Collection
Cambodian Americans – Oral History of 1.5 Generation
Cambodian Americans – Oral History of 1.5 Generation (CAOH) is a set of video life stories of Cambodian Americans who were children under the Khmer Rouge.[1][2] The recordings are housed at the Historical Society of Long Beach and archived by the Cambodian Community History and Archive Project (CamCHAP).[1][3]
History
Cambodia Town first developed the idea for the project. It was supported by the API UsCC capacity building projects and carried out by Pacific Asian Counseling Services (PACS), which brought a mental health perspective to the interviews.[1][4] Many oral histories had been collected from older adult survivors, but the project's organizers saw this younger age group as largely overlooked.[4] The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health funded the work under the Mental Health Services Act and awarded it to PACS on March 23, 2022.[1][3]
Work began in April 2022 with an executive team of Mariko Kahn as project coordinator, Robert Carleton as videographer, Susan Needham as academic researcher and Sithea San as community advisor and translator. PACS hired Akara Films to record the interviews, translate and subtitle those in Khmer, and transcribe them. Three oral historians, Suzanne Im, Tola Livesey and Karen Quintiliani, were under contract by November 2022.[3]
The project first defined the 1.5 generation as children born in Cambodia between 1963 and 1969 who came to the United States between 1980 and 1986.[1] During recruitment the team widened this to people who arrived between 1976 and 1987 at ages six to seventeen, with no birth year required. It accepted the age each narrator used, since birth records were often unreliable after the Khmer Rouge years, refugee flight and resettlement. Outreach began in October 2022 through press releases, a local newspaper, social media, Cambodia Town websites and community leaders, and personal referrals within the community worked best.[3]
Interviews were in English unless a narrator asked for Khmer, and narrators chose where they were filmed. The first recording was made on February 5, 2023, and the last on April 23, 2023. Sessions ran on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays for narrators who worked full time, and each lasted about three hours, as long as the narrator wished. Mariko Kahn, a licensed marriage and family therapist, attended every session to give mental health support if needed. Some narrators asked that family members join them, and they were included at the end of the recording. Of 18 people who completed the first survey, 15 completed their oral histories.[3]
On June 10, 2023, the team presented the project at the Historical Society of Long Beach to about 90 people, among them 10 narrators and Long Beach City Councilmember Suely Saro, with a 20-minute summary video and questions for the narrators. The final reports were completed by August 15, 2023.[3]
Material coverage
Narrators speak of their childhood before and after the Khmer Rouge, what they lost, their journey to the United States and how they adjusted to life in America. The project also looked at what helped them survive, how they coped with emigration and how trauma affected their well-being.[1] The collection offers these accounts as a message of hope for future generations.[1]
Two of the 15 oral histories were recorded in Khmer. Family photographs were scanned for the narrators, sometimes more than 30 for one person.[3] In surveys before recording, 17 of 18 narrators agreed that Khmer cultural values and traditions had helped them deal with past trauma. Afterward, 12 of 15 said the interview let them talk about things they had never discussed with anyone.[3]
Catalog and access
Fifteen narrator profiles are published, each with a biography, family photographs and a Watch Oral History link to the recording on the society's video channel.[1] No item numbers are published.[1]
Selected recordings
- Oral history interview with Bokanika Kan Moyle
- Oral history interview with Bonavy Som
- Oral history interview with Christina Lee
- Oral history interview with Clark Tang
- Oral history interview with Sara Pol-Lim
- Oral history interview with Sophy Khut
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Historical Society of Long Beach oral histories
- ↑ Pacific Asian Counseling Services, Posts
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Cambodian American – Oral History of the 1.5 Generation: project description by Mariko Kahn
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Historical Society of Long Beach, Oral Histories