Former songwriter for the stars reflects on a life well-lived

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wQi7b5TnNn5vU_4vasz3H5ZieHIupX0H4UrCnMFEoW_7_BiHfOhiGiH5OHrlRvMKHm_GZBbE7JZmQm8YN8uNb-8o7MzABsWHtz9TedXPE7mSXd-vJHMOlSmVxSPNUmfObxPBJFv9ZpA/s1600/oum-dara-at-his-home-in-phnom-penh-earlier-this-week.-heng-chivoan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wQi7b5TnNn5vU_4vasz3H5ZieHIupX0H4UrCnMFEoW_7_BiHfOhiGiH5OHrlRvMKHm_GZBbE7JZmQm8YN8uNb-8o7MzABsWHtz9TedXPE7mSXd-vJHMOlSmVxSPNUmfObxPBJFv9ZpA/s640/oum-dara-at-his-home-in-phnom-penh-earlier-this-week.-heng-chivoan.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Oum Dara was once the songwriter, composer and violinist behind some of Cambodian music's most legendary singers like Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea. Today, he has little to show for it materially, but happily looks back on his nearly eight decades.<br /> <br /> Oum Dara lies on a hard wooden bed in his family's hole-in-the-wall apartment in the capital, listening to the tinny notes of Rob Oun Neng Hery ("That's you, My Dear") playing from his cellphone. It's a song he wrote for the iconic singer Sinn Sisamoth in the 1970s.<br /> <br /> "That's you, my dear, who is my fate . . . Please show mercy, and keep it meaningful, until the last day we breathe," Sisamouth croons.<br /> <br /> Dara wrote the song for a beautiful woman more than 40 years ago, but that now feels like a past life. The pictures on his wall show the other famous singers he used to work with, including Pen Ron, Ros Sereysothea, and Meas Hok Seng, from when he was a violinist, music composer and lyricist during the Kingdom's Sangkum period, commonly known as the Golden Age.<br /> <br /> "My life at that time was almost perfect," Dara says. "I could enjoy doing what I was passionate about while earning big money, enough for me to have a big house and a modern Kawasaki, while many people recognised me outside. But, now, they are all gone."<br /> <br /> Born in 1940 in Koh Sotin district in Kampong Cham province, Dara was the son of a customs official and first learned to play violin at the age of 14 from a forest ranger named Keo Vokrat. His father later hired a French violin tutor to come to his house. After a stint as an elementary school teacher, he took up the violin professionally, just as the popular music scene was beginning to flourish.<br /> <br /> During the early '60s, Dara moved to the capital to play for National Radio of Cambodia, and became well known when in 1966 he was asked to compose the music for Lolok Nhy Chmol ("A Couple of Doves"), sung by Meas Hok Seng. Within a few years, Dara was not only writing music but the lyrics as well, and his songs are still listened to today across generations.<br /> <br /> The stories in them, typically of love gone wrong, are from his own experiences, like Os Sangkhem ("Out of Hope"), in which Sinn Sisamouth channels Dara's unrequited love for a female colleague at the National Radio station.<br /> <br /> Chhob Srolanh Oun Tov ("Please Stop Loving Me"), sung by Ros Sereysothea, describes his sadness when his first wife asked him for a divorce in 1973 because, he says, of his focus on his career and not on her.<br /> <br /> "My own experience and the story of people I know add colour to the song and music," Dara says.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUySJKrsA6a1wDyf20xpgbrOT7f6WLpXWauE2x-s_AqyppVeCf6PbfxfeSHvGrTi8Ta5frwsJY9SxKEGnmK0zF7EpWwFS9ipNaGeTjhuNwj-_St444xF7lxVgPWalpzQsluwN_0zHhw_I/s1600/a-photo-from-oum-daras-wedding-to-his-second-wife-sam-vanna.-supplied.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUySJKrsA6a1wDyf20xpgbrOT7f6WLpXWauE2x-s_AqyppVeCf6PbfxfeSHvGrTi8Ta5frwsJY9SxKEGnmK0zF7EpWwFS9ipNaGeTjhuNwj-_St444xF7lxVgPWalpzQsluwN_0zHhw_I/s320/a-photo-from-oum-daras-wedding-to-his-second-wife-sam-vanna.-supplied.jpg" width="213" /></a></div> When the Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975, Dara was forced out of Phnom Penh to Kandal, and was treated as one of the "new people" – the corrupted urban elite who had strayed from the Khmer Rouge's peasant ideal.<br /> <br /> He was alone and did not bring anything with him – and certainly not a violin. However, unlike many Cambodian artists who were killed by Khmer Rouge cadres because of their professions, Dara was able to escape the killing, starvation and even hard labour thanks to his musical skill.<br /> <br /> "A Khmer Rouge cadre recognised me, and asked me to join their troupe as a violinist," he said. "I was ordered to play songs about communism and revolution, especially in front of the diplomats from China. I did not like it at all, but this job helped me survive, and I even had enough to eat since I always got to eat with the cadre."<br /> <br /> After the fall of the Pol Pot regime, Dara moved from one job to another and spent a short time living at a refugee camp along the Thai border, before resuming his career as a musical instructor and composer for the Ministry of Information.<br /> <br /> But he never recovered professionally from the destruction of the Khmer Rouge and today he is living in poverty. All that is left of his career is a violin and a cache of unreleased songs. A traffic accident 10 years ago immobilised the legendary violinist and impaired his ability to play the violin.<br /> <br /> Dara's wife, Sam Vanna, 60, says her husband's humility, and lack of sociability, prevented him from moving up the ranks of society.<br /> <br /> "Unlike many artists, he is not a boot-licker," Vanna says. "He would not write a song that promotes or praises anyone, or copies other's works. I am angry with him sometimes for that, but I am also proud of him."<br /> <br /> Oum Tharath, Dara's younger daughter and a successful mixed martial arts fighter, said she is disappointed that she could not carry on her father's legacy.<br /> <br /> "Despite our hard life, I am proud of having a father who is a famous musician who created masterpieces and originality," Tharoth said. "As a child, I also wanted to learn to play violin, but I am not keen on it, and more into sport."<br /> <br /> Dara, meanwhile, said he has lived a life of happiness, and if there is another to come he would like to be born a musician again.<br /> <br /> "I want the next generations of Cambodians to strongly promote music, like how people do in developed countries," Dara said. "It is one of the things that make life enjoyable."

Former songwriter for the stars reflects on a life well-lived

Oum Dara was once the songwriter, composer and violinist behind some of Cambodian music's most legendary singers like Sinn Sisamouth ...

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Eclectic blues festival invites diverse artists

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-hRwUTziRMuocAO4E97zWtKHdJaNsatM-I7mpGPuBAzAYiSMAYWoSlVQDOIIOzaIGaOY9aL82F26ZFaRi3GMjIVfvje9AfJV4ppSbv7N-R9pnkjO5nMdniZNaiXKMESnItn_gk4inuc/s1600/screen_shot_2018-01-25_at_08.58.07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-hRwUTziRMuocAO4E97zWtKHdJaNsatM-I7mpGPuBAzAYiSMAYWoSlVQDOIIOzaIGaOY9aL82F26ZFaRi3GMjIVfvje9AfJV4ppSbv7N-R9pnkjO5nMdniZNaiXKMESnItn_gk4inuc/s640/screen_shot_2018-01-25_at_08.58.07.png" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Across the street from Wat Botum earlier this week, musicians Julien Poulson, Jean-Luc Jousse and Hollie Lewis were lounging by the pool at the guesthouse Villa Grange, the headquarters for the Phnom Penh portion of the inaugural Folk Art Blues Fest Cambodia. An electric guitar sat next to veteran French rock 'n' roller Jousse, who since the early 1980s has been playing blues, psychedelia and punk-oriented rock 'n' roll for the many incarnations of the group The Kleps. Founded as The Psychedelic Kleps, they have played under the name the Klepstones, Kleps Revisited, the Justesse Social Kleps as a folk duet and The New York Kleps.<br /> <br /> "And now, the Phnom Penh Kleps", Jousse jokes.<br /> <br /> Jousse, who has worked as a tour manager, sound engineer and even driver for some legendary rock acts like Guitar Wolf, the Fleshtones and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, is in Phnom Penh for the nascent Folk Art & Blues Fest, which is really more of a travelling revue of psychedelic, garage and folk art acts over the next five days. It was organised by Poulson, one of the founders of Cambodian Space Project, as a musical spinoff of the Kampot Readers and Writers Festival.<br /> <br /> "The [Kampot Readers and Writers] Festival has always had a very strong musical program, to the point where a crescendo of critics were saying it's too much music in the second year," Poulson said. "We probably need to separate these things a little bit along the way. So this time it's a very small thing and it's not in a fixed place – It's rolling across Cambodia like an oldtimey revue."<br /> <br /> Those of you imagining acts reminiscent of BB King or Mississippi John Hurt may be disappointed. The "blues and folk" moniker is meant more in spirit, as the roots of each act's brand of rock 'n' roll. "Let's be broad about our definitions, in the way that Louis Armstrong once said ‘All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song'," Poulson said.<br /> <br /> The festivities begin tonight at Villa Grange, where five bands will be playing. Among those are local legends Cambodian Space Project and juggernauts The Kleps.<br /> <br /> Electro-psychedelic British band Frankie Teardrop Dead, Australian folk band the Justin Frew Trio and enigmatic Saigon-based duo OPNAIRDRGMKT will also hit the stage.<br /> <br /> On Friday, musicians will be at the guesthouse all day, playing acoustic singer-songwriter sessions led by local troubadour Scoddy Bywater before the revue hits the road southwest to Kampot.<br /> <br /> There, the lineups change slightly for two nights of shows, and there will also be art workshops in the day, including from Borneo-born woodcut printmaker Rico Leong and with the all-women's Srey School of Rock and its Sou Sou Band. The tour heads up the coast for a gig in Otres near Sihanoukville before a whittled-down version of the revue will then make its way to Siem Reap for a Tuesday gig.<br /> <br /> On top of getting to play in good company and have some fun, the festival is a chance to build the network of musicians living abroad with connections to Cambodia.<br /> <br /> "These are people who are likeminded or want to volunteer or bring skills and talent to make something happen," Poulson said. "We've all seen over the last 10 years a very big opportunity in Cambodia for creative industry. And not just a community but real opportunities – making things locally and building international distribution."<br /> <br /> <i><a href="https://au.eventeri.com/g/folk-art-blues-fest-cambodia-event/16935441" target="_blank">The Folk Art & Blues Fest</a></i> <i>begins tonight at Villa Grange at 7pm. Tickets for Friday are $7 at the door for foreigners and $3 for Cambodians, plus a free drink. Singer-songwriter sessions begin at 2pm and last until 8pm Friday. For a full schedule, including in Kampot, Otres and Siem Reap, visit the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/folkartbluesfest/" target="_blank">Facebook page Folk Art & Blues Fest Cambodia.</a></i>

Eclectic blues festival invites diverse artists

Across the street from Wat Botum earlier this week, musicians Julien Poulson, Jean-Luc Jousse and Hollie Lewis were lounging by the pool ...

