Book
Voices of a New Generation: Cambodian Americans in the Creative Arts
Voices of a New Generation: Cambodian Americans in the Creative Arts is a 2021 book by Christine Su profiling fifteen Cambodian American artists.[1][2] The artists range from martial arts experts and filmmakers to fashion designers, traditional dancers and rappers.[1][3]
About the book
The artists belong to the 1.5 and 2.0 generations, the sons and daughters of refugees from the Khmer Rouge regime.[1] Each tells how they negotiate history, identity, collective memory and inherited trauma, and how they express themselves through their art.[1] The stories are told in the first person, and Su gives each one a short introduction.[4] Among the artists is Kalean Ung, whose work also appears in Out of the Shadows of Angkor.[2] Su calls each story both part of a collective narrative and unique.[3]
Su writes that most U.S. history textbooks, when they include Southeast Asian Americans at all, group them together in a few paragraphs, and that even Asian American studies curricula have rarely included the experiences of Southeast Asian Americans, especially Cambodian Americans, and she hopes the book will shed light on their collective experiences and individual journeys and inspire readers to share more.[4][5] The book is the first from the Khmer Generations Project.[6]
Publication
The Southeast Asia Research and Cultural Heritage (SEARCH) Center published the book in 2021.[7][5] The English-language paperback has 272 pages and a street date of September 26, 2021.[4] Its publisher files it under social science, ethnic studies and Asian American studies.[7] The publisher's listing calls it an introduction to Cambodian American arts and culture.[7]
- ISBN: 9780578955377 (ISBN-10 0578955377)[5]
As of 2026, the Khmer Generations Project lists the book as sold out.[6]
Reception
LinDa Saphan, a sociologist at the College of Mount Saint Vincent, writes that Cambodian Americans have seen their identity reduced to two images, the ruins of Angkor Wat and the Khmer Rouge, and that the book "breaks those monolithic images."[4] She values its first-person telling and recommends it to all readers of stories.[4] The historian Paul Spickard writes that the book opens up the lives, hopes, fears and deeds of Khmer American artists.[4]
In a 2025 review in the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, Vanna Nauk calls the book an ample archive of narratives for work in fine arts, contemporary music, fashion design, culinary arts, and film and theater, and a resource for K-12 social science teachers.[8] Nauk advises pairing it with writing on model minority and deviant minority myths.[8]
Joan Chun, co-founder and board president of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association, named the book in the association's "What Are You Reading" series.[9] The Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi lists it among resources on Cambodian American experiences.[10]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 praCh Ly, Voices of a New Generation (2021)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Out of the Shadows of Angkor, Related books
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bold Journey Magazine, Meet Christine Su (March 15, 2024)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Target, Voices of a New Generation by Christine M. Su (paperback)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 AbeBooks, Voices of a New Generation: Cambodian Americans in the Creative Arts
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Khmer Generations Project
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Combined Book Exhibit, Voices of a New Generation
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, Book review of Voices of a New Generation by Vanna Nauk (2025)
- ↑ Cambodian American Literary Arts Association, What Are You Reading
- ↑ Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawaiʻi, Cambodian American Experiences