LUCKY CHILD UNVEILED

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Lucky Child Unveiled
Megan Miller

Summary
Lucky Child is a memoir braiding together Loung Ungs life in America with her sisters life in
Cambodia. Beginning with their separation in 1980, Loung relies on memories to rejoin the lives of two
sisters living in two different nations. Chapters alternate between sisters focusing on Loungs life in
America as she strives to forget the horrors of Cambodia where her sister Chou struggles to survive.
Through each alternating chapter, Chou and Loung search for identity as they leave childhood behind:
Chou to begin a family of her own, Loung to become an educated American. While each dreams of seeing
the other once again, years fly by and its before their separation ends. In that time, Loung has distanced
herself from her Chinese culture, but has recognized that the ties of family and home can never be severed
from her true identity.
Themes
Three themes come forward in Ungs memoir: family, culture, and identity. These three are
emphasized by comparing and contrasting Loungs and Chous growth from child to adult in America and
Cambodia. The theme of family is emphasized in Chous respect and obedience to her elders will and
Loungs wrestle with her older brother for independence. Describing her sisters betrothal to reveal the
importance of obedience, Loung stated:
Chou knows that she herself will not question Uncle Leang and Aunt Keangs choice of a
husband when it is time for her to marry. Chou has heard that in the city, some girls fight their
elders to choose their own husbands. Chou just doesnt know how someone at the age of sixteen
or eighteen would know how to choose a good husband. (p.151)
Loung continues the theme of obedience to family through her own infatuation with a boy named
Chris. She blames her older brother for her naivety in dating, stating:
Meng doesnt allow me to dateever! Or at least until Im nineteen and not living under his roof.
So while many other students my age have kissed and even gone all the way with boys, I have yet
to go on a date, hold hands, or kiss a boy. (p.138)

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Her frustration expressed towards her brother reveals the struggle between her American perception of
independence and her Cambodian perception of obedience.
The second theme, culture, appears by comparing and contrasting the lifestyles of Loung and
Chou. Loungs irritation and complaints of school are contrasted by Chous joy for the opportunity to
attend classes having been absent from school due to the oppression of Khmer rule. The differences of
dating mentioned above also reveal important cultural aspects of Cambodian life compared to the
freedom of American life.
Both of these themes play into the most prevalent theme of identity. Through this novel, Loung
expresses her wish to become American, her desire to forget the horrors of Cambodia, yet the ever present
chain connecting her to the land of her family and birth. Loung shares her desire to assimilate at school
when she wants new friends who are not Asians, who arent different. (p.59) In struggling to
assimilate, Loung comes to the realization that she is alienated from her Chinese culture and the American
culture she did not acquire by birth. This conflict of identity is best seen in her reunion with Chou:
I look at her, and the American part of me wants to take her in my arms in a warm
embrace, but the Cambodian/Chinese part of me holds back. In America, I hug Maria, Tori, and
my friends but never Eang, Meng, or any other Cambodian people. So I stand there, my arms
hanging awkwardly by my sides while the crowd watches. (p.251)
Although she may perform the mannerisms appropriate to either culture, she struggles with the desire to
perform one over the other. Loungs desire to entwine her Cambodian culture with her American culture
reveals the complexity of assimilation and the confusion of identity that results.
Personal Connections
Reading this memoir reinforced my suspicions that children remember and understand more than
adults accredit. Loungs recollection of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge reveal the darkness present in
any childs life. Concepts such as rape, starvation, death, and murder are things the American culture
attempts to suppress in the lives of children. Even as their knowledge expands, these concepts are dulled
and alienated through novels, film, and videogames to be safely experienced within ones own room.

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But the chance of children learning these outside of school or home are all too real. Worse,
students may learn of these first hand within the home. The assumption that all students live in sheltered
loving homes is a terrible mistake no teacher wants to make, and Loungs experiences cause me to
wonder how a teacher might best recognize these students silent pleas for help.
Learning Community Connections
The communication conflict between Loung and Chou at the end of the novel was something my
Circle and I were most interested in. While assimilating to American culture, Loung acquired American
phrases and habits contrary to her Chinese family, creating a rift of confusion and alienation between
siblings. We thought this most interesting considering Loungs efforts to become American only to realize
that she can no longer identify with her Cambodian culture. As an immigrant, she fails to fully claim an
American identity, thus finding herself a woman of neither culture, and yet a participant of both. This idea
of alienation from both the parent culture and desired culture intrigued us, and I couldnt help but
consider the stress under which many students of immigrant families find themselves. The desire to
belong is one every child feels growing up, and the pressure to be American yet maintain ones home
culture must be confusing.
Implications and Impact
It is of the upmost importance that the classroom be a safe and encouraging environment.
Students should find school to be inclusive and teachers curious of diversity while being sensitive to
students needs. Cushner, McClelland, and Safford (2011) address the importance of inclusive teaching,
stating that heterogeneity within a group is both unavoidable and desirable and that differences in ability
[] are not marks of greater or lesser worth. (p.403) With this in mind, teachers must welcome the
differences within the class and allow students to explore and understand that their differences should not
alienate but advertise them as something unique to add to their group of peers. Differences must be
perceived as specialized tools that allow for new and unique approaches in solving real world problems.
A teachers goal is to recognize and address misconceptions made within and without the
classroom regarding those differences, allowing students to empathize with those of different cultures and

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backgrounds rather than alienate what they dont understand. As noted by Cushner et al. (2011) Contact
[between individuals of different cultures] not only produces changes in peoples attitudes, values, and
behaviors, but may also significantly affect their culture identity. (p.171) The impact cultures play on
one another is significant in developing self-identity, and teachers must be mediators to assure
misconceptions are corrected. Being perceptive and impressionable of the world around them, students
may easily jump to conclusions, labeling and reinforcing labels that may have been introduced by a
teacher or the outside world. Thus, student-teacher interactions impact students identities and influence
multicultural interactions between the younger generations.

References
Cushner, K., McClelland, A., & Safford, P. L. (2011). Human diversity in education: an
intercultural approach (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Ung, L. (2005). Lucky child: a daughter of Cambodia reunites with the sister she left behind.
New York: HarperCollins.