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In pursuit of Phnom Penh perfect pickle

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwsIa4J_9OnNFmcwwgGqycExfdNEKRjv5bmOMU_7E1Uiyi_EusfG8ugyrQUqlZGwrhYRyogDUsJg1XKQCkLkTr7awq0Lq5w_-5uLrRgrZSTV5JQmPRSkgAJ3YG8uMYVEPcJKUOL7y-ZM/s1600/luu-meng-left-examines-a-pickled-cucumber-at-men-thidas-pickle-stall-in-toul-tompoung-market-this-week.-hong-menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwsIa4J_9OnNFmcwwgGqycExfdNEKRjv5bmOMU_7E1Uiyi_EusfG8ugyrQUqlZGwrhYRyogDUsJg1XKQCkLkTr7awq0Lq5w_-5uLrRgrZSTV5JQmPRSkgAJ3YG8uMYVEPcJKUOL7y-ZM/s640/luu-meng-left-examines-a-pickled-cucumber-at-men-thidas-pickle-stall-in-toul-tompoung-market-this-week.-hong-menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> They're kept in metal bowls, plastic buckets and in jars, and often found on the side, or even at the centre, of Khmer dishes. Sometimes they are vegetables, other times fruits, and even fish, crabs or ants.<br /> <br /> Whether the tradition is imported or homegrown, one thing is certain: pickled foods are everywhere in Cambodia.<br /> <br /> This was apparent on the north side of Kandal Market, where The Post recently found Pech Srey selling fresh limes and their pickled and preserved equivalent, Ngom Nov. Decidedly unappetising in appearance, and sold by her at 30,000 riel ($7.50) for a vat of 170, the brown and shrivelled limes are first dried in the sun for one to two days, before being boiled in sugar and salt water, and then further preserved in water for three to four months. They can end up in chicken or duck soup, in sauces with grilled fish, or be turned into drinks, Srey says.<br /> <br /> And true enough, a nearby drink vendor was squeezing a pickled lime into a bag of ice, pouring in some fresh lime juice, soda water and a tablespoon or two of sugar, and for 2,000 riel, or about 50 cents, the result was a refreshing and astringent beverage.<br /> <br /> But going from stall to stall, The Post soon found itself in a pickle trying to delve deeper into the history and place within Khmer cuisine of preserving foods in vinegar or brine. Pickles and similarly preserved foods are as integral to Khmer food as prahok, vendors said, but the back story, and the reasons for their popularity, remained unclear.<br /> <br /> So The Post called on the expertise of Cambodian master chef and Thalias Director Luu Meng.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRRNeSVj1aZxfd1_t1H4Al_0WunZiYbXDPWmcIL57T9xBZ3mDuljVe-dpPaCxgfbBghCu7xw3NJzZtpzKFzkyThyphenhyphen0trndmVGaxBYeBhCfWjAlkSABKW9aD8rW4Wx60q6VMb6nUThETRBY/s1600/one-of-the-two-varieties-of-pickled-cucumbers-sold-by-men-thida-in-toul-tompoung-market.-hong-menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRRNeSVj1aZxfd1_t1H4Al_0WunZiYbXDPWmcIL57T9xBZ3mDuljVe-dpPaCxgfbBghCu7xw3NJzZtpzKFzkyThyphenhyphen0trndmVGaxBYeBhCfWjAlkSABKW9aD8rW4Wx60q6VMb6nUThETRBY/s640/one-of-the-two-varieties-of-pickled-cucumbers-sold-by-men-thida-in-toul-tompoung-market.-hong-menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> According to Meng, the local pickle paradigm has French and Chinese influences – particularly from the Teochew people who made contact with Cambodia centuries ago.<br /> <br /> "In Guangdong, one of the areas is Teochew, and they pickle a lot of things because they are fisherman families, so when they go out they need to get their food and stock it up . . . either they put it in preserve or they do it pickled," he says, noting that typically fish and meat would be preserved in salt.<br /> <br /> Meng notes a difference between pa'ap or palak brai foods, which are preserved through salting or fermentation, as opposed to chhrua, or pickled food. In some cases, they are combined, for instance with turnips preserved in salt and then pickled to improve the flavour – or chrua chai tov in Khmer.<br /> <br /> Similarly, prahok or kdam brai (salted crab) can also straddle the two techniques.<br /> <br /> Cambodian pickling, Meng says, always starts with sugar, salt and vinegar. MSG is common in market and street pickles, and herbs and spices are added according to individual recipes.<br /> <br /> "You need to have the balance between the caramel and lemony [flavours], and of course other seasonings," he said.<br /> <br /> In the spirit of showing rather than telling, Meng guided The Post through the Boeung Keng Kang and Toul Tompoung markets to meet some of the longest-running pickle vendors in town.<br /> <br /> On the north side of BKK market at #17 Street 380 is a hole-in-the-wall shop identifiable by a glass case outside filled with fruits and marked "888" in red.<br /> <br /> "This is the oldest pickle shop of BKK market," Meng said, though it specialises in what he calls a "modern" pickling trend – assorted fruits pickled with chili and garlic eaten as a snack. Also for sale is cut fresh fruit, which can in turn be dipped into a pickled chili, garlic and prahok sauce. Prices are about $3 per kilo of whichever fruit one fancies, from pickled tamarind to grapes to pineapple.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55-ZiHSXzXiPdwgba5Wb4Sif6LA-GJplXdm4OLfLu4ay6ekGxFGe-x_DHeFpMnUVIYzfJVlWFIWnQSvleZJNDWFVmA_Q_rZSUzXa1ohq5kQeTceE_6PDAHNDE1Af8511MBP0_WXl-hZg/s1600/a-variety-of-pickled-sauces-and-pickled-fruits-can-be-found-at-888-pickle-shop-north-of-boeung-keng-kang-market.-hong-menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55-ZiHSXzXiPdwgba5Wb4Sif6LA-GJplXdm4OLfLu4ay6ekGxFGe-x_DHeFpMnUVIYzfJVlWFIWnQSvleZJNDWFVmA_Q_rZSUzXa1ohq5kQeTceE_6PDAHNDE1Af8511MBP0_WXl-hZg/s640/a-variety-of-pickled-sauces-and-pickled-fruits-can-be-found-at-888-pickle-shop-north-of-boeung-keng-kang-market.-hong-menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Owner Suos "Mom" Vanna says she has had her shop for 13 years and sells about 300 kilograms each day.<br /> <br /> Meng says this kind of pickled fruit snack has been a growing trend for at least 20 years, and has especially taken off in the past decade.<br /> <br /> "Mostly the young [and] the pregnant ladies eat these," he says, in part because it's considered a home-remedy to morning sickness. "They share it with people and it's become trendier".<br /> <br /> For the "traditional" pickle, Meng takes The Post through the narrow pathways of Toul Tompoung Market. He's recognised by the odd passerby, happily surprised to see the well-known entrepreneur in such a setting. At the end of the butcher's row, Meng finds Men Thida, who has been selling pickles since she was 12 years old, before she took the business over from her mother.<br /> <br /> Here, she sells Khmer-style pickled cucumbers. She also has a choice between pickled mangoes and half-ripe papayas, each flavoured with rice water, brown palm sugar and vinegar, with bean sprouts and lotus roots. She also has Chinese cabbage and other leafy greens, though Meng notes these are done in the Chinese style. For that, he recommends an old lady in O'Russey Market.<br /> <br /> <b>Luu Meng talks pickles in the market:</b><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hhjp34T_AIU/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hhjp34T_AIU?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> <br /> In Cambodian cuisine, Meng notes, pickles can serve as an appetiser, digestif or as a side dish.<br /> <br /> "For Western people you eat your grilled pork or lamb chops with salad, we eat it with pickles," he said, sitting down for a plate of grilled chicken and rice with a side of pickles.<br /> <br /> They also transcend class boundaries, Thida says, with more thrifty construction or garment workers making pickles a main course with rice, while the wealthier tend to have them as a garnish.<br /> <br /> "We eat them every day, no matter if you are rich or poor," she says.

In pursuit of Phnom Penh perfect pickle

They're kept in metal bowls, plastic buckets and in jars, and often found on the side, or even at the centre, of Khmer dishes. Someti...

