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Articles by Rinith Taing
Up all night at Phsar Doeum Kor
Night falls and the first vendors begin setting up their stalls. Guided only by the light from solo bulbs strung up on wires, they park tiny stools amid baskets of fresh produce and find a promising spot to lay their mats to settle in for the night. “We leave our house between 5 and 6pm, and eat our dinner here. We sell our vegetables until 5 or 6am, or even 9am if business isn’t really good.
Who’s Who: Engineering’s Dr Health and Safety
As a youngster, Yang Thearith dreamed of being a doctor, but a change of direction saw him become an engineer with a focus on the health and safety of his projects It is a national holiday and the morning sky is filled with black clouds, signalling a rainy day ahead, but Yang Thearith, managing director of GBC Engineers, is cycling to his office on Street 331 in Beung Kak II to finish some work and get some exercise at the same time.
Unhappy Hour: Bars, other vendors cleared from Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum Park
Umbrella stands, baskets and signs littered the street running alongside Wat Botum Park on Tuesday, remnants of the popular pop-up bars and restaurants that the city government abruptly forced to close as part of a clean-up campaign. About 50 Daun Penh district security guards, military police and police on Tuesday afternoon picked up the debris as a group of several dozen sellers and their families gathered to watch under the shade of a tree across the road.
Cooking for diners who get high before they eat
Few people ever notice the 2,000- square-metre food preparation facility that lies partially hidden behind a wall on the road beside Phnom Penh International Airport. But if they were to enter its gates, they might recognise the five white trucks parked out front. The specially fitted hi-lift aircraft catering trucks are used to deliver food supplies, including in-flight meals, to most of the commercial aircraft that land at Phnom Penh airport.
Hoping for a radio drama revival
Vang Chun remembers a time when his industry brought families together. Now 78, he wistfully recounted this week the past glory of radio dramas – a genre largely ignored today despite the efforts of some trying to keep it alive. Chun remembers putting together Kolab Pailin (The Rose of Pailin), a theatrical radio piece based on a famous novel that became a hit, when he was a 21-year-old choreographic arts student at the Royal University of Fine Arts.
Synergies in art and architecture
Artist slash architect Thang Sothea says an understanding of architecture helps him to craft artwork that can enhance the aesthetic value of the spaces they occupy. In the study of a big house on Phnom Penh’s Riverside, Thang Sothea is poring over 3D concept designs on an apartment’s bedroom on his MacBook, part of a collection of mock-ups he did for a home renovation project a few years back that he hopes will give him inspiration for an upcoming project.
Num Ansorm: The salacious street snack
Consumed by Cambodians for centuries, Num Ansorm and Num Kom are more than just ricebased snacks – they carry a special spiritual, and sexual, significance. Mom Thy, 47, wakes up in the dead of night to make a stack of the banana leaf-wrapped sticky rice treats called Num Ansorm, which he pedals around town on his cart filled with hot coals. “I wake up at 1am to prepare them and start selling at 5,” he says.
Who’s Who: Sok Muygech is pushing the boundaries of sustainable architecture
It’s just after two in the afternoon and Sok Muygech, director of BMK Architects, is discussing the details of a new interior design project with her six employees at the company’s office in BKK1. The small office that sits above an optician’s shop is what people in her business would describe as “cosy,” but the 26-year-old architect considers it a giant improvement over the cramped one-room apartment that the fledgling architect firm operated out of when it opened two years ago.
Farmer discovers mystery stone tablet in Anlong Veng
Historians and archaeologists are working to determine the origin and significance of a stone tablet appearing to bear the inscription of a Khmer King's royal directive that a farmer found last week in an Oddar Meanchey cassava field. The farmer, identified only as Ngich, reportedly found the object while digging up rows of cassava in his field near Romchek village, according to the Ministry of Culture's Heritage Department Director General Prak Sonnara.
