Unpolished Gem Themes

After escaping a state-sponsored genocide led by Pol Pot, Cambodia’s tyrannical leader, protagonist Alice Pung’s parents finally arrive in Victoria, Australia in 1980 after spending a year in a Thai refugee camp. Kuan Pung and his pregnant wife, Kien, are determined to raise their growing family away from the violence and political instability of Southeast Asia and instead claim their own piece of the great Australian Dream—the belief that through hard work and…

Alice Pung’s memoir, Unpolished Gem, follows her young life growing up in Australia as the daughter of Chinese immigrants from Cambodia. Removed from her Eastern heritage, Alice’s Chinese roots come alive through her grandmother Huyen Thai’s stories of the old country, and it is through these stories that Alice discovers what it means to be Chinese. Her parents are frequent storytellers as well, and Alice often relies on works of literature and…

The value of family is well established within Alice Pung’s memoir, Unpolished Gem, and it drives the narrative throughout the book. Alice begins her story in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where her parents and her paternal grandmother and aunt walk across three countries on foot to escape a state-sponsored genocide. Kuan and Kien, Alice’s parents, are determined to start their own family away from the violence and destruction of Cambodia, and the…