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The Art Bar aims to inspire new artists

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJUDu0aGNh_QjIj-_mmqie03hh-kQ8vDCZzUYcWtb62z456jCMsvBmsYI2dq1vWjQlpLph7BQWhVTYZilCshOtebatNmggyITayQQrWfrScmSAi3ocMQR7Ww6eVRKmRC3CxhC00s5-gc/s1600/artist-and-teacher-daniel-ou-during-a-sip-n-paint-course-on-december-27.-hong-menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJUDu0aGNh_QjIj-_mmqie03hh-kQ8vDCZzUYcWtb62z456jCMsvBmsYI2dq1vWjQlpLph7BQWhVTYZilCshOtebatNmggyITayQQrWfrScmSAi3ocMQR7Ww6eVRKmRC3CxhC00s5-gc/s640/artist-and-teacher-daniel-ou-during-a-sip-n-paint-course-on-december-27.-hong-menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> In an industrial pocket of Phnom Penh, just north of the Chroy Changvar bridge, Mark and Jefferson Huang have built a paradise for artists – and for the wannabes too hesitant until now to put themselves out there.<br /> <br /> The Art Bar, which despite the name is not an actual bar, is in a gorgeous repurposed warehouse hidden from Street 45. Go through an industrial parking lot and to the right down an alley and visitors will find a sun-filled space with floor-to-ceiling windows and steel beams alongside easels and canvases ready and waiting for colour.<br /> <br /> The two Filipino brothers are seemingly straight from central casting, with Jeff – a painter and street artist with tousled hair – the creative lead, and Mark – a more straight-laced businessman who also manages a garment factory – in charge of operations. The vision at The Art Bar is to connect professional artists and amateurs, initially through painting courses, but also in other media in the future.<br /> <br /> “I’m not an artist – I never would have thought that I’d be painting in my life,” Mark says. “But the activity we’re offering is a way for us to bridge that gap between someone like me and the art world.”<br /> <br /> For Jeff, who is one of two resident teachers at The Art Bar alongside celebrated local street artist Daniel Ou, the goal is to chip away at most people’s built-in barriers.<br /> <br /> “First, it’s to breach that wall of ‘I can’t do it’. Actually, you can do it. Step by step we break it down how to build a composition, then it’s up to them what they feel,” he says “Some people come back, and I’ll say, ‘Let’s not do this anymore. Pick an image and let’s do something about you’. Are they getting into this? Then I’ll feed them more.”<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp8HIKujuZd9YuisxFUAbONKJaWppKZJ6CKAq713NWCRR_ZsrP6N11o0n0ZBg8oqlufL8p-aSaYDu7bLKszQigpdB1anjjDOOBj21RVIIA6nf0SalP7N9pDiGcCSjMXkcRO6GzoUxTV6U/s1600/brothers-jefferson-left-and-mark-huang-inside-the-art-bar.-hong-menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp8HIKujuZd9YuisxFUAbONKJaWppKZJ6CKAq713NWCRR_ZsrP6N11o0n0ZBg8oqlufL8p-aSaYDu7bLKszQigpdB1anjjDOOBj21RVIIA6nf0SalP7N9pDiGcCSjMXkcRO6GzoUxTV6U/s640/brothers-jefferson-left-and-mark-huang-inside-the-art-bar.-hong-menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> While the main activities are “Sip ’n Paint” sessions – in which participants follow step-by-step instructions from a teacher on the basics, with a beverage for enhanced creativity – the Art Bar is also a venue for professionals or those looking to move beyond an amateur level.<br /> <br /> It offers reasonable open studio rates to local artists, at just $49 each month, not including materials, and open sessions for people who want to come in and work on their own projects with a professional close at hand to give advice. A large canvas costs $100, including paint, and an artist can come back as many times as is necessary to finish a piece. A “Sip ’n Paint” course, meanwhile, is $25 per person for a two-hour session.<br /> <br /> In the future, there will likely also be ceramics courses, though Jeff says fine-tuning in the instruction is needed since the “failure rate” is higher than for painting. Classes in other media, like photography, are also on the table in the future.<br /> <br /> But for now, it’s a place for newbies to get creative and a potential home for local talent in a city with few large studios.<br /> <br /> “Most of the artists we have just try to do things in their own home, which is not a very positive environment. If you put them around other artists they get inspired or they inspire others,” Mark said. “Come down here and collaborate and let’s brainstorm some s— and come up with something nice.”<br /> <br /> The Art Bar is located at #225, Street 45. It is open every day from 10am until 9pm, with bookings available online at theartbarkh.com, or by phone at 088 529 9188 for English and 069 569 888 for Khmer.

The Art Bar aims to inspire new artists

In an industrial pocket of Phnom Penh, just north of the Chroy Changvar bridge, Mark and Jefferson Huang have built a paradise for artist...

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Novel by Cambodia scholar now in English after 92 years

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAnGYdt5ilIfWq-J6UQM0L9oedhEiVl28hHVo1sfc0jv4LWKFgHieAt97ZAHvivzdiaL3rh2rtQD8yLV3O5UyPpqKIeG7siohDqbt6pXV5H9w4UtZYVgmkLhQDOZ5CL5xh62-04jQa18/s1600/angkor_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAnGYdt5ilIfWq-J6UQM0L9oedhEiVl28hHVo1sfc0jv4LWKFgHieAt97ZAHvivzdiaL3rh2rtQD8yLV3O5UyPpqKIeG7siohDqbt6pXV5H9w4UtZYVgmkLhQDOZ5CL5xh62-04jQa18/s640/angkor_5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The first novel by George Groslier, the French writer who devoted his life to studying and documenting the Kingdom, is finally available in English, 92 years since its publication. The Road of the Strong, or La Route du plus fort, centres around a French administrator tasked with developing the road system in northwest Cambodia, as well as his intertwined fate with car manufacturer Roland Gassin and his wife Hélène.<br /> <br /> With Roland staying behind in Vietnam for business, Hélène visits the rural province of Battambang and is soon absorbed by its rural way of life and Cambodian culture – as well as by Ternier himself.<br /> <br /> In the novel, Groslier gives a vivid account of the cultural, historical and geographical aspects of Cambodia and its people, providing a truthful look at life in the early 20th century French protectorate, including its Royal Ballet.<br /> <br /> “Groslier was a talented artist and in his writing he began painting with words,” said Kent Davis, the publisher and editor of DatAsia Press. “His rich descriptive style added visual depth to all his books, including his non-fiction works.”<br /> <br /> The 396-page book also includes maps, 100 illustrations, the complete original 1925 French text, and an essay by Tom Kramer called Colonial Battambang Today.<br /> <br /> Davis encountered Groslier’s first novel when he was working with Paul Cravath, an expert on traditional Asian dances, on the project Earth in Flower about the Royal Ballet of Cambodia.<br /> <br /> Davis’s personal mission of bringing forgotten books back to life, combined with his discovery with Cravath, inspired him to translate Groslier’s works, with The Road to the Strong the last of four books published. Kent’s discovery of Groslier’s daughter Nicole, just 20 minutes from his house in Florida, helped in the process of restoring and reprinting the books.<br /> <br /> A grant awarded from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2012 allowed Kent to work with translator Pedro Rodríguez on In the Shadow of Angkor – Unknown Temples of Ancient Cambodia, a description of Groslier’s trek in 1913 and 1914 to document the country’s monuments; the novel Return to Clay – A romance of Colonial Cambodia; and Water and Light – A Travel Journal of the Cambodian Mekong, a record of his voyage on the river in 1929.<br /> <br /> Groslier was born in and died in Cambodia after spending most of his life in the Kingdom and was the first Western scholar to write extensively about Cambodia’s royal dance tradition, among many other topics.<br /> <br /> Like other books by Groslier, though this one is fictional, Davis sees it as an important historical document, which could help to understand the French view of Cambodia and its culture, and to piece together a picture of life in the protectorate.<br /> <br /> “For a true understanding of any era, people or culture, the most important accounts come from eyewitnesses who saw and experienced their topics,” he said.<br /> <br /> “How familiar is that person with the local culture? Do they speak the language? Groslier spoke Khmer and immersed himself in the culture.”<br /> <br /> Henri Copin, a professor of humanities at the University of Nantes and a specialist in French colonial literature, even calls Groslier “a Cambodian Author”.<br /> <br /> “Groslier built his fiction on his experience of reality and his vision of the colonial endeavour . . . This affords us a first reading of the novel as the reflection of a certain reality,” Copin writes in the foreword.<br /> <br /> “I reread this book many years after discovering it and am struck by the marvelous opportunities it provides to arrange symbols, or even create myths, that coexist with their differences, and their contradictions, and their contrary meanings,” he added. “Road versus path. Civilisation versus nature. Progress versus liberty.”<br /> <br /> The Road of the Strong: A Romance of Colonial Cambodia (396 pages) can be purchased on Amazon.com for $24.95.

Novel by Cambodia scholar now in English after 92 years

The first novel by George Groslier, the French writer who devoted his life to studying and documenting the Kingdom, is finally available ...

