The "Yuon" controversy: A view from a Colombian "Barang"

The following is an e-mail I received from Father Samnang (Albeiro) Rodas, a Colombian priest teaching Khmer kids in Sihanoukville in regard to the words "Yuon" and "Barang". For a "Barang", oop!, Colombian priest, he has a good understanding of the word "Yuon" which often misunderstood by many so-called foreign experts of Cambodia. His email is in regard to a friendly exchange between him and myself regarding the words "Yuon" and "Barang" which I also published below. Thanks for your clarification, Father Samnang. Khmerization.
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Good morning my dear friend,

I love your controversies, your style and your love for Cambodia. If you did not know, your blog is always in my class to my dear boys and you are one of their models :)

I dream one day you can come to Sihanoukville and share with all of us.

Then I have to explain you something of my Hispanic Culture as well.

We are used to talk in sarcasm most of the time (if you have read One Hundred Years of Solitude from our Colombian Nobel Prize Gabriel García Márquez you will understand). It means we talk important things in discussions by symbols that must be read in context. It is an ancient heritage from our Greek ancestors. Europeans with rare exceptions like southern Italians and Spaniards (our ancient Mother Land) use it too.

My comment about Barang was a type of sarcasm directed to The Phnom Penh Post especially rather than my dear Cambodians.

It means that actually I do not feel offended when somebody call me Barang (it makes me laugh), but it is to show how groundless is to say that Yuon is a racist term. My Latin American sarcasm in this case is just concluding If Yuon is racist, then Barang is even more racist, because we call a Vietnamese Yuon - and only a Vietnamese - and we call any Western foreigner a Barang that is technically a Frenchman...

My irony has also other context: It is true that eventually somebody call me Barang, especially those persons who just know me and so on. But as I am from Colombia (a multiethnic nation where you find peoples very similar to Cambodian, Vietnamese, Europeans and Africans), my context is very often confused as a Cambodian, plus I speak in Khmer... Then many Cambodians think I am actually Cambodian or the son of a long time emigrated Cambodian who return :) and that make me actually proud, because Cambodia is my second nation now, as you can trace through my writings or ask to my boys.

If you want to add this comment in the blog feel free too.

Please have a very happy Yuon New Year and Tiger New Year, from your friend,

Samnang (Albeiro) Rodas

:)

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12 February 2010 3:36 PM

Albeiro Rodas said...

I am very surprise that Western foreigners could state that the expression "Yuon" is racist. Several Western scholars like David Chandler in his History of Cambodia, clarify it. According with my own observation, those who accuse such expression as "racist" are the same Vietnamese people living and working in Cambodia, especially those who lives in Vietnamese ghettos (and they are technically real.) As anybody living in a ghetto is so sensitive to any expression referring to them, the effect is that the ancient "Yuon" expression get the impression that it is racist. Nobody in modern Israel will get offended if he/she is called "Jew" and non US Citizen would be too offended today if he/she is called "Gringo" in Latin America (many refers to themselves as "Gringo" now as a nice fashion but unknowing the story behind.) But during the reign of antisemitism in Europe, to be called "Jew" was almost mortal. The idea that "Yuon" is racist comes from Cambodian-Vietnamese people - we can say Khmer-Yuon people - who feel victims of racism at all. Now well, the word "Yuon" is widely used in Cambodia. Living in this country for a decade already, speaking a fair Khmer, the word "Yuon" is of popular used in different contexts that are not necessary racists. I can witness myself that Khmer people around me (including Khmer-Yuon people), speak about "Mahob Yuon, Piasa Yuon, Kut-sok Yuon," etc.
The reflection is that Khmer-Vietnamese people should integrate into the Cambodian society. It is about it.

13 February 2010 12:37 AM

Albeiro Rodas said...

Another thing: I feel real offended when any Cambodian call me BARANG. Yes, it is a real racist expression for many reasons and not like Yuon. A Yuon is a Yuon anyway, but I am not a Barang at all. It means "Frenchman". France for me is a very distant and odd country. I have been just once in France, a couple of hours in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in my travel Bogotá - Paris - Bangkok - Phnom Penh. It has been my only contact with the Barang Republic so far. My country, Colombia, is far from France as Cambodia. So, why any guy dare to call me "French"? Surely Cambodians in Colombia will be called without doubt "Chinese". Therefore, friends of The Phnom Penh Post, please denounce this very racist term to Western foreigners in Cambodia as soon as possible (and include the impersonal expression CHUNCHIET too.

13 February 2010 1:25 AM

Khmerization said...

Dear Albeiro my friend,

Thanks for clarifying about the word "yuon" to our foreign friends who are misinformed about the meaning and the usage of the word. It is very good for a Westerner to clarify such a controversial word to his foreign friends.

About the word "Barang", I am so sorry to hear that you feel offended by its reference. It is true that the word "barang" means "French". However, this term is not racist or pejorative/derogatory in anyway. In fact it is a very nice way of describing all "white" foreigners.

First let me explain the origin/etymology of the word "Barang" which the Thais called "Farang". In the old days, 19th century, the Cambodian language does not have the word to describe the "white people". When Cambodia was colinised by France in 1863,the French people were the first white men the Cambodian have ever seen and they called them "Barang" or "Barang Sess", a derivative of the French words Francais or Francaise. After that, we call any "white people" or anyone who look like French people "Barang" because we don't have any other term to describe them.

Since then, the word "Barang" has become a colloquial term for any white men, but again, we don't mean to be racist or pejorative ot derogatory to ward to white person we called "Barang". It is just a common term we used to call the white men and it is very respectful.

The word "Barang" now, even it derived from the words Francais/Francaise doesn't mean "Frenchman" only. Now we call any white man "Barang", but in a very respectful way, not in any disrespectful way. Like I said, in Thailand the Thai people call all white foreigners "Farang" too and it is not racist or derogatory.

Please rest assured my friend, when people call you "barang", they did so in a very respectful way. No racist, pejorative or derogatory connotations involved.