Book
Refugee Lifeworlds
Refugee Lifeworlds is a 2022 book by Y-Dang Troeung on how the Cold War still shapes Cambodian lives, joining criticism with her own family's refugee story.[1][2]
About the book
Troeung argues that Cambodia's history is a Cold War history, and that the war's effects did not end with it.[1] She draws on archives and on stories from her family, and the people at the heart of the book are her parents.[1][2] Her method, which she calls autotheory, blends theory, memoir and close reading of novels, films, photographs and art.[1][2] The writers and artists she reads include Rithy Panh, Madeleine Thien, Viet Thanh Nguyen and the poet Kosal Kiev.[2]
The book follows what bombing, war, genocide and displacement left behind in ordinary people's bodies and minds, including disability and the loss of speech.[2][1] She turns to a Cambodian proverb about the kapok tree, a tree people live from, as an image for the silences and quiet resistance of the genocide years.[1][2] Each chapter opens and closes with an anecdote.[2]
Reception
The library journal Choice wrote that Troeung shows the Cold War was "not cold in Cambodia", and recommended the book highly.[1] Vinh Nguyen, reviewing it in Canadian Literature, said Troeung had opened the field of critical refugee studies in Canada. He counted the book among the wisest and most compassionate to come out of the wars in Southeast Asia.[2]
Publication
Temple University Press in Philadelphia published the book in August 2022, in its Asian American History and Culture series. It runs to 262 pages, with 28 color photographs.[1] Troeung, the child of Cambodian refugees, taught English at the University of British Columbia.[1][3] She died of cancer on December 27, 2022, months after the book came out.[2] In 2025 the journal Canadian Literature, where she had been an associate editor, gave an issue to works in conversation with her.[3][4]
See also
- War, Genocide, and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work
- Voices of a New Generation: Cambodian Americans in the Creative Arts
- A Refugee's American Dream
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Temple University Press, Refugee Lifeworlds (publisher's page, undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Vinh Nguyen, "Refugee Anecdotes and Lifeworlds", review in Canadian Literature, number 261 (December 17, 2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 University of British Columbia, Department of English Language and Literatures, Refugee Lifeworlds (undated)
- ↑ Canadian Literature, number 261, article page (December 17, 2025)