by School of Vice
Ref. Caught between two Kingdoms [Why Khmers celebrate Chinese New
Year?] the Phnom Penh Post.
The Khmers are probably more racially mixed through interbreeding with
other racial groups than they are aware or be willing to acknowledge, and in
terms of Sino-Khmer ethnic fusion or integration, they are on a par with most
neighbouring countries like Laos and Thailand. So to suggest that 'The
Khmer-Chen, Cambodians with Chinese blood, make up fewer than nine per cent of
the population' is at best misleading. Virtually, all Khmers are racially mixed
through gradual contacts with foreign migrants, particularly, Chinese people
from Chinese provinces bordering the Khmer Empire down the centuries.
There are reasons why the Empire offered itself as such a promising
destination to these migrants, and this has something to do with the all-round
bountiful conditions of its environs, including demographic density and its
corresponding demands on economic and natural resources like land use and food
source. All of these factors stood in sharp contrast to those found in the
‘Middle Kingdom’ where constant struggle and competition for survival would
have been far more intense and where natural disasters often led to famines and
deaths for millions even without the added catastrophe and pressure of
intermittent warfare between warring states prior to the Chinese communist
revolution of 1949.
Apart from traditional Chinese quarters that can be found in urban
commercial districts of most of Cambodia's major cities where ethnic Chinese or
Sino-Khmers are most visible, racial integration through marriage among Khmers
and Chinese descents has carried on in an almost imperceptible fashion
throughout the rest of the rural parts of the country. Yet the gradual manner
in which this integration has been affected historically and the melting-pot,
cultural capacities of the host culture to absorb and induct new-comers into
its fold and customs, making them part of their own distinct ethnic fabric has
meant that any alien entities would have sooner become seamlessly submerged or
infused well within the host culture's dominant ‘pot’ without diluting or doing
violence to either respective set of the merging cultures – a co-habiting
process known in anthropology and ethnography as 'acculturation'.
That the same process has proceeded up to today without experiencing -
in relative terms – any notable racial-ethnic tension and disharmony is thanks
in no small part to the peaceful, tolerant framework of the host culture, and
in particular, the all-embracing outlook provided by Theravada Buddhism as this
great influence had been adopted by the Khmers and adapted to their own
existing indigenous cultural stock or pot.
Another factor worth noting is that the earliest waves of Chinese
immigrants consisted mostly of men, and this is known to us partly through
historical Chinese records gathered by Chinese envoys like Zhou Da Guan who
travelled [and probably spied] the Kingdom during the late Angkorean period.
Some of these men were former military conscripts; others were traders and
drifters looking for adventure or on the run from the law back home; all of
whom were lured into settling down in their adopted country by the temperate
climate, the abundance of foods and the richness of the land in general, but
just as importantly, for these men, the native women were exotic and easily
wooed. Zhou’s observation on Khmer women’s apparently insatiable sexual
appetite and their readiness to ditch their partners for new lovers when their
carnal desire not adequately met may reflect more the prejudices and
pre-conceived fantasies of the observer and of his fellow countrymen rather
than anything with objective basis in reality. Nor was he the first and the
last to have projected his own fantasies onto the people he was observing.
European field researchers and anthropologists have been known to have produced
libraries of archives about strange [“exotic”] and far-fetched romantic
indigenous cultures whilst fathering, and eventually leaving to the care of the
natives they studied, many an illegitimate child!
There was, in addition, the psychological-sexual temptation or allure
of a cross-racial marriage, specifically, between people of contrast skin
colour or complexion. The ‘savages’ of various tribes of Africa, Latin America
or the natives of the Pacific colonies and islands; a people the Chinese would have
described as “barbarians” may not be held in high estimation in cultural or
intellectual terms by the ‘civilised’ participating observer, yet they were
irresistible objects of temptation and fascination to be raped and lusted after
all the same. Hence, most of these
Chinese men never returned to their places of birth. And hence many Cambodians
today carry Chinese surnames as Khmer people customarily pass down the paternal
family name through their offspring.
My reason for dwelling on this is to highlight the rather complicated
issue of 'race' which has often been too conventionally and expediently
exploited as a tool for advancing political motives. Indeed, in Cambodia's own
recent past this exploitation had been engineered feverishly and to the detriment
of all Khmers whether they considered themselves as "pure Khmer"
[think of Saloth Sar's - Pol Pot - chosen pen name: 'Original Khmer'] or
Sino-Khmer [Khmer-Chen] or even ‘Khmer-Vietnamese’ as this latter reference is
becoming more and more pertinent in today's actual context even if people’s
social attitude can be said to evolve at a much slower pace than do physical or
biological phenomena.
