I would like to share a new war novel full of historical facts about the Authors father’s life turning Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide by Mae Bunseng Taing (Author), James Taing (Author) into a memoir. I received a copy of the book from Voracious Readers and the Author in exchange for this review. Inside this post is my affiliate links. If you click on the links and make a purchase I will make a small percentage from the items you purchase.
Teaching a High School Homeschool History class I am learning there is a lot I didn’t know or hadn’t heard of or didn’t remember including Cambodia’s genocidal regime which has not only been a teaching lesson for my but my family as well. Under the Naga Tail is a Historical memoir written by James Taing, of his father, Mae’s, haunting experiences during the Cambodian culture wars in the 1970s. James Tang he barely survived and many others didn’t.
The accounts included in Under the Naga Tail are harrowing and even heartbreaking as we learn what these people are put through. For me the story was hard to share with my son because I thought it might depress him but we read it as a family and learned so much about History we wouldn’t have none otherwise.
The part of the story that was surprising to me was how Jams Tang was able to find and cling to kindness people bestowed upon him which may have helped keep him alive. This memoir is the story of Mae Bunseng Taing, a teenaged Chinese Cambodian and the story starts in 1968, when the Cambodian civil war started.
The “freedom fighters” became known as the Khmer Rouge and they were eventually defeated, but not before they killed millions of their own citizens through overwork and starvation. When that didn’t work, they shot them for or no reason at all. Can you imagine having to live through this?
After the Civil was is crushed, things do not get better. Mae’s father decides the family must leave Cambodia because they are not safe there any more. The family joins a large group of other refugees going to Thailand, the closest Country to where they are. Being in Cambodia starts out well, but soon the Thailand government feel overwhelmed.
They bus the refugees to a Mountainside near the border of Cambodia filled with landmines, they give them a little water and Rice and tell them to “go home”. Thank the Lords Mae’s story does get better and James and his family do find refuge in the United States.But the things they lived through never completely go away.
About the book:
A courageous and poignant memoir of one young man’s daring escape from Cambodia’s genocidal regime
Forced from his home by the Khmer Rouge, teenager Mae Taing struggles to endure years of backbreaking work, constant starvation, and ruthless cruelty from his captors—supposed freedom fighters who turned against their own people. Mae risks torture and death to escape into the dark tropical jungles, trekking across a relentless wilderness crawling with soldiers.
When Mae is able to overcome unthinkable odds in the hopes of reuniting with his family, fate takes cruel turn as he flees war-torn Cambodia. He becomes trapped as a refugee with thousands of others on the ancient temple mountain, Preah Vihear, a place surrounded by countless deadly landmines. Caught up in the terror once more, it is only his willpower to survive and dreams of a better Country that give Mae the strength to face the dangers ahead.
This gripping and inspiring memoir, written with Mae’s son, James, is not merely an incredible story of survival, but a testament to the human spirit’s capacity in us all to endure and prevail in spite of great adversity. Under the Naga Tail will find its place among the most epic true stories of personal triumph.
Meet the Author: Mae Bunseng Taing
Mae is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. He has been featured in the HAAPI Film Festival award-winning documentary Ghost Mountain, released in 2019. He lives in Connecticut and has run a full-time home painting business for more than thirty years. This is his first book and memoir.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