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Music festival promises big stage, has even bigger hopes

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_vw2boObnFOzly61enB8byN5YD4albTVDuhhf_LXNx9aw1ikPXo0anXzx9Bqslk0WT5HA-u_4kmRmstDjgdVw8RhYDKxYHrDuNzs9UGG3BvpPAPQcZOAdROgUaYqg8kYRP9hdK6ngT4/s1600/hypnotic-fist-technique-pictured-performing-at-the-golden-street-festival-will-be-closing-out-the-night-with-their-performance.-steve-porte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="546" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_vw2boObnFOzly61enB8byN5YD4albTVDuhhf_LXNx9aw1ikPXo0anXzx9Bqslk0WT5HA-u_4kmRmstDjgdVw8RhYDKxYHrDuNzs9UGG3BvpPAPQcZOAdROgUaYqg8kYRP9hdK6ngT4/s640/hypnotic-fist-technique-pictured-performing-at-the-golden-street-festival-will-be-closing-out-the-night-with-their-performance.-steve-porte.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> With a line-up of local and international artists, and a massive outdoor venue booked on Koh Pich, or Diamond Island, Saturday’s Diamond Moon Festival is aiming to showcase contemporary musical and artistic talents at a scale rarely seen in the Kingdom.<br /> <br /> But the idea for the festival, which has 13 musical artists slated to perform from the early evening late into the night, was born from a simple gig one March night at Tusk, which drew the unfortunate attention of the police for being just a little too loud.<br /> <br /> “At about 9 o’clock at night we were closed down because we were being too loud,” recalls Casey-Leä Campbell, the director of the festival. “So we decided let’s have a big party . . . with three bands and three DJs one night here, and then it just became a little bit bigger, and a little bit bigger.”<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGG9AcgiYsYqJEaNrK90fKSotNI43qklCIFLMiLmEzLe6OV3Kp02c6ODTu7sBmePd6SZJbtC7sc_YibPH8kGywXwNG7lg2iF-NXCigYqwRUJtvKn5LXRkFynYwp-TSWL0UGEtP2vPVRc/s1600/vartey-ganiva_golden-street-festival_phnom-penh_cambodia_25_february_2017_0114-edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGG9AcgiYsYqJEaNrK90fKSotNI43qklCIFLMiLmEzLe6OV3Kp02c6ODTu7sBmePd6SZJbtC7sc_YibPH8kGywXwNG7lg2iF-NXCigYqwRUJtvKn5LXRkFynYwp-TSWL0UGEtP2vPVRc/s320/vartey-ganiva_golden-street-festival_phnom-penh_cambodia_25_february_2017_0114-edit.jpg" width="213" /></a></div> So Campbell, along with her friends Peter Downey, who manages the band Complicated Business, and band member Ronan Sheehan – who doubles as the festival’s music director – began reaching out to artists and planning the festival, which snowballed from a passing thought into a massive project.<br /> <br /> “It’s something that came up very, very fast, it was something that came up on a whim, and the great thing about whims, is they tend to build into something great and awesome,” says Sheehan.<br /> <br /> Fast-forward about eight months and the organisers have booked a 6,000-person “arena tent” outdoor venue with a 16-metre wide stage in the large lot in front of the Diamond Island Convention and Exhibition Center. They also arranged a 50-man security staff and brought in 30 portable toilets from Vietnam. (There wasn’t a supplier who could provide enough in Cambodia.)<br /> <br /> The driving concept is to showcase local talent, as well as provide a platform for foreign acts, and for local Khmer and expat artists to play together. “We basically went for artists who are doing their own music – that’s a big thing – not just doing the covers,” says Sheehan.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhuLNSoMakHWYC_RxgbjpkCrTCtmUFVHHctRM4Lp0A4miW58cz8fIxgkY4KX1bicBi6tBLG48cLCPr7dWPRmGGSH0_h3VOOCM4rQkDlPQ37_lHfgwPbKGjnwKfFwwJWpiBlUj0Zyk7XWc/s1600/headshot_misssarawan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhuLNSoMakHWYC_RxgbjpkCrTCtmUFVHHctRM4Lp0A4miW58cz8fIxgkY4KX1bicBi6tBLG48cLCPr7dWPRmGGSH0_h3VOOCM4rQkDlPQ37_lHfgwPbKGjnwKfFwwJWpiBlUj0Zyk7XWc/s320/headshot_misssarawan.jpg" width="213" /></a></div> The line-up features an eclectic mix of artists, from the golden-age throwback stylings of Miss Sarawan, to the hip-hop lyrical assault of MC Lisha, to the feminist Khmer punk-rock of Vartey Ganiva.<br /> <br /> Making their Asian debuts at the festival is French electro-pop artist Romea (Nadaje Teri) and London-based duo Willy Wang and Dick Johnson (John Wild and Peter Pahor), who play acoustic rock mash-ups and composed a song for the festival titled Down in Phnom Penh.<br /> <br /> Also in the mix is a “live-painting” show that starts at 5pm and will go on adjacent to the concert area featuring some of Phnom Penh’s most renowned urban artists: Theo Vallier, YSK Crew, Mate 2 and David Myers from the recently opened Kbach Gallery.<br /> <br /> This way, Campbell says, festival-goers can admire the art if they want to take a break from the music, and as they go in and out of the concert area to get food and drink, which will be provided onsite by Tusk.<br /> <br /> According to Campbell, over half of the tickets have already sold, and at $7 each, they cover the operational costs with additional proceeds pledged to the Cambodian Children’s Fund.<br /> <br /> “I decided if I was going do it [a festival] it would benefit charity, so that’s when I reached out to Scott [Neeson] at the Cambodian Children’s Fund,” she says.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFossS8EwwhWfO4-nlhLO_2Mjmv5NPn8r08gM0b4HetE8djpPZhqgIOfHO17pdpJj3FZPcu6DrQJvEiDDx_PkwCTDrrF-ndk7UIkBy329MLqnE1LBSvzgOtiXK9uEwZ8KlOJdRW1QhvIE/s1600/artists-from-kbach-gallery-will-live-paint.-hong-menea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFossS8EwwhWfO4-nlhLO_2Mjmv5NPn8r08gM0b4HetE8djpPZhqgIOfHO17pdpJj3FZPcu6DrQJvEiDDx_PkwCTDrrF-ndk7UIkBy329MLqnE1LBSvzgOtiXK9uEwZ8KlOJdRW1QhvIE/s640/artists-from-kbach-gallery-will-live-paint.-hong-menea.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> But the long game for Campbell, who has prior experience organising large events everywhere from Vegas to Papua New Guinea, is for Diamond Moon to just be the first of a recurring annual music festival that will help put Cambodia’s music scene on the map.<br /> <br /> “This is our trial run. Next year we’ll be a little more organised and promote a little earlier and see if we can get in some bigger names from overseas as well, but we really are here to showcase the local music scene and show what they can do,” she says.<br /> <br /> Diamond Moon Festival takes place on Saturday November 25 on Koh Pich from 4pm to 2am. Tickets can be purchased for $7 at Tusk House, The Stage Bar and Kbach Gallery or at the venue on the day of the festival. Proceeds go towards the Cambodian Children’s Fund. For more information, see: <a href="http://www.diamondmoonfestival.com/" target="_blank">http://www.diamondmoonfestival.com/</a>

Music festival promises big stage, has even bigger hopes

With a line-up of local and international artists, and a massive outdoor venue booked on Koh Pich, or Diamond Island, Saturday’s Diamond ...

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A Japanese take on a hamburger

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxViu5SdbgTDL1Am7eMLGPoXT5R1KJy4C2CHOeuVXP_d-u9BRgSDtPXApCWl6N_a-rj1uBj6T5Rv33J_bNlvyRA1Cnhft4nzU_cy4UBl_0yBWcyv_iiESMT9PqBwse7K5lforHHijq4s/s1600/junya-goto-prepares-an-egg-to-top-the-hamburg-steak.-sahiba-chawdhary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="546" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxViu5SdbgTDL1Am7eMLGPoXT5R1KJy4C2CHOeuVXP_d-u9BRgSDtPXApCWl6N_a-rj1uBj6T5Rv33J_bNlvyRA1Cnhft4nzU_cy4UBl_0yBWcyv_iiESMT9PqBwse7K5lforHHijq4s/s640/junya-goto-prepares-an-egg-to-top-the-hamburg-steak.-sahiba-chawdhary.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The Japanese take on the hamburger, essentially a patty without the bun, is what you’ll be in for at the casual bar and diner 919 Quick.<br /> <br /> The latest Japanese eatery to open its doors in the alleyway behind the Patio Hotel, tucked away near the upscale Sushi Lab restaurant, 919 Quick serves up satisfying Japanese-style “hamburg steak” – a thick patty of ground beef seasoned with mild spices, soy sauce and miso – as well as Japanese curries and a selection of bar snacks.<br /> <br /> “It’s not really traditional [food], but the kind of food that all Japanese people would make at home,” says Junya Goto, who co-manages the restaurant alongside Omura Shin.<br /> <br /> “The owner wanted hamburg [steak] to be known among the Cambodian people,” he says, adding that the restaurant is actually the “hobby” of the owner of a large Japanese funeral services corporation, who first opened a location in Tokyo and decided to expand with a location in Cambodia.<br /> <br /> But it’s been a tough break for the few months they’ve been in business, Goto says.<br /> <br /> The issue, he hazards, may be that local patrons aren’t accustomed to being served a piping-hot plate bearing a meat patty and little else besides some sautéed veggies and a little mound of mashed potatoes. Cambodians “look at it like it’s a strange thing”, he says with a laugh.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1a8UflrlwCDBAvOoZij_DAe7ra_PvKUQwf-Vi3HymQ36hzPnXD_4zclHDWA8qEqb_bFvxC7rkulug9a555h461pIahDXGliMV-kzbOupv7zPoLNovEHVjrhGXdGGu_OTKKld1NBJUqY/s1600/food_6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1a8UflrlwCDBAvOoZij_DAe7ra_PvKUQwf-Vi3HymQ36hzPnXD_4zclHDWA8qEqb_bFvxC7rkulug9a555h461pIahDXGliMV-kzbOupv7zPoLNovEHVjrhGXdGGu_OTKKld1NBJUqY/s640/food_6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> A first-time experience for this reporter as well, The Post sampled Goto’s favourite: the Teritama hamburg steak ($6.90), which comes with a perfectly runny sunny-side up egg topped off with a light mayonnaise and teriyaki-based sauce. For patrons missing their soup and rice, they can be ordered on the side for $1.<br /> <br /> If a hunk of ground beef isn’t really your thing, there’s a selection of Japanese curries on offer (from $4.50 to $13.50), although some also include – you guessed it – a Hamburg steak on top. Also worth a shout-out is the plate of fried chicken ($2.90) and the deep-fried cheese and minced meat croquettes ($3.90). Draft beers are only $1, which, coupled with a 2am closing time, should attract a hungry late-night crowd.<br /> <br /> With a long metal bar counter and diner-style bar stools 919 Quick – more than being a culinary treat – provides a good environment to have a drink and eat some power food after work, and that was its intended design.<br /> <br /> “The [original concept] is for a businessman who maybe doesn’t have a lot of time to eat,” Goto says, explaining that the restaurant’s name is a play on words. In Japanese, the numerals 9-1-9 are phonetically pronounced “que-ichi-que”, which, said speedily, sounds like the English “quick”.<br /> <br /> So while the restaurant bills itself as double-quick, The Post encourages patrons to let time slow down and enjoy.<br /> <br /> 919 Quick is located in the alleyway behind the Patio Hotel off Street 51. It is open from 11:30am to 3pm and 6pm to 2am every day except Sunday.