Book takes a stab at romanising Khmer
Lay Sovichea has taken on a task that at first glance seems mundane, if not tedious. He is trying to standardise a system for writing Khmer with the Roman alphabet, giving some order to what is now a haphazard method.
Dark comedy takes on selfies
One evening in 2016, British filmmaker Matthew Robinson was drinking a cappuccino in an upscale Phnom Penh coffee shop when he realised something: everybody around him, even the servers, were taking selfies. He couldn’t help but think of Narcissus, who falls in love with his own reflection after being cursed by the god Nemesis, which in the end leads to his demise. After finishing his coffee, he walked out onto Sisowath Quay, only to find more people taking pictures of themselves.
Female drum troupe defies gender norms
At Wat Reach Bo in Siem Reap, the sound of monks giving their afternoon prayer duels with the nearby pounding of drums. Inside an old wooden building, which houses the NGO Cambodian Living Arts’ Heritage Hub, five women in their 20s are rehearsing with Khmer traditional drums, or skor. In the sweltering afternoon heat, sweat pours down the women’s faces as they strike the drums with either their bare hands or with sticks, and clap, dance and cry out.
Jailbreak team starts next film
The team behind Cambodian genre-busting flick and international hit Jailbreak begins shooting their next action film today, again featuring a local and international cast. The Prey follows the secret mission of Xin, an undercover Chinese cop, who after a raid finds himself in a remote jungle prison, where its inmates are used as prey in games of trophy hunting.
Cambodian media under threat: report
Media outlets in Cambodia have came under increasing threat over the past year, according to a new report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), though the Ministry of Information, responding to a similar recent report, has insisted freedom of expression and the press is guaranteed in the Kingdom.
Media under threat: report
Media outlets in Cambodia have came under increasing threat over the past year, according to a new report by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), though the Ministry of Information, responding to a similar recent report, has insisted freedom of expression and the press is guaranteed in the Kingdom.
The game-changer that wasn’t: Meeting the reclusive man behind what may be the first written record from inside the Khmer Rouge
The nearest neighbour to Ith Sarin’s villa in Siem Reap is about five minutes away, and that’s no coincidence. Since he left the United States for Cambodia five years ago, Sarin has been hiding from the sound of traffic, and from the public eye – not to mention those of journalists and politicians. He is afraid, first and foremost, they will use him for propaganda. The 80-year-old sat on a bench last weekend on the lush grounds of his villa, playing with his Labrador retriever.
Press freedom ‘collapsed’ in 2017, journalist survey says
The “façade of media freedom” in the Kingdom “collapsed” last year, with journalists reporting a sharp drop in their hopes for independent press, according to the results of a new survey launched yesterday. The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) study surveyed 75 journalists from 41 local media outlets last November. Only 11 percent of surveyed journalists said Cambodian was heading “in the right direction”, a steep decline from the 71 percent reported in 2015.
Hard work put into roadside snack favourite kralan
With its subtle flavour and compact packaging, kralan seems like a simple but satisfying snack, but making it is a laborious process for those who stake their livelihoods on it. The snack consists of sticky rice cooked in coconut milk, with black-eyed peas or beans stuffed and cooked inside a bamboo tube. Kratie province is most famous for kralan but it’s along a stretch of road that straddles Sotr Nikum and Prasat Brakong districts along National Road 6 where vendors are most visible.
Forget love, Valentine’s is a ‘day of fortune’
After eating her breakfast, Ben Muycheang, 24, sets up an umbrella, stall and table in front of her family’s house and business on Mao Tse Toung Boulevard. Most days she helps with her family’s brick-and-tile shop, but this week she is taking advantage of an opportunity. From the inside of her home, Muycheang brings out bouquets, real and fake, which she has spent nearly a month putting together using instructions from a flower design magazine, along with chocolate and teddy bears.
