Genocide, Racism, and Propaganda Theme Analysis

The Khmer Rouge is a deeply paranoid, xenophobic, racist regime that seeks to rid Cambodia of all outside influence and so-called “ethnic poison.” As a child with no broader understanding of the historical or political issues that lead to the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime, Loung Ung frequently questions the rationale behind the Angkar’s brutality, only to find that there really is none. In this way, her innocence highlights the absurdity of hating people on the basis of their ethnicity.

The Khmer Rouge takes power at a time when tensions between racial groups in Cambodia are already palpable. Loung notes that Cambodians of Chinese descent “have almond-shaped eyes, thin noses, and light skin” while “pure Khmer have curly black hair, flat noses, full lips, and dark chocolate skin.” Ma comes from a well-to-do Chinese background, and her “porcelain white skin” is associated with beauty and sophistication. Ma’s parents objected to her and Pa’s marriage specifically because Pa, who was born in a poor village, is dark-skinned. This is its own kind of racism and colorism—one more consistent with the global climate of colonialism—but in response to it the Khmer Rouge goes to the opposite extreme. Loung notices notice that the Khmer Rouge soldiers who march through Phnom Penh are “dark-skinned, like the peasant workers at [her] uncle's farm.” Pa later explains that the Khmer Rouge has exploited the atmosphere of resentment between the urban rich and the rural poor to garner support from the countryside. Because rural workers often have darker skin and more typically-Khmer features, the Angkar’s rule encourages extreme prejudice against anyone with lighter skin. Lighter skin is further associated with being mixed race—something the vehemently xenophobic Khmer Rouge cannot abide. The group thus exploits preexisting—but ultimately meaningless—racial divisions and prejudices to further its own horrific ends.

One of the first things the Khmer Rouge does upon seizing power is expel foreigners from the country and forbid anything suggestive of foreign—especially Western—influence. Things like cars and electronics are banned, Kim tells Loung, because the Angkar believes imports give “foreign countries a way to invade Cambodia.” Despite widespread famine, foreign aid is rejected on similar grounds. Upon the family’s arrival in Ro Leap, the village chief announces that everyone must wear the same black clothes to rid themselves “of the corrupt Western creation of vanity.” The Angkar goes so far in its quest for Cambodian “self-reliance” as to deem those who have always lived in the countryside “model citizens” while rejecting people from cities as having been “corrupted by the West.” As such, Pa insists that Loung’s family pretend to be peasants from the countryside and never speak of their life in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge’s hatred of foreigners is, of course, extremely shortsighted, leading to a lack of doctors and medicine that in turn contributes to a spike in otherwise preventable deaths (including Keav’s).  Because the Angkar’s xenophobia is intrinsically linked to belief in the superiority of the Khmer race, it is inextricable from extreme nationalism and racial prejudice—which, together, set the stage for the Khmer Rouge’s genocide.

Indeed, Loung writes that “Pa says the Angkar is obsessed with ethnic cleansing,” and wants to rid Cambodia “of other races, deemed the source of evil, corruption, and poison.” As Chinese-Cambodians, Ma, Loung, and her siblings are easy targets for the genocidal regime and must therefore work harder to prove themselves valuable and loyal to the new government. “Ma also has to be extra careful because she speaks Khmer with a Chinese accent,” Loung adds, which “will make her a target for the soldiers who want to rid Cambodia of outside ethnic poison.” The Khmer Rouge spreads its hatred to the many villagers who, moved by the Angkar’s propaganda and isolated from the outside world, support the revolution. Without radios or televisions, the Khmer Rouge is the only source of information in these villages, so it can easily skew news to suit its own agenda. Leaders frequently condemn the “Youns” (Vietnamese) as intent on kidnapping Khmer children, raping Khmer women, and murdering Khmer men. Met Bong, the supervisor of the child soldier camp to which Loung is taken, describes the light-skinned Vietnamese “as savages who are bent on taking over our country and our people.”  It is no surprise, then, that Loung observes villagers “make rude comments about ‘lazy white people’” to Ma. While at the child soldier training camp, Loung similarly notes that the other children “despise me and consider me inferior because of my light skin.”

Having inflamed an epidemic of vehement, paranoid ethnic hatred among its people, the Khmer Rouge is bloodthirsty in its attempt to rid Cambodia of so-called “ethnic poison.” Loung does not shy from describing the group’s brutality, noting things such as the overwhelming stench of corpses rotting in the sun; the “tofu-like” bits of brain she sees when her friend Pithy’s skull is crushed by a bomb; and the “trails and puddles of blood” she must walk through after the Khmer Rouge attack the Vietnamese displaced peoples camp. These vivid images emphasize the Khmer Rouge’s utter lack of respect for human life, its shallow justifications for extreme violence, and its attempts to use brutality to terrify the population into submission.

Loung rubs dirt and charcoal on her skin to better blend in with the other villagers, but she ultimately has no idea “what ethnic cleansing means.” Throughout the book Loung does not understand why the horrors she witnesses are happening, unable to grasp why people would treat her—or anyone—differently on the basis of appearance or background. When villagers in Ro Leap spit at Pa’s feet and shout that capitalists should be killed, Loung, who does not know what a capitalist is, cannot understand why the villagers look at her family so angrily when they are “very much the same.” In fact, Loung thinks that, apart from superficial differences like lighter skin or thinner noses, everyone she meets simply looks like a human being. Similarly, when she reaches the displacement camp after the Vietnamese invasion she says, “these men look remarkably human”—not like “the devils” the Khmer Rouge said they were. As a child with no understanding of the political or historical complexities behind the Khmer Rouge’s rise, Loung is in a unique position to cut to the heart of the absurdity of racial, ethnic, and class prejudice. Her childlike view of the world highlights not simply the Khmer Rouge’s barbarity, but the utter irrationality of persecuting people on the basis of their ethnicity in the first place. Loung’s story is thus a condemnation not only of the Khmer Rouge, but of dehumanizing prejudice of any kind.