Recording
Oral history interview with Sophy Khut
The oral history interview with Sophy Khut records the life of a Long Beach restaurant owner who fled the Khmer Rouge as a child.[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
Sophy Khut was born on October 8, 1965, in Chong Kal Village, Oddar Meanchey Province. She was ten years old when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country. Her father had served in the local National Guard, so he and their extended family of 15 were to be executed. They fled barefoot and without food through the jungle to the Thai border.[1] She was among the few people who escaped into Thailand soon after the Khmer Rouge took power and closed the borders.[2]
An uncle already in the United States sponsored the family, and they settled in Longview, Oregon.[1] In school in Portland, she faced bullying and other challenges, and the interview follows how her family adjusted to life in the United States.[3] She earned a degree in finance and psychology at Oregon State and opened her first restaurant in Oregon in 1990. She later moved to Long Beach to be in a larger Cambodian community, and there she turned a Chinese restaurant into a Cambodian one.[1]
The collection
The project defines the Cambodian American 1.5 generation as people born in Cambodia from 1963 to 1969 who came to the United States between 1980 and 1986.[4] It records how childhood before and after the Khmer Rouge shaped each narrator's migration and new life in the United States.[4]
Two California model curriculum lessons use Khut's interview. A lesson on Cambodian refugees, community building and cultural connection uses the section from 1:04:23 to 1:15:42 as a primary source.[3] A lesson on using oral histories to understand the Cambodian Genocide assigns it as its fourth oral history, from minute 5:00 to 32:00, as a way to build empathy and critical thinking.[5]
Credits
Sophy Khut 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
- The Historical Society of Long Beach published the video, titled "Sophy Khut - Oral History," on June 17, 2023. No item number or recording date is published.[1][5]
See also
- Sophy's, the Long Beach restaurant Sophy Khut founded
- Cambodian Americans – Oral History of 1.5 Generation
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Historical Society of Long Beach oral histories
- ↑ Historical Society of Long Beach, Years of Turmoil and Pain
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 California model curriculum, 4.1 Cambodian Refugees: Building Community and Maintaining Cultural Connection
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Historical Society of Long Beach, Oral Histories
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 California model curriculum, 2.11 Using Oral Histories to Understand the Cambodian Genocide