A Japanese take on a hamburger

The Japanese take on the hamburger, essentially a patty without the bun, is what you’ll be in for at the casual bar and diner 919 Quick. ...

Read more »

Giving back to Cambodian society @ Cambodia Care Centre

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_UUd50u3g1mt4TlblzJXYscrQVArC49oX4cM9bWXOfDmndpihsxD7Kj4sSzemb9FUZ1mVHAVJ4g1AtcizRfndQH8DB_bQQ7pViRKYZuFhSUu1itAuOV1yJ9Owi9mqFLeoZF1U4atIis/s1600/mr.-anthony-ong-director-of-spring-cjw-development-1_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="588" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_UUd50u3g1mt4TlblzJXYscrQVArC49oX4cM9bWXOfDmndpihsxD7Kj4sSzemb9FUZ1mVHAVJ4g1AtcizRfndQH8DB_bQQ7pViRKYZuFhSUu1itAuOV1yJ9Owi9mqFLeoZF1U4atIis/s640/mr.-anthony-ong-director-of-spring-cjw-development-1_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfv-Pwhom3EYhR4sMclDGc6temwZnLD5cW3EQNlFJJhx-46u2CSNneTER0EjiQD7jvJ6tlK_53WS5WD9LyX2SbxobQ5YeqGovt4J7-P5_AJgjwBHhs30e64b6ipLGojpAdx2At95ain94/s1600/img_6660_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="850" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfv-Pwhom3EYhR4sMclDGc6temwZnLD5cW3EQNlFJJhx-46u2CSNneTER0EjiQD7jvJ6tlK_53WS5WD9LyX2SbxobQ5YeqGovt4J7-P5_AJgjwBHhs30e64b6ipLGojpAdx2At95ain94/s640/img_6660_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibu8DuuKL-IpP32pDnYkTSjpiSIydhGECJ2iW_DlEK2zTYHcqQHtHn6DVfcQ_xItDBibswd9SljNt7PZH19XCcxYSO7gTvS2S3SlkvEtzqrH1Gz7FlRcYZmXK9M6kYz4WjUcRou6AuPuM/s1600/img_6693_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="850" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibu8DuuKL-IpP32pDnYkTSjpiSIydhGECJ2iW_DlEK2zTYHcqQHtHn6DVfcQ_xItDBibswd9SljNt7PZH19XCcxYSO7gTvS2S3SlkvEtzqrH1Gz7FlRcYZmXK9M6kYz4WjUcRou6AuPuM/s640/img_6693_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqIH6yuSp_f0SouRC7aGpVH5_q2Q20EqUadRsH24CP9jTqGkN8Mp3u0805kxjsw4qdADBWg4NdaNoSgw5ZX4thj_MvT1VXIQSiEbhjVTBgE0xmcw7Cxj3d5YyE9qhQTeFquUXoz3QhKk/s1600/img_6703_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="850" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqIH6yuSp_f0SouRC7aGpVH5_q2Q20EqUadRsH24CP9jTqGkN8Mp3u0805kxjsw4qdADBWg4NdaNoSgw5ZX4thj_MvT1VXIQSiEbhjVTBgE0xmcw7Cxj3d5YyE9qhQTeFquUXoz3QhKk/s640/img_6703_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVFWQ92prDe6j94OC8uhT1H5pr-JpaF_abv6BUIIoO1DZv8iSAa0MUYxB28Q9nRNoEqygoJj8RJQWn3bbVttZNxazpuESkA97i15QrGY6Hz5E5US999DeSv4g4eMCc0ajeNr3Y8oE09E/s1600/img_6727_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="850" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVFWQ92prDe6j94OC8uhT1H5pr-JpaF_abv6BUIIoO1DZv8iSAa0MUYxB28Q9nRNoEqygoJj8RJQWn3bbVttZNxazpuESkA97i15QrGY6Hz5E5US999DeSv4g4eMCc0ajeNr3Y8oE09E/s640/img_6727_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1hanUmW6wtEulppHvfUlSzA49s3HUuiCCsf_NCmRqwmAsnorOAfoUGDhZnS9K9ftbjDhYrOjyX2cfLWR9xqWBZ97VhmMhm3OnBX3NeVMT_RSMgtV182l4LEvsOVogwmpBcKw5cpYVoY/s1600/img_6745_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="850" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit1hanUmW6wtEulppHvfUlSzA49s3HUuiCCsf_NCmRqwmAsnorOAfoUGDhZnS9K9ftbjDhYrOjyX2cfLWR9xqWBZ97VhmMhm3OnBX3NeVMT_RSMgtV182l4LEvsOVogwmpBcKw5cpYVoY/s640/img_6745_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4I4rOZdBYYcq27vQ6j8z728GmdJ2qNcIpBYKu8uN6nD6WrepMlvPrJRLH0CWgL5D_PGOLHYpHlipjLnbO-LiMHV0SEyDT-DEa43UZEOTaophEdfkJ3EnNsfCo4b5zrNwsc0dy73WiMQ/s1600/img_6779.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="850" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4I4rOZdBYYcq27vQ6j8z728GmdJ2qNcIpBYKu8uN6nD6WrepMlvPrJRLH0CWgL5D_PGOLHYpHlipjLnbO-LiMHV0SEyDT-DEa43UZEOTaophEdfkJ3EnNsfCo4b5zrNwsc0dy73WiMQ/s640/img_6779.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 13.5px;">Cambodia Care Centre hosted its giving back to Cambodia society charity event to benefit 180 students and 25 widows who are currently under the care of Cambodia Care Centre. The developer and project manager wants to give back to Cambodian society by helping those in need so they they can have hope for their future. Spring CJW Development and Sanwah Project Overseas donated rice for the students and widows, as well as stationary for the kids to help them with their studies and bonding sessions with the children over two days. The kids helped paint the walls of Cambodia Care Centre, and a 32-inch TV was donated for the kids to watch educational videos on. Anthony Ong, the director of Spring CJW Development, aims to positively affect the less-privileged youth and break them out of the bondage of poverty through the provision of basic education. He said he believes not only in investing and developing the property market in Cambodia, but in helping the the people of Cambodia as well. The company’s Axis Residences Condominium is located at Street Duong Ngeap III, Sangkat Teuk Thla, Khan Sen Sok, Phnom Penh. Photos by Hong Menea</span>

Giving back to Cambodian society @ Cambodia Care Centre

Cambodia Care Centre hosted its giving back to Cambodia society charity event to benefit 180 students and 25 widows wh...

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Siem Reap artist goes against the grain

