Explora tions in Sights and Sounds
skimpier than t h i s prose that carries elega ntly-i n her s i m pl e i n for­
mative style-so much weighty personal and com m u na l l egacy.
Walters i l l ustrates from her " i nsider" point of view the
a l i e n ation and confusion of a ative c h i ld i n a w h i t e educational
syste m . I n school, I n d i a ns were d i scussed always in reference to the
past or were erased completely from the curric u l um because they
were seen as defeated people.
In l iterature, Walters sees the m isrepresentations and the
eradication of tribal people as educative propaganda used to keep
I n d ians in their pl ace-that is, i nvisible, dead-w h i l e m a i n ta i n i n g
t h e " m ain s t ream 's" status q u o . Because nontribal scholars "do not
necessarily know tribal people best, " Walters argues for the " i n herent
right of tribal people to i n terpret events and time in their worlds
accordi ng to their own aesthetics and values, as a com ponent of
American h istory, even when this i n terpretation i s d i fferent from
that of mai nstream h i story." So far, she adds, even after five h u n d red
years,
ative people "remain strangers to American society and
h istory . "
With t h i s book, Walters' d i scussion of h e r own l i fe and
l i terature m a kes her and her non tribal readers less estranged from one
another. Wal ters generously offers readers a rather comprehensi ve
look i nto the legacy of one Native American writer, her way of
t h in k i ng and being i n the world, a personal defi n ition that refi n e s
a n d expands pub l i c defi n i tions of " American " h istory a n d l i terature.
E l i zabeth McNeil
Arizona State Un i versi ty
Usha Welaratna. Beyond the K illing Fields: Voices of Nine Cambo­
dian Survivors in A merica . (Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 1 993) 285 pp., $ 29.95 hard cover.
Alt hough approx i m ately 1 50,000 Cambodi ans now reside i n
t h e U n i ted States, very l i tt l e i n formation h a s been p u b l is h ed o n t h i s
group. W h e n ava i l able at a l l , descriptive and statistical d a t a about
Cambodi a n s is gene ra l l y l u m ped together with that of Laoti a n s and
Vi etnamese i n the category "Southeast Asian Refugees. " This is a
grave shortcom ing: fi rst, beca use the Cambod i a n s ' c u lture i s q u i te
di fferent from that of other Southeast Asians-ma k i ng aggregate
accounts of their experi e n ce i naccurate; and second, and perhaps
even more i m portant, i s the fact t h at the Cambodi a n people h ave
experienced one of the most horrible holocausts i n modern h i s tory,
making t h e i r ordeal one w h i c h should be well -documented such that
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Number 1 4 (Summer 1 994)
human i ty m ight prevent its repetition. However, with the publica­
tion of Beyond the Killing Fields, a valuable new source of i n formation
about Cambodians i n the U ni ted States has becom e ava i l able.
The author feels a strong kinsh i p with the Cambodi ans
because, l ike them, she is also a n Asian i m m igrant (from Sri Lanka)
and a devotee of Theravada Buddhism . Based upon this highly
personal approach, the book is built a roun d in-depth i n terviews with
nine Cambodians residing in the San Francisco Bay area.
The respondents, whom the author refers to as " n a rrators , "
are a d iverse group a n d include a former monk, a teenage girl, a
welfare m other, and a col lege student, among others . Each offers a
detailed record of h i s or her l i fe h i story a n d world view i n c l uding l i fe
before, duri ng, a n d after "the Pol Pot t i m e, " when a revolution ary
movement attem pted to rem a ke Cambodian society from the bot­
tom up and, in so doing, anni h i l ated 1 . S m i l l i o n of the nation's seven
m i l l ion i n habitants.
Subj ects describe how t hey were able to survive d u r i ng a time
when so m a ny oth ers perished. Because the author i s interested in
Budd h i s m , she d i rects her narrators a n d readers to consider the h uge
contradiction i nvolved in how a Buddhist people who prohibit
kil l i n g could engage i n such an orgy of violence, as wel l as how the
survivors of t h i s h olocaust cope with the m oral and s p i ritual i m p l i ­
cations of these events. Welaratna finds that w h i l e s o m e n a rrators
wish they coul d " k i l l the Pol Pot" for t h e i r evil actions, others remain
true to Buddhist teac h i ngs a n d con t i n u e to rej ect violence.
