Cambodia

October 22, 2008

John Vink and returning Khmer Americans.

Engagement ceremony organised by the Khmer-American middleman of Shawn Washington, Califonian truckdriver, with Nary. Shawn went back to the U.S. after the ceremony, and the wedding never took place.

If America as an influential power in Cambodia is not what it used to be (and probably for the better when taking into consideration what turmoil it left behind defending its conception of freedom and democracy) one must not forget that there are some 240,000 Khmer Americans in the U.S., living mainly in Long Beach, Calif., and Lowell, Mass. Most of them arrived in the U.S. after the Indochina war, escaping the Khmer Rouge regime and the subsequent Vietnamese invasion/liberation, and have been an important financial support for the family members who remained stuck in the homeland. I remember that hotel lobby in Phnom Penh in 1989, where a Cambodian with many golden rings on his fingers, and obviously a Khmer American, was distributing envelopes filled with greenbacks to shy elderly queuing up at the reception and taking a picture of them with the money as proof of safe delivery.

The second generation, born in the U.S. or at least who grew up there, is 20-25 years old now, and they begin to question their roots. They don’t speak Khmer or very little, even when many older Khmer-Americans barely speak English. Some still have difficulties blending in properly into American society (although you might consider that being a member of a street gang is a perfect example of integration into American culture). Their cultural background is very strong. The connections with the homeland are still very strong: from sending money back there, to producing Khmer karaoke songs to sell on the market in Phnom Penh (for a Cambodian singer it is considered as the top to perform in the U.S.), to finding a young wife in the countryside who will not be as fussy and complicated as a Western girl. Some Khmer Americans, because they still have the connections, even make a business arranging weddings between Americans and daughters of relatives in the Cambodian countryside.