Escaping Cambodia: Arn Chorn-Pond

Arn Chorn-Pond was born into a prominent family of performers and musicians in Cambodia, but when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, he was sent to a children’s work camp. He escaped death by execution and starvation by playing flute for the camp’s guards. When Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978, Arn Chorn-Pond was given a gun and forced to fight. He escaped into the jungle and eventually reached a refugee camp in Thailand. He was befriended and adopted by Peter Pond, a Lutheran Minister, and educated in the United States. Today, he’s an international human rights activist and founder of a group teaching a new generation of Cambodians about traditional music and art forms. He’s the subject of the new book “Never Fall Down” and speaks tonight at the University of South Dakota.