Baking with love is key to success at Sancha
Around 7 in the morning, at the newly opened second branch of Bagel & Bakery Sancha in Russian Market, owner Mariko Okuda is behind the counter in a chef’s hat and apron alongside two of her local staff members. She greets customers enthusiastically in Khmer, English or Japanese as they walk in the door. Okuda has travelled to 33 countries around the world, tasting their bread along the way, but found that none could compete with that from her home country of Japan.
The 26-year-old bringing Cambodian history to life through swords
Three years have passed since Toun Socheat got his degree in laboratory medicine. But these days, instead of analysing blood, he focuses on making and preserving weapons once used to shed it. In a workshop on Street 484, the short but sturdy 26-year-old oversees his workers attaching a long, single-edged blade to a wooden hilt to make a dao, a type of Khmer sword dating back centuries. After it is attached, he swings it violently back and forth to test its fitting.
Keeping history alive with swords
Three years have passed since Toun Socheat got his degree in laboratory medicine. But these days, instead of analysing blood, he focuses on making and preserving weapons once used to shed it. In a workshop on Street 484, the short but sturdy 26-year-old oversees his workers attaching a long, single-edged blade to a wooden hilt to make a dao, a type of Khmer sword dating back centuries. After it is attached, he swings it violently back and forth to test its fitting.
A key piece in Cambodian chess
On a hot afternoon this week, more than 20 men sit in a nameless café in the Boeung Keng Kang III neighbourhood of the capital. Crowding around five boards, the men play ouk chaktrang, the Cambodian version of chess, rotating out to make room for another player every time the king falls. All throughout the capital and countryside, the game is played in cafés, but the majority of the boards come from one reliable source: Songvor village in Kandal province, about 35 kilometres north of Phnom Penh.
A key piece in the local chess game
On a hot afternoon this week, more than 20 men sit in a nameless café in the Boeung Keng Kang III neighbourhood of the capital. Crowding around five boards, the men play ouk chaktrang, the Cambodian version of chess, rotating out to make room for another player every time the king falls. All throughout the capital and countryside, the game is played in cafés, but the majority of the boards come from one reliable source: Songvor village in Kandal province, about 35 kilometres north of Phnom Penh.
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 and Ros Sereysothea. Today, he has little to show for it materially, but happily looks back on his nearly eight decades. 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.
Nearly a century after the bloody murder of a French colonial official, a village still bears the mark of the ‘beast’
The road to Kraang Leav village, branching off the main highway five minutes northwest of Kampong Chhnang town, leads to a moss-covered stupa boxed in by a stone fence. A plaque identifies it, though the words – “Bardez Stupa” – don’t convey the true weight of its history. On this spot nearly 93 years ago, in April of 1925, the blood-soaked body of Felix Louis Bardez lay.
In pursuit of Phnom Penh’s 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. Sometimes they are vegetables, other times fruits, and even fish, crabs or ants. Whether the tradition is imported or homegrown, one thing is certain: pickled foods are everywhere in Cambodia. 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.
Young artists explore lasting suffering of forced marriages
Over the past three weeks after long days in the studio, Saing Nan, a painter and alumnus of the Royal University of Fine Arts, has spent most of his evenings on his new work Woman and Memories, a striking portrait of a woman with her eyes closed. The black cloth and krama around her neck signify that she is living under the Khmer Rouge, and etched into her face are images illustrating the story of her life after Year Zero, in which she is victimised, especially by forced marriage and rape.
The forgotten story of Khmer prisoners in colonial Con Dao prison
On the evening of December 20, 1942, a ship arrived at Con Son Island far off the coast of southern Vietnam. Known as Koh Tralach in Cambodia, the island at that time housed a prison established by the French for those who dared rebel against its colonial rule in Indochina. Men and women in monotone grey disembarked from the cargo hold and walked through the shallow water toward the coast. Among them was 21-year-old Cambodian Bun Chanmul, staggering due to seasickness.
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 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.
