The next generation of the city's Cambodian-American community steps up to help its elders—and itself
"Our future is fragile, our hope can break.
At any moment, be aware and wide awake.
We gotta be focused, time to concentrate,
like a Buddha on lotus, mind and meditate.
We here now in the Unified States.
The land of opportunity, outcome is what you make.
So full steam ahead, don't worry about the brakes.
A head full of dreams, that idea seems great.
We here now, too much is at stake.
It's a new kind of jungle, and different kind of struggle."
At any moment, be aware and wide awake.
We gotta be focused, time to concentrate,
like a Buddha on lotus, mind and meditate.
We here now in the Unified States.
The land of opportunity, outcome is what you make.
So full steam ahead, don't worry about the brakes.
A head full of dreams, that idea seems great.
We here now, too much is at stake.
It's a new kind of jungle, and different kind of struggle."
—From praCh Ly's upcoming album, Dalama 3: Memoirs of the Invisible War
John Gilhooley
John Gilhooley
Long Beach's first Cambodia Town Film Festival
Coordinators praCH Ly and Caylee So (center) with their planning
committee at the Art Theatre
* * *
PraCh Ly drives his black Mercedes SUV down Anaheim Street in Long
Beach on a warm Thursday afternoon, passing clusters of storefronts with
barred windows and squiggly Khmer script. He gazes at the familiar
businesses—fabric shops selling jewel-toned sarongs, DVD stores
plastered with posters promoting the latest Cambodian titles, and
restaurants serving up plates of fresh lok lak beef salad and bowls of
mango sticky-rice pudding.
"Over there is where you go after coming back from the clubs," he
says, pointing to the nondescript bakery-turned-nightspot Bamboo Island.
"You can sing karaoke until, like, 3 a.m."
This is Cambodia Town, the heart of Southern California's Cambodian
community, the largest such enclave in the United States, and one of the
largest on Earth. And the 33-year-old Ly (he goes by praCh; the
spelling is his own) is perhaps its most famous ambassador, a rapper who
became an accidental superstar in a country he only knew about through
library books and fragmented family tales. Read the rest of the article at OC Weekly.
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