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cF8B8pqItSCDTJhPZ6q7JIcJS410suaDcVnS4GffTSfxWCfcY_vzkrN4-PBKPKLWB7gHS__jtnfF-eATK2EeV7BnSRyEElyIX-YmfGS1yPda4LaOU65EUhYRH1zp_P2nvtjilrjP33s/s1600/lifestyle_-_heng_chivoan_-_siem_reap_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="546" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cF8B8pqItSCDTJhPZ6q7JIcJS410suaDcVnS4GffTSfxWCfcY_vzkrN4-PBKPKLWB7gHS__jtnfF-eATK2EeV7BnSRyEElyIX-YmfGS1yPda4LaOU65EUhYRH1zp_P2nvtjilrjP33s/s640/lifestyle_-_heng_chivoan_-_siem_reap_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Wearing a pink hijab, Eng Aisha works away at a newly commissioned painting inside her bamboo home in Sambuor commune, on the outskirts of Siem Reap. Instead of a paint brush in her right hand, she holds a forceps, which she uses to pick up grains of rice, dyed a variety of colours. She places them on a wooden plank, smeared with homemade glue, while holding her daughter Saream – the youngest of her three children – in her left arm.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> A small mistake could mean throwing away the work and starting over.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Aisha’s paintings depict a wide range of subjects, including people and the natural world – as well as Islamic symbols and Arabic script. One rice painting, called Pocahontas, shows a Native American woman with a black dove. The plank is cracked, and the painting represents “ungratefulness for mercy” on the part of European settlers.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> But the main message Aisha wants to convey with her paintings is the value and importance of the country’s rice.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Cambodia’s rice tastes really good and is the main export of the country, but its market is still small compared to that of neighbouring countries,” she says. “To give artistic meaning to our rice, I believe, will increase its value.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The 31-year-old says she discovered the aesthetic potential in rice about nine years ago, when she was helping her mum cook <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">num treap</em>, a steamed snack made from sticky rice, usually served with coconut cream and sesame seeds.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “When my mother put coconut cream and sesame seeds on the black and white rice, I found them very beautiful, and wanted to turn rice into artwork,” she said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Though she never received any official art training, Aisha was once an apprentice and assistant to a glass painter in Thailand. She says she wanted to “get out of the box” by using rice instead of water colour or acrylic paints. However, her idea did not become a reality until she divorced her Turkish husband about three years ago.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I was handed over the custody of my three children without any child support, while I already have an old mother and almost no money,” Aisha says. “All I had were some rice paintings, which I had made for fun. I realised that I had to do something with them for my children although it was a great risk.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Reluctantly, Aisha rented a small stall at the Siem Reap Night Market and her artwork proved successful, serving a mostly Western clientele.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD485LhmWF8vZygFJ2L19ixl4enV_PNCL91YOqGBEAdSQz3nMNu1pdEwmRxZTMWhpWLrSou0E5j3m-hd0_mauOxGcFaHqgnT9JT_nvK0-V_yfGOrD1P2g2835XYhyqD_ZAAQ2TLJ30Jc/s1600/lifestyle_-_heng_chivoan_-_siem_reap_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD485LhmWF8vZygFJ2L19ixl4enV_PNCL91YOqGBEAdSQz3nMNu1pdEwmRxZTMWhpWLrSou0E5j3m-hd0_mauOxGcFaHqgnT9JT_nvK0-V_yfGOrD1P2g2835XYhyqD_ZAAQ2TLJ30Jc/s640/lifestyle_-_heng_chivoan_-_siem_reap_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> In August this year, Seri Fatmawati Hambali-Yeo, a Singaporean real estate agent and art curator, came to Cambodia and encountered Aisha’s paintings. She was so mesmerised by them that she opened up Angkor Rice Art Gallery in Singapore to display and sell Aisha’s work.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Aisha’s paintings are beautiful and very special, especially the ways she dyes the rice first and places the grains on the plank one by one,” Seri says. “This is real, unique art, which is much more than just a mere souvenir.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Her hard work – and the meticulous process – only adds to its value, she said. “Aisha is making them every day, bearing all the hardship for her children,” she said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Like many artists in Cambodia, Aisha has been unable to lift her family out of the daily difficulties of village life. On countless occasions, people have come to her stall to express their love for her paintings, but don’t buy them, saying that they are too expensive. The prices range from a few dollars for simple pieces to a few hundred dollars for more intricate ones.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I cannot be angry with them, as we are in a developing country, and my painting’s price range is quite high as they are very hard to make,” Aisha says. “But I really love to see my fellow countrymen support my work, like foreigners.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Currently, Aisha is training 14 schoolgirls in rice painting, most of whom are from poor families. They also help her in her workshop and are paid. In the future, she hopes to found a centre to teach women how to work with rice, as well as in other trades, with a focus on single and Muslim women, who she says often face discrimination in finding a job because of their faith.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I do not only want to see rice as our staple food but also a symbol of our country,” Aisha says. “I will never achieve that if I keep this skill only to myself.”</div>

Siem Reap artist goes against the grain

Wearing a pink hijab, Eng Aisha works away at a newly commissioned painting inside her bamboo home in Sambuor commune, on the outskirts...

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Amrita team up for a cross-cultural performance

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipU2blpwvqdOg6uHesZoJx_hj8ZFejsdu-mAnWNgchX7IKP0vp011ErHFZtrfPh2SsdOcROqA1e31e5HD-JfnDPAomSav_7ga7co4eRx5J2DUqiZVdYLiiAWeGmZHvkMCF1uBhn04npj4/s1600/lifestyle_-_cross_transit_performers_rehearse_for_their_show_today_at_the_department_of_performing_arts_-_sahiba_chawdhary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="546" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipU2blpwvqdOg6uHesZoJx_hj8ZFejsdu-mAnWNgchX7IKP0vp011ErHFZtrfPh2SsdOcROqA1e31e5HD-JfnDPAomSav_7ga7co4eRx5J2DUqiZVdYLiiAWeGmZHvkMCF1uBhn04npj4/s640/lifestyle_-_cross_transit_performers_rehearse_for_their_show_today_at_the_department_of_performing_arts_-_sahiba_chawdhary.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> A mix of the traditional and contemporary, and photography and dance, will be on the stage for two performances tonight and Friday, in a unique collaboration between Japanese choreographer Akiko Kitamura, photographer Kim Hak and local organisation Amrita Performing Arts.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The project was inspired by Hak’s photographs of abandoned homes in Kep, whose landscape is dotted with the remnants of once grand villas, and was originally performed last year in Tokyo.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> In Cross Transit, the ghostly aesthetic, and haunted history, conveyed in the photographs is channelled in dance.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> One photograph in particular, of an old home once owned by a woman who has now passed away, especially inspired Kitamura.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Kim Hak’s photograph was about an old woman who died [who] introduced [her] house to him. It reminded me of Japanese Noh, where the main characters are ghosts,” she said, referring to a traditional musical theatre often distinguished by the performers’ masks.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Hak’s photographs will be projected during the dance, and the text that the photographer wrote will be narrated.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> To Kitamura, this project is essentially about creating something new and cross-cultural, especially considering both sides’ unfamiliarity with the other’s art. Among the dancers, four are Japanese and one is Cambodian. The Japanese, she said, tend to be more familiar with contemporary dance, while Cambodian dancers – like Chy Ratana from Amrita – are more rooted in a traditional style.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The challenges arising from unfamiliarity manifest themselves across the board – in grammar, vocabulary, and even the creative process. Kitamura herself prefers a dancing style based in martial arts, something alien to a Cambodian context, where dance tends to be in a softer style.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7x1btM8ohDWrQSq4l-kFBUs4TN_8lay9fKNhCE8s4G0zfI61drfg1BZp47XpJO-wSc5Z8EiWRbvxBqw2L0Ljmt9QbWN4IU3lI0Qx6tkSzOpnPlS-wkmQyd_PfrpF-zibn3eLBCqsMzg/s1600/lifestyle_-_chy_ratana_rehearses_his_solo_-_sahiba_chawdhary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="546" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7x1btM8ohDWrQSq4l-kFBUs4TN_8lay9fKNhCE8s4G0zfI61drfg1BZp47XpJO-wSc5Z8EiWRbvxBqw2L0Ljmt9QbWN4IU3lI0Qx6tkSzOpnPlS-wkmQyd_PfrpF-zibn3eLBCqsMzg/s640/lifestyle_-_chy_ratana_rehearses_his_solo_-_sahiba_chawdhary.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> To Ratana, Kitamura’s technique is wholly new, and through collaborating with her, and in some cases being corrected by her, he says he has found “[his] own feeling” in the performance.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> For Hak, the project was also a new direction, forcing him to write as well as photograph. The text he wrote for the performance is in English, Khmer and Japanese.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “At first I didn’t know what I should write about,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Akiko asked the dancers to show [their] movements, and I also started to write. Slowly, the piece developed [through] the text and dancers [working together].”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Amrita Executive Director Rithisal Kang, meanwhile, sees this performance as a step forward in terms of artistic possibilities and growth and a genuine “cross transit” of cultures.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “What we love is that when the artists come together, they have challenges, they have problems, because they are so different. But through the creative process, the differences are a way to open the mind,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cross Transit will be performing tonight and Friday at 7pm at the Department of Performing Arts. Tickets are $5 and available at the door or in advance at Java Cafe.</em></div>

Amrita team up for a cross-cultural performance

A mix of the traditional and contemporary, and photography and dance, will be on the stage for two performances tonight and Friday, in ...

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Masked dance group goes to war