At Wat Phnom, a Khmer shrine makes room for Chinese beliefs
Two people pray at a Neak Ta Preah Chao shrine on Wat Phnom, which has been transformed from a Khmer shrine to one of the key sites for Chinese-Cambodians Heng Chivoan Next to the nearly 700-year-old monastic temple at Wat Phnom, on the south side of the symbolic hill, is a sacred house with red lanterns hanging and a blessing in Chinese characters that, at first glance, resembles the countless Chinese temples throughout the country.
At Wat Phnom, a Khmer shrine makes room for Chinese beliefs
Next to the nearly 700-year-old monastic temple at Wat Phnom, on the south side of the symbolic hill, is a sacred house with red lanterns hanging and a blessing in Chinese characters that, at first glance, resembles the countless Chinese temples throughout the country. However, Prak Somnang, 68, the retired caretaker of the temple who still spends his days there as a fortune teller, remembers the building’s true history and its transformation.
Finding artistic inspiration in stilted homes
In 2003, when Channa Chhum was an art student at Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang, he went to Prek Toal – a remote floating village on the Tonle Sap – to work on a painting project about Cambodia’s wildlife. But the stilted wooden houses, and not the area’s renowned birdlife, caught his eye. “I found them exceptionally beautiful,” the 31-year-old painter and Battambang native said.
Ministry bans song from radio, TV for ‘insulting’ teachers
The Ministry of Information yesterday announced a ban on television and radio broadcast of a popular song by singer Chen Sai Chai for supposedly “insulting” and “humiliating” teachers, though the musicians have said their lighthearted tune is aimed at bettering society.
‘Little Frog’ makes leap from fighting octagon to big screen
Oum Sam Tharoth remembers that during her first martial arts fight in 2014 she could see her parents crying from across the octagon as she took blow after blow from her opponent. She won, but nonetheless afterwards they insisted that she give up her dream. Tharoth had begun studying Bokator, a traditional Khmer fighting style, six years before when she was 18, under the prominent master San Kim Sean.
Mekong River Commission stations not operational
Less than half of the monitoring stations set up by the Mekong River Commission in Cambodia are not operational due to a lack of financial commitment from the Cambodian government, officials said yesterday, jeopardising the collection of important environmental and hydrological data.
Singer Yorn Young looks to build bridges with music
For Yorn Young, a songwriter and singer especially popular among Cambodian-Americans, music is not just about entertainment but also a means for reconciliation between countries. Originally from Kampong Thom, Young began as a traditional Khmer musician before he was selected in 2013 for the OneBeat exchange program, a US State Department program that funds one-month residencies in the US for musicians around the world.
Libraries on wheels spread the words
On Wednesday afternoons in Kandal village, a green van arrives in front of a house and is immediately swarmed by children – from toddlers to teenagers – shouting “Here comes the library! Here comes the library!” Yea Chunly, the driver and a mobile librarian of Soutien á L’Initiative Privée pour L’Aide á la Reconstruction (Sipar), takes several boxes filled with hundreds of books from the back of the van, along with mats for the children to sit on.
Dance troupe tours the country, modernising a classic form of art
It's already nearly 8 in the evening, and Soung Sokunthy, 47, is applying make-up to her face as she prepares for a performance at Wat Koh Andet, about 50 kilometres from the capital of Takeo. Tonight, she is Mom, the female protagonist in Chivit Kon Komprea, or “The Life of an Orphan”, a new play she wrote specifically for this event. All around her, other artists in the Phy-Sokunthy Troupe are buzzing about – throwing on costumes and applying blush and lipsticks.
The flower on the Sangke River: Tracing the history of creativity in Battambang
The flower on the Sangke River: Tracing the history of creativity in Battambang For well over a century, Battambang has stood out in Cambodia as a cradle of culture, producing renowned artists, writers, poets, musicians and thinkers. Why this provincial city is a hotbed for creativity is somewhat of a mystery – but the answer may lie in a fortuitous combination of history, politics and geography.
