Recording
Clip from Interview with Chanty Chut
Clip from Interview with Chanty Chut is an excerpt from a 2009 video interview in which Chanty Chut recalls leaving Cambodia for Thailand.[1] It belongs to the Cambodian American Community of Oregon Oral History Project, held in Special Collections at the Portland State University Library.[1]
About the recording
In 1979 the Khmer Rouge lost power, and people came back into town from the Khmer Rouge work groups. Chanty Chut went to Battambang, worked like everyone else and tried to live in freedom.[1] A great uncle of Darith Chut's mother had been held in prison by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, because he had been a leader and a rich man. After his release he came to Battambang to gather his family and move to Thailand.[1]
He asked the family to decide whether to go with him. They said they had no money, and he offered to lend them whatever they needed, but they had only that one night to choose.[1] They talked it over through the night and agreed to go. At three o'clock in the morning Chanty Chut and Darith Chut's mother said goodbye to his parents, with about one hour's notice. When his parents asked where he would go, he told them he had no idea. "I just headed to Thailand. If I'm lucky, I will survive," he recalls.[1]
The collection
The Cambodian American Community of Oregon, a nonprofit that offers cultural activities and social support to families and children, recorded the interviews in Portland, Oregon, in spring 2009.[2] Young people interviewed their elders so that heritage would pass from the generation that migrated to youth born in the United States, and so that storytelling could help narrators heal from wartime trauma.[2]
Credits
Chanty Chut is the narrator, and Darith Chut conducted the interview on May 31, 2009. Patricia Schechter transcribed it on September 4, 2014. The excerpt runs from 7:16 to 10:00 in the full interview.[1]
Access
The persistent identifier is http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12688. The digital access copy streams for personal, educational and non-commercial use within fair use under United States copyright law, and it may not be reproduced, distributed or screened for commercial purposes.[1] As of 2014, Special Collections at the Portland State University Library took questions at specialcollections@pdx.edu and (503) 725-9883.[1]