Author talks about living through Khmer Rouge genocide

PULLMAN, Wash. – The award-winning memoir “When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up under the Khmer Rouge,” will be discussed in a free, public lecture by author Chanrithy Him 7-8 p.m. Thursday, March 7, in CUB 210 at Washington State University. Before the lecture, Him will perform the 10-minute classical “Blessing Dance.” She will sign copies of her book after the lecture until 9 p.m.

 

“Chanrithy Him visited WSU in 2006, speaking to classes about her memoir,” said Ray Sun, chair of the WSU history department, which is hosting the event. “Her visit was extremely meaningful to our students and we look forward to welcoming her back for this public lecture.”

 

Him will address growing up in Cambodia under the brutal oppression of the Khmer Rouge regime. As the Vietnam War spilled into Cambodia and the Communist Khmer Rouge party gained power in April 1975, Him’s people and life were affected forever. At age 10 she lost her parents and three of her siblings, endured and witnessed torture, was forced to toil in work camps, and observed executions in the infamous “killing fields.”

 

In power until January 1979, the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, Him said – a third of the Cambodian population – due to execution, malnutrition, torture and forced labor.

 

With an unbroken spirit, Him has turned the horror of this tragedy into her life’s work as an acclaimed author and social activist.

 

A graduate of the University of Oregon, she worked as a research associate for the Oregon Health Sciences University on the Khmer Adolescent Project, a major study of post-traumatic stress disorder in Cambodian youth who survived the Khmer Rouge era. Him lectures at universities and schools around the country and internationally.

 

Her life story has been featured in a documentary film, “The Will to Live,” with South African social rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Honduran physician, politician and humanitarian Juan Almendares.

 

For more information about Chanrithy Him, go to: http://www.chanrithyhim.com/.