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjv0s98htwJkSHFF3XNbupTmJ3ChbmCN4eupcPPtJ2FlnSCFenNQTrb6jjvOfbJPru5bxGUi5uVewwGG7C-ld0ugxNkaFao1BkOKs3CNo0BR2aJi_FXnv8uuDqsz-3J4YpRkDkd-BINs/s1600/dancers-from-the-lakhon-khol-youth-of-cambodia-rehearse-this-month-at-the-royal-university-of-fine-arts.-alessandro-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="546" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNjv0s98htwJkSHFF3XNbupTmJ3ChbmCN4eupcPPtJ2FlnSCFenNQTrb6jjvOfbJPru5bxGUi5uVewwGG7C-ld0ugxNkaFao1BkOKs3CNo0BR2aJi_FXnv8uuDqsz-3J4YpRkDkd-BINs/s640/dancers-from-the-lakhon-khol-youth-of-cambodia-rehearse-this-month-at-the-royal-university-of-fine-arts.-alessandro-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> An army of monstrous birds will be clashing with legions of divine monkeys on stage at Beltei International University on Sunday – in an interpretation of <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Satalong</em>, a mythical battle from the Hindu epic the Ramayana.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Despite being a largely amateur production, the scale of the Lakhon Khol performance – a traditional form of Khmer masked theatre and dance – is massive.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “This performance takes nearly 70 artists on stage. Of all the ones we’ve done before this is the biggest,” says Khon “Mo” Chansithyka, the general manager of the Lakhon Khol Youth of Cambodia.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The group, which has put on a performance about every six months, came together a year and half ago and consists of a collection of mainly student and amateur practitioners of the craft. For the last month and a half, they have been rehearsing on Sundays at an outdoor space at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA).</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">See the troupe in action:</strong></div> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R2o4dRrmT68?wmode=transparent" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="560"></iframe><br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “They are not professional dancers, but they are free on the weekend and they started learning it,” Mo says.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The 26-year-old is a lead Lakhon Khol dancer in the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, along with his brother Khon “Nan” Chansina, 24. Nan will interpret the role of the monster Satalong and also came up with the choreography for the production. A group of RUFA graduates will play traditional Khmer orchestral music.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I performed this five years ago, for a RUFA graduation performance, but the technique and dance will be completely different,” says Nan, whose task involved choreographing two armies of 25 dancers each, plus the main characters. Many of those “soldiers” are younger members of the team such as 13-year-old Pheap Sovankakada.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I’m a small monkey in the army of Rama,” he says. “I have to train hard like a soldier and be speedy and strong to fight the bird monster.” </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwuWQKfZHkoHrTJUgebkLEoiY0bNcEhfRvEd977RhxloFXvCqkeSdgmOMEfWyGu7QFaw02lclwJBURhGo6am0ouCXuubNriLPqahYEhNE_gSgkHoA84205N_hQAJMq6-vrPgWdYdZk_b8/s1600/pheap-sovankakada.-a-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwuWQKfZHkoHrTJUgebkLEoiY0bNcEhfRvEd977RhxloFXvCqkeSdgmOMEfWyGu7QFaw02lclwJBURhGo6am0ouCXuubNriLPqahYEhNE_gSgkHoA84205N_hQAJMq6-vrPgWdYdZk_b8/s320/pheap-sovankakada.-a-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" width="213" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Satalong</em>, or <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Bird Monster Battle</em>, as the group has titled the show in English, depicts a scene from the Ramayana in which the “evil” Ravana, the King of the Giants who kidnapped the Princess Sita, and Lord Rama do battle through proxies.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Of course, the good guys prevail in the end, but not before multiple epic fights after Ravana sends the “bird monster” to do battle.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Rama, meanwhile, enlists his brother Lakshmana to fight, aided by the monkey god Hanuman and his army.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The performance is free in the interest of promoting the art form, which has seen a steady decline in popularity over the decades since its glory days in the 1940s and ’50s, with only a handful of RUFA graduates pursuing the major each year. It was sponsored by the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and with private donations, including from Hun Many, one of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s sons.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Most of [our budget] comes from private citizens . . . about 60 percent,” he says. “The volunteers, the artists when we collaborate, we try not to think about the money.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Satalong is on at Beltei International University on October 29 at 9am and at 4:30pm. Tickets are free but donations are encouraged at the door. To reserve call: 016 505 1682 / 081 552 123/ 098 770 076.</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Video by Charlotte Pert</em></div>

Masked dance group goes to war

An army of monstrous birds will be clashing with legions of divine monkeys on stage at Beltei International University on Sunday – in a...

Read more »

A life bound to books in Battambang

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-xd6J6uHvNO8LLrAtYeP5fHm4I57-YYPctcUr7ZQe4DlMlaxA9bIm__qYfGkzpvqLNcWXJ7n0gPnJLlA0IdiBAl1oTBOBhED-uJNHK9Gz1wKm4YlqiwMEcoVZzjjgkQ7FPweeVtNU7Q/s1600/hundreds-of-books-are-available-for-rent-at-tran-sabs-shop-for-just-a-few-thousand-riel-each.-alessandro-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="546" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-xd6J6uHvNO8LLrAtYeP5fHm4I57-YYPctcUr7ZQe4DlMlaxA9bIm__qYfGkzpvqLNcWXJ7n0gPnJLlA0IdiBAl1oTBOBhED-uJNHK9Gz1wKm4YlqiwMEcoVZzjjgkQ7FPweeVtNU7Q/s640/hundreds-of-books-are-available-for-rent-at-tran-sabs-shop-for-just-a-few-thousand-riel-each.-alessandro-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></em></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Once a student and loyal follower of Khieu Samphan, Tran Sab’s passion for books nearly cost him his life under the Khmer Rouge</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> When a young woman comes to Tran Sab’s hole-in-the-wall bookstore in downtown Battambang in search of a translated Korean novel, the elderly owner begins dispensing his wisdom.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “You read Korean novels, you are supporting Korean writers; you read Khmer novels, you are supporting the writers with the same Khmer blood,” the 79-year-old says.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> His shop, just south of Battambang’s Phsar Nath, contains hundreds of old books on shelves and hung on walls – some yellow with age. Above the door hangs​​ a placard that says: Grandpa Apsara – Book Rental Service.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> For Sab, books have been the most valuable things in a life turned upside down by the ideological draw of the Khmer Rouge and the regime’s subsequent betrayal.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> They are not just a means to make a living but are his life-long friends and teachers.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “My eyes are now too bad for reading, which really upsets me. But, I am still happy I have helped so many people to be able to read books, although they cannot afford to buy them,” he says.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Born in Kampuchea Krom, an area now part of Vietnam that used to belong to Cambodia, Sab is a fierce proponent of Khmer culture. Two years after coming to Cambodia in 1958, he attended Phnom Penh Municipal Pedagogy School with the hopes of becoming a primary school teacher. He soon met Khieu Samphan, the future head of state of the Khmer Rouge, who introduced him to communist ideology and its focus on class struggle.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I found Khieu Samphan to be a good person and speaker,” Sab says. “He helped me become a communist.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Sab was quickly embroiled in the politics of the era and even claims he was one of the leaders of a protest at the United States Embassy in 1965 – suspected to have taken place on the orders of then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk – in which thousands of students gathered ostensibly in response to American air attacks and an article about the prince and his wife Monineath in Newsweek magazine.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Sab says his radical politics prevented him from finding a job after graduation in 1963. His only capital at the time was in the books he had collected, so he decided to start a book rental business in Phnom Penh. His stall was located in front of the Chao Ponhea Yat High School, later known as the notorious S-21 prison and interrogation centre under the Khmer Rouge. His stand, he contends, was the first in the capital.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Book prices at that time were exorbitant,” Sab says. “So my service was popular among students, especially those from poor families or the provinces. I was also happy because I could read books and make money at the same time.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> When the Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975, Sab was among those delighted with the communist victory. In the afternoon of April 17, while Khmer Rouge soldiers were entering Phnom Penh, Sab put on his best clothes, grabbed a white flag and took to the streets to welcome them. His excitement, however, quickly turned to desperation.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “They suddenly forced me to leave Phnom Penh, although I did not have anything on me,” he says. “They forced me to leave thousands of my books, which was the worst event in my life.”</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMyMsdV_1F9iZ5izJeuQbkMowYWlgrulH7c51HptM127-MlQPbyfhuyq8A42R5Q9syO-kuWGs1HSYTIEHQWBUbtBwLOZzH7a2Fq8zeRwBLR4kO6kLjyTmWa38KKeRt2ICWwgrSgO5vgo/s1600/sab-sees-khieu-samphan-as-a-khmer-patriot.-alessandro-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="546" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMyMsdV_1F9iZ5izJeuQbkMowYWlgrulH7c51HptM127-MlQPbyfhuyq8A42R5Q9syO-kuWGs1HSYTIEHQWBUbtBwLOZzH7a2Fq8zeRwBLR4kO6kLjyTmWa38KKeRt2ICWwgrSgO5vgo/s640/sab-sees-khieu-samphan-as-a-khmer-patriot.-alessandro-marazzi-sassoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <br /></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Although Sab was a supporter, the Khmer Rouge treated him like one of the “new people”, who were targeted in purges. Like many others, Sab was moved from one place to another before eventually stopping in Battambang. In every location, he was subjected to hard labour, starvation and the threat of execution.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Yet, despite his ordeal, Sab still views Samphan – who is currently facing charges of genocide and was previously convicted of crimes against humanity at the Khmer Rouge tribunal – in a positive light.“Samphan wanted to do good by the people,” he says.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> On his forced journeys, Sab says he would look for books in old houses and bring them along with him. One day, a Khmer Rouge cadre found them and accused him of being an “enemy”.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “They tied me up and wanted to kill me with a hoe,” Sab says. “To save myself, I pretended to be crazy, and performed comedic acts to make them laugh. By that, I escaped my death.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, says the Khmer Rouge viewed books as a symbol of education, and a product of the lifestyle and mindset left over from the era of Lon Nol’s republic. Being caught with them would result in death. “The Khmer Rouge destroyed anything from the previous regime, not only books but also human lives,” he says. “But they created their own.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Under the Khmer Rouge, the only reading allowed was from Pol Pot’s <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Little Red Book</em> and the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Democratic Kampuchea</em> magazine. After their fall in 1979, Sab learned that all his books in the capital had been burned or repurposed.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “They destroyed my collection, and turned the school where students were my customers into a prison,” Sab says, his voice quivering. “I was wrong to support them.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> He set up shop as a barber in Battambang, but memories of all he had lost never left him.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> In 2002, after many years replenishing his book supply, Sab reopened his business in Battambang. Where once he cut hair, he now stands surrounded by books. His obstacle this time was the spread of the internet and a lack of interest in reading.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Today, only four or five people come each day to rent a book, most for less than $1 for a week, whereas before the Khmer Rouge, business was brisk. Despite his financial struggles, he insists this is where he’ll be found until his death.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: utopia-std, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Young people today would rather play on their smartphones than read books, which can provide a lot of information and moral value in their life,” Sab says. “But please bear in mind that at one time in history, you could not even look at a book, or you would die.”</div>

A life bound to books in Battambang

Once a student and loyal follower of Khieu Samphan, Tran Sab’s passion for books nearly cost him his life under the Khmer Rouge When ...

