H&P 2020

When immigration policies in the United States were liberalized in 1965, the identity of the Chinese American community was further diversified. After the Vietnam War in 1975 over two and a half million Indo-Chinese refugees resettled around the globe, majority in the United States of America. This issue of Chinese America: History & Perspectives dives into the subject of Chinese Cambodian Americans.

Scott Pribble’s “Chinese Cambodian History through Memoirs: From Democratic Kampuchea to America” gives us the historical background of the Chinese in Cambodia and the role they played in the creation and operation of Cambodia’s underground market. Cheryl Yin’s “How I Became a Chenchhow in America,” gives us a glimpse of her upbringing as the daughter of Chinese Cambodian refugees in the United States. Essays by Ammie Tea recount her family’s survival during the Cambodian genocide and their revival in the United States due to the close network of Chinese Cambodians of Teochew descent. Linda Marie Pheng examines how her multiple identities inform her understanding of what it means to be the daughter of refugees, queer, and Southeast Asian American. Jonathan H. X. Lee’s essay, “Becoming Chinese Cambodian American ” discusses the complexity of identity construction and his own identity as Chinese, Cambodian, and American.

This issue also includes a critical assessment of Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential election campaign, written by Frank H. Wu, and research notes by Charlotte Brooks, on the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facilities and the valuable but little used documents relevant to Chinese American history.