Recording
Oral history interview with Christina Lee
The oral history interview with Christina Lee records the life of a Long Beach family doctor and pastor who was orphaned under the Khmer Rouge.[1] It belongs to Cambodian Americans – Oral History of 1.5 Generation, archived at CamCHAP and housed at the Historical Society of Long Beach.[1]
About the recording
Christina Lee was born in Phnom Penh and was about seven when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975. Her family was forced to leave the city to live in the jungle and work in labor camps without food or healthcare, and she was orphaned during those years. After the Vietnamese military entered Cambodia, she and one of her aunts lived for a while in Sisophon. They traveled with a Christian family to the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp, where she was reunited with her aunts, who raised her, and they were sponsored to Long Beach.[1][2] She remembers the bad times, but also good times that remain special to her. She wants others to know that Cambodians are not all victims: "We are proud of who we are, where we come from."[1]
She attended Poly High School and earned a medical degree at the UCI School of Medicine. A family medicine specialist, she opened her practice on Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach in 2016. In 2018 her office carried signs in both Khmer and English so that Cambodian patients would feel at ease knowing she is Khmer. She later earned a divinity degree at the Claremont School of Theology and became pastor of the Long Beach Cambodian American United Methodist Church. She plays the piano, which she learned by ear.[1][2]
From 2017 to 2019 she co-hosted Our Health is First with Tony Taing, a weekly show on Khmer TV with special guests and topics such as preventative and personal healthcare. In 2017 she received a Woman of Distinction award from California State Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell for her work in the Long Beach community, and she served as emcee of the 2017 Cambodia Town Parade and Culture Festival, drawing on her fluency in English and Khmer. In 2019 she took part in a Cambodian Health Professionals Association of America event and a senior wellness event in Long Beach. She walked with members of her church in the 2022 festival, and in 2023 she went to Kampong Chhang, Cambodia, on behalf of the church and treated patients there.[2]
The collection
The project defines the 1.5 generation as children born in Cambodia between 1963 and 1969 who came to the United States between 1980 and 1986. Its organizers note that many oral histories had been gathered from older adult survivors, while this age group had been largely overlooked.[1] The narrators speak of childhood before and after the Khmer Rouge, of what they lost, of the journey to the United States and of adjusting to American life. The project also explores what helped them survive, such as the coping skills they used in emigration, and how trauma affected their well-being. While giving a realistic view of what happened, the accounts are offered as a message of hope for future generations.[1]
Credits
Christina Lee is the narrator; no interviewer is named for this recording. Pacific Asian Counseling Services recorded the interviews from a mental health perspective, from a concept first developed by Cambodia Town, with funding from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health under the Mental Health Services Act.[1]
Access
- Recording: Historical Society of Long Beach video channel
- No item number or recording date is published.[1]