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Cambodian pride was on display in Cannes

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgXA0F7sDHXEz_Manx5Zqcj3f2IaCPNNkOSgdanFviFO87erawaSkAODhhgdj-z6nrBwpHgnHnu9mz9D3Obcz9tx7-e_wPBLF0Av3f_KCQwCk7SSMIzi9OHVFa5-yKHiloSU4HIYzOK6zw/s1600/festival.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgXA0F7sDHXEz_Manx5Zqcj3f2IaCPNNkOSgdanFviFO87erawaSkAODhhgdj-z6nrBwpHgnHnu9mz9D3Obcz9tx7-e_wPBLF0Av3f_KCQwCk7SSMIzi9OHVFa5-yKHiloSU4HIYzOK6zw/s640/festival.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Hearing Rithy Panh talk about his nerves before the screening of his latest film at the Cannes Film Festival in France, it’s hard to believe how frequently his work has been shown on the Croisette. Not once, not twice, but actually seven times since <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rice People</em> was invited to unspool at the annual event in 1994.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I really don’t feel comfortable at the screenings here, I have to walk away and go somewhere else when the film started,” he said at a terrace at the festival’s main venue the day after <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Exile</em> received its world premiere on Friday night. “Here, sometimes it can be horrible; half of the people would go away [before films end].”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> But the Paris-educated filmmaker’s reputation in Cannes – and France – has been on the up in the past two decades, a trajectory culminating in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Missing Picture</em> winning the top award at the Un Certain Regard section in 2013.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> His latest work is relevant to French audiences in more ways than one. A follow-up to last year’s <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">France Is Our Mother Country</em>, a film probing France’s colonial legacy in Cambodia and beyond, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Exile</em> actually quotes French Revolution leaders Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de St-Just, as well as contemporary thinkers such as Alain Badiou.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Meanwhile, cuttings from left-leaning French newspapers also appear on screen, all of them glowing reports from April 17, 1975, marking the Khmer Rouge’s “liberation” of Cambodia. All these elements contribute to a film that examines how noble, progressive revolutionary ideals could and did go astray when in dogmatic hands of those such as those of Pol Pot and his guerrillas 41 years ago.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Exile</em> also quotes extensively from foreign historical figures, such as Pol Pot’s ideological forefather Mao Zedong, and the Mexican poet-diplomat Octavio Paz.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The filmmaker said <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Exile</em> is designed to inspire audiences to think about the ramifications of regimes advocating a repressive and extreme ideological purity, from the Khmer Rouge to the Islamic State.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I have told my history, what happened in Cambodia,” he said. “This film looks at the same [kind of] authoritarianism, a subject in the centre of the picture which might be relevant for everybody apart from me.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Meanwhile, the other Cambodian film making its debut at Cannes is also very relevant to France. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diamond Island</em>, Davy Chou’s first feature that also showed on Friday, boasts a largely French technical crew.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The film was co-financed by a number of French companies and organisations – and Chou, the grandson of 1960s and ’70s Cambodian film producer Van Chann, was actually born and raised in France.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div class="node-image full-width" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <img alt="A still from Rithy Panh’s latest film, Exile, which debuted at the Cannes film festival on Friday. Photo supplied" height="307" itemprop="contentURL" src="http://www.phnompenhpost.com/sites/default/files/styles/content_full_width/public/bed_0.jpg?itok=ByzNEyzp" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 546.5px;" title="A still from Rithy Panh’s latest film, Exile, which debuted at the Cannes film festival on Friday. Photo supplied" typeof="foaf:Image" width="546" /><br /> <div class="node-image-caption" itemprop="description" style="background: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: white; height: auto; line-height: 18px; margin: 6px 0px 0px; padding: 7px 0px; width: 546.5px;"> <div class="node-image-caption-inner" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 12px;"> A still from Rithy Panh’s latest film, Exile, which debuted at the Cannes film festival on Friday. Photo supplied</div> </div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Chou said he was pleased about this cross-border cultural collaboration. “It’s a question to ask [the French crew members] but I know that for them it was a life-changing experience,” said Chou in a seaside cafe the day after <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diamond Island</em> bowed at Cannes’s Critics’ Week sidebar. “Once the shooting has ended and they came back to France, they were talking about going back to Cambodia, trying to do something or work there.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> While Cambodia exercised its charm on those visiting French technicians, the on-screen representations of the country intrigued audiences at Cannes too. Chou said that while the French press asked him about <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diamond Island</em>'s aesthetics, they also asked him about the relationship between young Cambodians and this “strange” lavish residential suburb spouting out of Phnom Penh.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Of course Diamond Island is not Cambodia, but it is part of Cambodia and what it’s becoming or wants to become,” said Chou. “I made the film out of my fascination of that place . . . which, for me, is the symbol of modernisation in Cambodia.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Diamond Island</em> revolves around a village-raised teenager’s rite of passage as he moves to Phnom Penh and immerses himself in the city’s bright lights and high life. This is Chou’s second appearance at Cannes, following the screening of his short film <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cambodia 2099</em> in the Directors’ Fortnight, a program held in parallel to the main festival.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Chou said the exposure he received this time round was much more than he did with his short two years ago. But he said he is most proud this time round of being able to bring some of his non-professional cast to Cannes.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “As soon as we knew about [the film being invited to] Cannes, in the middle of April, we were thinking we should bring the actors,” he said.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “And it’s like an impossible mission, because two of them had never been outside Cambodia so they didn’t even have a passport.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Eventually, Chou and his team sorted out the issue for Sobon Nuon and Madeza Chhem, who play the film’s protagonist and his girlfriend respectively.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The documents came out in time for the pair to travel with Cheanick Nov, who plays the lead character’s brother, and artistic director Kanitha Tith to Cannes.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Once there, they appeared not just at the screening of their film – where they charmed the audience by greeting them from the stage in basic French – but also a walk down the red carpet at the Grand Theatre Lumiere to attend the gala premiere of Bruno Dumont’s main competition title <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Slack Bay</em> on Friday night.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “Of course they are shy – and it’s so frightening to be here with people shouting everywhere,” said Chou.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “They totally adapted themselves, especially when they did the red carpet thing … They did it like a real professional, they’re so cool. And we did a few photo shoots for French magazines, and they were so professional too,” he added.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “We lived through an amazing experience shooting the film,” Chou said of his relationship with young men and women he recruited from around Phnom Penh during a four-month casting period. “So to be able to share the moment of the screening of the film with them, it’s priceless.”</div>

Cambodian pride was on display in Cannes

Hearing Rithy Panh talk about his nerves before the screening of his latest film at the Cannes Film Festival in France, it’s hard to bel...

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Exhibit explores injustice in Kingdom

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8pNPzOhEPVfLkExnT7F2F5hsNweNjeC2LVx4heWoJP-x-G98tTayoANhd5ea9Jj68DcBw5Iq04O2MjTtCqM5M8soRTfC-OCkR938NTX0kfgkT-0rwEyprw7xhibiLeXJdRRkmyMq8H5FM/s1600/wall_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8pNPzOhEPVfLkExnT7F2F5hsNweNjeC2LVx4heWoJP-x-G98tTayoANhd5ea9Jj68DcBw5Iq04O2MjTtCqM5M8soRTfC-OCkR938NTX0kfgkT-0rwEyprw7xhibiLeXJdRRkmyMq8H5FM/s640/wall_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Renowned Battambang artist Srey Bandaul’s newest exhibition – opening tonight at Java Café and Gallery – parodies familiar European works of art in a critique of Cambodia’s past and present, and extends the conversation in performance.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The multimedia exhibition, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I Want to Get Married</em>, features seven of Bandaul’s charcoal drawings, as well as a video and a live performance at the opening. The drawings are fresh takes on European masters’ work from the 19th and 20th centuries, from Edvard Munch to Claude Monet.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> “I wanted to transform it to the Cambodian context, keeping the same composition,” Bandaul said yesterday. “This influence from the West gives the opportunity for discussion.” The exhibition’s title, he explained, is a reference to this discussion, using marriage as a metaphor for conversation and compromise.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> From afar, the drawings might appear as mere replications. “People that are at all familiar with European modern art will immediately recognise them,” said Dana Langlois, curator and director of JavaArts. But a closer look reveals the works are filled with Bandaul’s rich symbolism – all distinctly Cambodian.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> One drawing confronts notions of environmental destruction and dwindling time, placing the surrealism of Salvador Dalí’s <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Persistence of Memory</em> in Prey Lang Forest. In another, Independence Monument and Vattanac Capital Tower rise up against Van Gogh’s frenetic<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Starry Night</em> skyline. Cambodian women appear as Picasso’s <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Les Demoiselles d’Avignon</em>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Foreign influence is a theme in Bandaul’s art: he’s explored the tension between Cambodian traditional culture and East Asian materials and ideas in previous work. In <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I Want to Get Married</em>, he takes the notion a step further back in time, focusing on the importance of European ideas of art, even in Cambodia – “cultural colonialism”, he calls it. Yesterday, he highlighted the early influence of Jacques Grolier, the founder of the Royal University of Fine Arts.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Bandaul himself was first a student of European art, albeit in an unconventional classroom. He studied under the French artist Veronique Decrop in the Site 2 refugee camp in Thailand, and was one of the founding artists of Battambang’s contemporary Phare Ponleu Selpak school in 1994. He remains a teacher there.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The video installation, called Site 2, first appeared at the now-defunct Romeet Gallery in 2014. It shows Bandaul placing a krama, a mosquito net and a sarong – a symbol of rural poverty and injustice, he said, and a recurring image in his work – in a military bullet box.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> Tonight, in a continuation of the work, Bandaul will remove the items and wrap the sarong around himself in a performance with four other Cambodian artists. “Mostly, the problem in Cambodia is for the poorest community – their weakness against power,” he explained.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 9px; padding: 0px;"> The artist hopes that his work prompts an examination of such injustice that it continues beyond the scope of the exhibition. “Discussion is important, Bandaul said, “It is not just to make something aesthetic and put it on the wall.”</div>

Exhibit explores injustice in Kingdom

Renowned Battambang artist Srey Bandaul’s newest exhibition – opening tonight at Java Café and Gallery – parodies familiar European work...

Read more »