The Price We Paid: A Life Experience in the Khmer Rouge Regime, Cambodia

by Victoria Seng

April 17, 1975-the Communist Khmer Rouge Regime seized power and forced Cambodians of all ages into slavery, turning their lives upside down. This resulted in the death of more than 1.5 million Cambodians out of roughly 8 million population due to forced labor, starvation, and execution.Author Vatey Seng was only thirteen years old when the Khmer Rouge took control. The Price We Paid is her vivid and haunting memoir of the atrocities of the regime. Vatey recounts everything from the initial occupation through the indoctrination and application of the Khmer Rouge's ways of life. Every aspect of her family's life was impacted as the new government achieved its goals through child labor, slavery, and genocide. Vatey's memories provide a glimpse into what the people of Cambodia endured during this dark regime-a regime that totally devastated her beloved country. The Price We Paid also follows the aftermath of the regime. Vatey and her family fled the country and stayed in refugee camps in Thailand, the processing center in the Philippines, and then immigrated to America in 1982.Twenty-five years later, she has gathered the courage and strength to finally tell her story-a story shared by countless Cambodian survivors who still bear the psychological scars of their traumatic experiences. This is the price they paid for the Khmer Rouge revolution.

280 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2005

Reviews

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my quest to learn more about women's experiences during the Pol Pot regime I've read some good books (When Broken Glass Floats, The Stones Cry Out, and First They Killed My Father) and some poor ones (Escape From the Killing Fields, From Phnom Penh to Paradise), but this one was a mix. The biggest problem is that the book is written in the broken, flawed English of a Cambodian who is not yet fluent. The result of not editing the misspellings, grammatical errors, and bad syntax is that Seng sounds ignorant and childish to us, which seriously interferes with this otherwise remarkable story.

Seng's tale of survival in communist Kampuchea goes beyond some of the other memoirs by admitting that, in order to survive, Seng had to become a chhlop--an informant on others in the commune. While she does say that she did not provide any damaging information, this is still a heavy admission. Obviously to refuse to do this would have been dangerous, but she is courageous to have described this experience. She also mentions a number of details about her life under the Angka which suggest that she suffered less than many others--there are fewer references to mass starvation than in most of the other memoirs (although her own father died of starvation) and Seng did not witness any executions or torture.

The story is told in charming and vibrant detail, even though it is clear that Seng is not an experienced writer, but she brings her own pleasant optimism and strength of mind to the story, making it appealing and informative. Interestingly, she supported the Khmer Rouge during the very early days after the fall of Phnom Penh, little realizing what was to come. She is by no means a scholar of history--the book opens with a rather clumsy outline of Cambodian events prior to Pol Pot--but she does a good job of explaining Khmer customs and culture to a non-Khmer audience.

As a historical document, this book is useful and fulfills the author's desire to inform the world about the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. As a memoir, it suffers from a lack of editorial oversight, but is still a respectable story of survival in the midst of mass murder, slavery and hopelessness.

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surviving Genocide to Achieve the American Drama

What matters here is the story which is one of gritty determination to keep a family intact despite years of depravity and violence. Such is the survival story of #vateyseng , aka #victoriaseng , a daughter of privilege whose father had achieved rank in the #cambodianarmy . His position allowed him to bring up his family in a comfortable, middle class existence that was the envy of the uneducated rural masses that made up the rank and file of the rebel #khmerrouge and its effort to purge the professional, western oriented class that occupied the cities of #cambodia . Good fortune permitted the author's father with the ability to hide his identity though his cultured and well educated children had to daily challenge to blend in with the masses who were flushed from the cities into a life of slavery in the fertile countryside. And, for four years, the teenage author, despite being small of frame, proved her capability in the brutal manual labor that kept her and the family alive for the most part.

While this is a story of suffering, this isn't one of systematic mass killings though the bodies did emerge from the riverbanks and dykes ever being constructed by hand to keep the land producing rice. Instead, this is a story of deprivation, humiliation and starvation and the ability to make a better life after it all. My only criticism is that this book could have benefited from an editor to assist in grammar and clarity. Definitely a story worth reading.
#readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #internationalreadingchallenge #cambodia #khmerrougegenocide #cambodianauthor

[Danial Tanvir · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a book about a girl called vatey seng .
her country combodia is invaded by the khemer rouge regime of combodia.
this happens on april 17, 1975.
its about how 1.5 million combodians were killed out of 8 million.
its about how 95% of the people in combodia are buddhist.
she is a little girl and is sent to the killing fields and has to work over there and she has to face great hard times.
she has to suffer a lot over there ,she has to work over there.
the regime is over thrown and she is free and then she starts a new life.
she escapes from combodia and goes to refugee camps in thailand and the processing center in the philippines and then she goes to amercia in 1982 and she starts a new life over there.
this book could have been much better.
this was the price she had to pay for freedom.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lack of editing of the author's grammar didn't bother me. I considered it another important biography to read of this devastating period.