My documentary photographic work primarily concerns contemporary social, cultural and political matters facing Southeast Asia and how these intersect my own personal history and experiences. My photography evolved from my personal journey through historical events and across cultures. My childhood was disrupted by the U.S. War in Southeast Asia and the political and cultural turmoil of the Khmer Rouge’s brutal re-ordering of Cambodian society. Left as refugees by war, my family finally arrived in the United States in 1981. Until a few years ago, I was officially “Stateless” and carried a United Nations refugee travel document.

My recent photography has been a process of re-consideration and re-appropriation of these past experiences. From mid-April to June 1989, I spent most of my time between my dormitory and the Square, talking to students and taking photographs. I felt both an insider and an outsider in Beijing, and the photographs I took reflect the intimate access I had to the demonstrations ¾ being Chinese, I was not barred from areas where Western journalists were not allowed ¾ while at the same time, I was still discovering and confronting what it meant to be Chinese during this turbulent time. In 1992-1993, I retraced my steps as a refugee in Cambodia. In 1994, an Arts International/National Endowment for the Arts grant supported a second Cambodia project on landmine. In 1995-1997, I documented various aspects of the Cambodian people’s social, economic and cultural recovery from the effects of the then ongoing civil war.