Another of the book's m aj o r concerns is the extent to which
Cambodians are accepti n g typically America n outlooks a n d cultural
practices . The author concludes that while Cambodians a dopt cer­
tain Americanisms, they are less w i l l i n g to ass i m i l ate t h an m an y
other contemporary i mm igrant a n d refugee groups-i n c l u d i ng t h e
Vietnam ese, with w h o m t h e y a r e often com pared. Welaratna a rgues
that scholars and policy m akers who condemn Cambod i a n s ' " lack of
succes s " in the U nited States fai l to understand C a m bod i a n s ' actions
i n terms of t h e culturally-rooted values a n d m otives that t hey,
themselves, h o l d dear.
My criticis m s of Beyond the Killing Fields center around the
author's use of oral h istory metho dology. W h i l e h e r n i ne respon­
dents give very vivid accounts of their experiences, s u c h a s m a l l group
fai l s to give a broad p i cture of the Cambodian experience in the
U n i ted States . Furt h er, while the author e m p h a s izes C am bodi a n
culture's e m p h a s i s o n collectivism , t h e book h a s a decidedly i ndi­
vidua l i st i c focus-rooted both i n the n arrators' l i fe h istories as well
as the author's references to her own backgro u n d and i n teractions
with the subjects. In contrast, t h ere i s virtually n o i n formation about
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Explorations in Sights and Sounds
Cambodian com m u n ities i n the U nited States. We are not even
i n formed of the neighborhoods in t h e San Francisco Bay Area where
these narrators l ive.
Consequently, a reader of t h i s book would h ave no idea of the
ful l nature of Cambodian adaptatio n to the Uni ted States, one that
i ncludes thriving C a m bodian busi ness districts in Long Beach, Cali­
fornia, and Revere, Ma ssachusetts, or their extensive i n vo l vement in
Southern Cal i fo r n i a donut shops as revealed in Charles Davis' docu­
mentary Cambodian Donut Dreams which ai red on PBS.
These criticisms notwithstanding, Beyond the Killing Fields is
a valuable contribution to our understanding of Cambodian refugees
and holocaust studies. It is i nherently fascinating and t h e i nterviews
are rich and well edited. The book is appropriate for a b road range of
readers, including both academ i cs and an i n terested public.
Steven Gold
Whittier College
Lynn Brod ie Welch, e d . Perspectives on Minority Women in Higher
Education . (New York: Praeger, 1 99 2 ) x, 1 63 pp., $ 3 9 . 9 5 .
Th i s book i s a com pi lation o f papers presented a t various
I n ternational Con ferences fo r Women i n H igher Education spon­
sored by the U n ivers ity of Texas at E I Paso. The chapters focus on the
educational experience from very d i fferent views i n c l u d i ng class­
room experiences, rel ations with co-workers, h i storical aspects, and
m i nority wom e n as leaders . In addition, there are chapters focusi ng
on the experiences of s peci fic eth n i c groups, with the content at
ti mes being o n l y m a rgi n a l l y related to the higher educational expe­
rience. Collectively, the chapters provide the reader with a b road
perspective on the situations m i n ority women are l i kely to encounter
while working in col leges and un iversities in many parts of the world.
One weakness of the book i s a lack of references at the end of
each article. There is a n extensive l i st of sources p rovided in the
bibliography at the end of the book, but t h i s m akes it d i fficult to
determ ine a l l of the sou rces which were used to su pport the content
of a specific article. This would be less critical if the book h ad been
written by one author, but as a c u m u l ation of works from various
i ndividuals, the reade r has n o sense of how well an author's conclu­
sions are supported by p revious resea rch .
I n coveri n g a wide ra nge of i ssues related to t h e experiences
of m i nority wom e n in higher education, the s hortness of the total
book dictates that each of the issues i s not covered in great depth. As
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