Under Pol Pot's rule, the 'race card' proved to be such a destructive
double-edged weapon that it went well beyond any genuine 'patriotic' or
nationalistic desire to preserve perceived notions of "racial purity"
or national self-preservation as such, that this misguided xenophobic sentiment
left itself wide open to and for intractable enemies of the Khmer nation to
turn that same weapon against its own kind; to eliminate the ethnic Chinese who
‘polluted the Khmer race’; to wipe out the hated Vietnamese through their
constructed representations in the forms of those identified as "having
Khmer bodies with Vietnamese heads", which is precisely what had been
achieved - it must be added - to almost the last Cambodian or Khmer! What a
perverse yet devastatingly effective device that is: borrow the hands of a
people to butcher off their own kind willingly and ferociously without so much
of the sentiment of pity or the benefit of a troubled conscience on the part of
the ones doing the borrowing!
Sadly, there are still Cambodians who continue to harbour under this
self-destructive ideology which they have unwittingly imbibed through twisted
propaganda and indoctrination. What really defines a person or a ‘race’ is
their actual emotion and attachment to a culture, a place or community which we
all experience as humans. In short, it has everything to do with their social
consciousness or self-perception which does not necessarily obey any biological
laws or the limitations of any given artificially constructed concept like
‘race’ or ideology that throughout human history had been seized upon by
political movements, national governments as well as states in the promotion of
their own - often narrow - ends with untold bloody consequences.
The need and struggle for national self-determination and emancipation
from foreign oppression or yoke, on the other hand, can be viewed as a function
of unjust, inequitable relations between national states, or more precisely, a
demonstration of deliberate violation of one nation’s sovereignty by another
through state-led agendas and practices. This is a fault or defective
characteristic, not so much of a people or even less a race, but rather a
reflection of ambition of organised associations and groups in terms of their
desire and greed that drive that ambition on relentlessly and at cruel expense
of those – in this case, a smaller nation with recognised incompetent
leadership - less well equipped to withstand their rape and onslaught.
Of course, it's not going to win me many awards writing about this emotive
subject. But, still . . .
Happy Chinese New Year!
- School of Vice
5 comments:
Very good piece of writing I really enjoy reading it.
Not much any one could add or argue to this great article of SOV.I wonder about people who made messy comments about this same article but posted at K-I,did they really understand this article!!?
Then I think that Khmerization is the other person I should also give praise, he works tirelessly hard in keeping this site filth free.
You are absolutely spot-on there with your observation.
Of ocurse, we have Khmerisation to thank for his dedication and hard work towards keeping this site professional and constructive.
School of Vice is a very good writer. I love reading his articles. Happy New Year to Khmerization Team.
Hi guys Gong chi fa chai, hope this year a very fruitful one for everyone and be safe.
Regards, D CPP GUY
What I wanted to say:
I'm part Chinese myself and I love our country. Cambodia should never be divided by ethnicity. Look at our neighbors they are assimilating their ethnic groups while we are here still arguing over the same shit that never stops like diarrhea. Cambodia needs someone to lead them regards of ethnicity, in a united front. Just look at the Laos and our khmer and mon Brothers in Thailand. We should be doing the same. And I don't know why people talking bad about Confucius , it's a code of ethics Not a religion similar to our own dhoun mhien daun tha proverbs if you done your research. In fact Chinese cultural practices have been incorporated into Khmer society eons ago ever since the khmer empire. People should look deeper instead of posting insulting comments about each other. And for people to use harsh rude words towards the current government, you are no more better then the PM, you should be smarter then that.
Note: Thanks to Khmerization and SOfV team for a very unbiased blog unlike KI. My 'Cambodian Armed Forces: Serving against Thai and putting up with idiots and crooks back home' post would have been scrutinized harshly. I hope you repost it with your response Khmerization and Mister SofV. I would like your point of view, Your comments are more then welcome.
Regards again,
'J***' alias Disillusioned CPP Guy.
(I have relatives in the current regime) what I say is already Treason.
I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming as well.
Post a Comment