This content was published: February 15, 2008. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Chanrithy Him explores her days under Khmer Rouge
Photos and story by James Hill
An award-winning author and international public speaker is coming to Portland Community College.
Chanrithy Him will present her story of living under Combodia’s Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Her talk is from noon to 2 p.m., Friday, March 7, the Event Center, Rock Creek Campus, 17705 N.W. Springville Road. The lecture will be followed by a dance performance and a book signing. Refreshments will be served. The event, free and open to the public, is a celebration of International Women’s Day.
A Khmer classical dancer and a human rights activist, Him was born in Takeo, Cambodia. She received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Oregon. Him lives in Portland where she writes screenplays and works on the sequel to her widely acclaimed memoir, “When Broken Glass Floats: Growing up under the Khmer Rouge” (Norton 2000). The book details the life of the 9-year-old Him when the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia and her family began their trek through the hell of the killing fields. Him vividly recounts a Cambodia where rudimentary labor camps were the norm and technology, such as cars and electricity, no longer existed. Death becomes a companion at the camps, along with illness. Sponsored by an uncle in Oregon in 1979, the family was able to escape Cambodia and find a new life in America.
For more information, call (503) 614-7448.
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »