loses his job and struggles to
find another, has to deal with Nepal’s nepotistic,
feudal, and emasculating business world. He ends
up entering into an adulterous relationship with a
woman of another class as a means of reasserting
his masculinity. In “Deepak Misra’s Secretary,” he
writes of the protagonist’s struggles with his failed
marriage to an American woman and his search
for selfhood through a sexual relationship with his
secretary. His stories are erotic, and they examine
constructions of masculinity within contemporary
Nepali society.
His novel The Guru of Love is an extensive treat-
ment of the same themes as in his first anthology.
His protagonist, Ramachandra, is an impoverished
math teacher who is married to Goma, who comes300 Upadhyay, Samrat