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 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.
Listening to the ‘other’: project tracks Khmer-ethnic Vietnamese relations on the ground
A culture of pervasive prejudice against Cambodian residents of Vietnamese descent coexists with one of relative communal harmony in mixed areas of the capital, a recent survey of Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese residents has found. Published last week in the book Who’s Listening? Tackling hard issues with empathy, the findings are the result of conversations with Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese residents in three districts of Phnom Penh conducted earlier this year.
A scientist’s love of history
On April 17, 1975, Kenneth T So – born So Khong Thay – saw the breaking news that Phnom Penh had fallen to the Khmer Rouge on a television in the canteen of the University of Tennessee, where he was studying chemical engineering. The news horrified young So, who believed the rumours of Khmer Rouge atrocities, despite the dismissals in pro-communist periodicals.
Khmer-Vietnam views complex: study
A culture of pervasive prejudice against Cambodian residents of Vietnamese descent coexists with one of relative communal harmony in mixed areas of the capital, a recent survey of Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese residents has found. Published last week in the book Who’s Listening? Tackling hard issues with empathy, the findings are the result of conversations with Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese residents in three districts of Phnom Penh conducted earlier this year.
Bullied in Battambang: Despite obstructions, the CNRP’s Sin Rozeth carries on
Outside of Battambang’s O’Char Commune Hall, a middle-aged woman approaches opposition Commune Chief Sin Rozeth complaining that her name has been taken off a list making her eligible for benefits for the poor. The hall has closed early for a public holiday, but Rozeth tells the woman calmly that she will look into the issue. She makes a phone call to an assistant, and the matter is resolved within the hour.
One radio station tackles the tricky topic of the paranormal
Um Kosal in his studio, where he broadcasts his show twice each weekend about people’s experiences with the paranormal. Heng Chivoan Encountering the supernatural is a weekly occurrence for Um Kosal, a producer and DJ at Vayo FM Radio. Every Saturday and Sunday night, as the clock strikes 9pm, 34-year-old Kosal, alone in the studio on Phnom Penh’s Norodom Boulevard, dims the lights and prepares for his last show of the day. The station’s other staff have left the studio.
Diamond Island nominated for multiple awards
The critically acclaimed feature film Diamond Island, by French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou, has been nominated for best picture – with a best male actor nomination for Nuon Sobon – by the organisation Les Trophées Francophones du Cinéma. The annual film awards, scheduled for December, celebrate movies originating in countries that are part of the “Francophonie”, or those with a notable affiliation with French culture.
‘Holy man’ or huckster? Meeting Thean Vuthy, the self-proclaimed final Buddha who left the spotlight behind – but not controversy
Meeting Thean Vuthy, the self-proclaimed final Buddha who left the spotlight behind – but not controversy Several weeks ago, a video emerged on Facebook and local media of a man declaring himself the “Father of the Universe” and an anarhat – or “perfect person” in Sanskrit. Around him were pictures of the late King Norodom Sihanouk and King Suramarit, as well as a legion of faithful worshipers.
The mark of a master: Revisiting Vann Molyvann’s Phnom Penh
While much has been lost, there is still plenty left to see of Vann Molyvann’s 100 Houses project. Tucked away in a leafy and largely affluent neighbourhood of the city not far from Phnom Penh International Airport, the vast majority of the homes have either been bulldozed or renovated but a handful reflect the original designs. Commissioned by the National Bank, the project was intended for its employees to live in and to purchase over time.
The mark of a master: Revisiting Vann Molyvann’s Phnom Penh
The holistic ideals within his designs – managing water-flows, heat and wind, and connecting buildings stylistically to their surroundings – have been compromised, but there are remnants of his work all throughout Phnom Penh, and in much of the country, especially in provinces to the west. Many of these are lived-in, or played-in, structures and bear the marks of these human activities.
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