Khun Srun

In this Cambodian name, the surname is Khun. In accordance with Cambodian custom, this person should be referred to by the given name.
Khun Srun
BornOctober 3, 1945
Takéo Province, Cambodia
DiedDecember 1978
(aged 33)
Occupation
  • Writer
LanguageKhmer
Notable worksThe Accused - The Last Residence

Khun Srun (Khmer: ឃុន ស្រ៊ុន, 1945–1978) was an important Cambodian writer. He was born in Char village (ភូមិចារ), Rorvieng sub-district (ឃុំរវៀង),[1] Samrong district (ស្រុកសំរោង), Takéo province, into a poor Chinese Cambodian family. When he was eight, his father, Khun Kim Chheng, a Chinese man who had fled Communism, died, and he and his six siblings were raised by his mother, Chi Eng, a small shopkeeper and a devout Buddhist.[2] He began his schooling during the country's first years of independence, when the doors to higher education and professionalization were inching open to all Cambodians, regardless of their social and economic class.[3] A brilliant student, he studied Khmer literature and psychology at the university in Phnom Penh, becoming widely read in sciences, mathematics, and European literature. Amid the turmoil of the 1960s, he worked as a professor of mathematics and a journalist while writing fiction and poetry. He also worked as a member of the textbook editorial committee at the Ministry of Education. In less than four years, he published three collections of poems, short tales, and philosophical anecdotes; two collections of autobiographical short stories, The Last Residence and The Accused; and a final volume of poems, For a Woman (this last book was probably never published). He was influenced by both existentialism and Cambodian Buddhism. In 1971, he was imprisoned[4][5] during 7 months by the right-wing Lon Nol government for refusing to collaborate, but still refused to align himself with the extreme left.[6] In 1973, after being imprisoned for a second time, he finally joined the communist guerrillas. He was only 28, and his life as a writer was finished. After the Khmer Rouge took power, in 1975, Khun Srun (aka Phoeun - ភឿន[7][8][9]) was assigned work as a railway engineer[10]). On the 20th of December 1978, he, his wife and their two youngest children were victims of the last purges. They were arrested, transferred to Tuol Sleng prison and probably killed in Choeung Ek, few days before the end of Pol Pot's regime. Only Khun Srun's nine-year-old daughter, Khun Khem, survived, taken by Khmer Rouge cadres and forced to live among them in the forest on the Cambodian-Thai border.

One of his brothers, Khun Ngoy, was among the intellectuals who returned to Cambodia and disappeared from Dey Kraham (Red Land) camp.[11]

The life and writing of Khun Srun is portrayed in Eric Galmard's documentary film, A Tomb for Khun Srun (2015).[12]

  1. ^ Near the famous Neang Khmao temple (Khmer: ប្រាសាទនាងខ្មៅ) where he learned to read and to write.
  2. ^ Macquet, Christophe (2003). "Five Cambodian Writers" (PDF). Revue Europe. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  3. ^ Thien, Madeleine (2016). "Fragments from The Accused". Brick Magazine. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  4. ^ DC-Cam, Document (2006). "Searching For The Truth: Heng Song Hy, Confession Summary)" (PDF). Magazine of The Documentation Center of Cambodia. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  5. ^ DC-Cam, Document (2014). "ចម្លើយសារភាព ហេង សុងហ៊ី ហៅ គា និស្សិតមកពីបារាំងដកស្រង់ចេញពីឯកសារចម្លើយសារភាព D៥ ១៩៧៦)". ស្វែងរកការពិត. Archived from the original on 19 November 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  6. ^ "Khun Srun: The Accused (excerpt)". Mānoa, University of Hawaii Press. 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  7. ^ Khun Srun took as a revolutionary alias the name of one of the characters in his book The Last Residence (Khmer: គ្រូភឿន).
  8. ^ DC-Cam, Document. "Tuol Sleng Box 16 No 5483". ID Number D02612. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  9. ^ DC-Cam, Document. "Tuol Sleng ID of CBIO Record: K07047". ID Number TKI0690. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  10. ^ DC-Cam, Document. "Tuol Sleng No 0217". ID Number K07047. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  11. ^ Ong, Thong Hoeung (2010). "Liste of the people disappeared from the camp the Red Land (APPENDIX 2)". Ong Thong Hoeung's Blog. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  12. ^ Galmard, Eric (2015). "A Tomb for Khun Srun". Dora Films.