Ung-Lai, Luong

Luong Ung-Lai was born in the city of Angkor in Cambodia and grew up being called by her childhood nickname, Moy. The harrowing experiences she endured at age eleven during the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 included having to smell and walk on dead bodies, and subsequently watching helplessly as her grandfather and mother died slow and painful deaths in succession. Six years after leaving Cambodia, Luong started writing The Freedom...Cage in 1987, shaping her memories into a narrative form in a process of psychological healing. Her story is presented here with newly composed poems and a clos...