Selina Kaing: Birthday Candles
| Birthday Candles | |
|---|---|
| Collection | KQED Perspectives |
| Recording type | Radio or broadcast recording |
| Narrator | Selina Kaing |
| Recorded | 2021-12-02 |
| Language | English |
| Subjects | Migration & Diaspora; Work & Livelihoods; Family & Intergenerational Life; Celebrations & Life Passages |
"Birthday Candles" is a first-person radio commentary by Selina Kaing, broadcast on KQED's Perspectives series on December 2, 2021. The piece interweaves the Cambodian refugee experience, California's donut shop industry, and the small family rituals that bridge Cambodian and American life. (Source)
Description
Kaing's parents fled the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge regime and, like many Cambodians, found a living in California's nascent donut shop industry in the 1980s. The essay centers on a box of birthday candles — eight spiral-striped Wilton candles from a 24-count box — that her mother washed, dried, and reused year after year, adding just one new candle each birthday. The practice embodied the family's frugality, gratitude for escape from genocide, and the gradual incorporation of American traditions.
Kaing reflects on raising her own daughter, who will never grow up the way she did, and whose grandparents' stories will seem as foreign as the Cambodian language they speak. As her daughter's fourth birthday approaches, she pulls out her own set of burnt candles and prepares to continue the tradition.
Credits
- Narrator: Selina Kaing
- Publication: KQED Perspectives