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Culture & Video: ‘Back to the Roots’, meeting the creative talents of the Cambodian diaspora with Banh Mi Media

Since 2021, Linda Nguon, founder of Banh Mi Media, has been exploring the mix of Western and Asian cultures and highlighting the voices of these multicultural communities through videos, podcasts and events from France.

Back to the Roots’ live podcast event in Phnom Penh with Linda Nguon (bottom left) alongside : Adana Mam Legros, Tifanny Bophadavy Doch, FONKi, Davy Chou and Sok Visal

This 48th episode takes us on a journey to meet creative people from the Cambodian diaspora, now settled in the Kingdom, to discuss issues of identity and the influence of art in Cambodia, as well as the opportunities the country offers.

Back to the Roots’ in Cambodia, a return to the pearl of South-East Asia

In 2021, alongside Sok Visal, founder of the KlapYaHandz label and pioneer of the Cambodian arts scene, Linda explored the issues surrounding the cultural influence and arts scene in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

It was an exchange that gave life to episode 41 of Banh Mi Media, in which Sok Visal shared the growing interest of the outside world in Cambodia, and even in Asia in general, particularly in the arts.

‘Today, the West is inspired by Asia and the world is watching what is happening in Cambodia. It's reclaiming its name as the ‘Pearl of South-East Asia’,’ says Sok Visal, a versatile creative, producer and director.

He adds:

"There are young people in our communities who have a lot of talent. This is the time, South East Asia is coming up and making a name for itself."

‘We need to build bridges between France and the countries of South-East Asia, because there are exchanges to be made and this is the way to develop the countries of our parents. That's why young Asians in France need to realise that they can help develop the countries where they come from.

So it was only a short time later that Linda, a young woman of Vietnamese and Cambodian origins, decided to return to Cambodia to organise a brand new episode: the first live podcast in Phnom Penh, ‘Back to the Roots’.

‘It's been 5 years since I last travelled to Cambodia. Thanks to the people I've met through Banh Mi Media, I've been able to reconnect more and more with the roots that my parents didn't tell me much about. Season 3 of Banh Mi nurtured this reconnection, with exchanges with Denis Do, director of the film Funan, Sok Visal, pioneer of Cambodian hip-hop, Neak Kru Voan Savay, prima ballerina with the Royal Khmer Ballet, and Rithy Panh, pioneer of Cambodian war stories in cinema around the world, or the organisation of the first networkings in Paris with Thierry Tea, Vice-Chairman of the Cambodian group OCIC, have enabled me to find answers to what my parents may have experienced over there and to bear witness to the renewed economic and cultural dynamism and opportunities that the country of my roots can offer’, confides Linda Nguon, founder of Banh Mi Media.

"Organising this event in Cambodia with Banh Mi was an obvious choice for me. I met FONKi at the beginning of August in Paris, he had been invited by a friend to come to a Banh Mi event, that's how we decided to create this event, on August 31, in his artist's gallery, FT Gallery in Factory Phnom Penh, a hot spot for creative people in the capital’.

The stars were aligned and I can only be proud and grateful for the support of the Yuvachun association and Sok Visal for co-production, and for the confidence of my guests in this ground-breaking event and episode in the land of our ancestors.’

Guided by Cambodian cultural and artistic energy, Linda has surrounded herself with a panel of creative artists for this event:

- Adana Mam Legros, a French-Cambodian artivist, painter and film-maker.

- Tiffany Bophadavy Doche, Franco-Cambodian and Chinese art director and co-founder of Revivre Studio.

- FONKi, Cambodian/French-Canadian artist, curator and owner of FT Gallery in Factory Phnom Penh and founder of the Murals for Cambodia festival.

- Davy Chou, French-Cambodian director and producer.

Back to the Roots’ live podcast event in Phnom Penh with Linda Nguon (left) alongside her panellists: Davy Chou, Tifanny Bophadavy Doche, Adana Mam Legros and FONKi

The artistic renaissance of Cambodia, the land of all possibilities

Interested in these French people of Cambodian origin who have returned to the country of their roots to create, undertake and pursue their professional careers, Linda has created an atmosphere of exchange where the cultural and artistic riches of the Kingdom of Cambodia meet and shine.

So it was around their hybrid cultures and the unique energy of Cambodia that Adana, Tiffany, FONKi and Davy shared their arrival in Cambodia and their gratitude for being able to practise their profession in this country, where they draw their inspiration from the unique Khmer soul.

Davy Chou, a well-known film director and producer, moved to Cambodia for the first time when he was 25, in 2009. Over time, he discovered its culture and history, and was fascinated by the story of one of his grandfathers, who was involved in the Cambodian film industry as a producer.

This is an industry that has begun to revive in recent years in the Kingdom, and one in which Davy Chou is motivated by working with Cambodian professionals, some of whom are making their first film.

‘The road is long and not easy, but we are so enthusiastic about wanting to travel it that it gives us a lot of energy,’ says Davy.

‘The profiles we have are special, we might think they're a minority, but there's something universal about them today’.

For FONKi, a committed and inspiring artist with a triple cultural identity: ‘We are the bridge between the old and new generations. Thanks to Cambodia for that. There's something special about Cambodia that means you have to come here with this attitude: ‘Qui vivra verra’. We're alive, we're here.

‘And so now, with all this renaissance, these different arts and crafts or whatever. Every time there's positive news, it makes Cambodia shine and everyone here is happy, like VannDa at the Olympic Games. This is just one example, but it's only the beginning and Cambodia has plenty of things to surprise the world.

Lulled by Khmer culture from an early age and caught up in this wave of Cambodian creators, FONKi has understood year after year the importance of art and its role as a ‘tool of the tool’ in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

FONKi alongside the panellists at the ‘Back to the Roots’ live podcast at the FT Gallery in Factory Phnom Penh

Also immersed in Khmer culture from an early age, Adana draws on its very history to develop her art and build her commitments. Inspired by the devotion of her parents and having been confronted with illness. She links art, psychology, self-expression and healing through her work, which travels the world but always takes its source and meaning in Cambodia, ‘at home’, as Adana would say.

"There's everything to be remade, recreated and rebuilt through art, and we're lucky to be able to be part of that. Art is an incredible medium inspired by healing and the youth who seek to move forward and excel’, shared Adana during the “Back to the Roots” live podcast.

As for Tifanny Bophadavy Doche, the young artistic director who has just arrived in her parents' homeland in 2021, she is letting herself be carried away by this new atmosphere and the energy of mutual aid that is so typical of the country, particularly in the development of her brand, Revivre.

‘We can make ‘Made in Cambodia’ products of really high quality. All the pieces are handmade and I think that's something that Cambodians feel very strongly about.

I think it's people like the ones here who are going to put Cambodia more in the international spotlight in different areas of art’, said Tiffany.

On a more personal note, she confides:

"I also did it to reconnect with the country of my parents, who also lived through the Khmer Rouge and don't really want to return to Cambodia. I wanted to finish, I think, something that our parents didn't finish here.

Finally, those present at the FT Gallery for this live podcast were able to ask their questions, exchange views and sometimes even find themselves in the speeches of the panellists. Melissa Chenda Ang, a young French-Cambodian woman who has been living in Cambodia for several years, said:

‘It was a great atmosphere! Most of us came just after work and this moment was a nice break between Franco-Khmers.’

"We all have different backgrounds and personalities, you can see that in the podcast. Yet I think we all have this relationship of Cambodia to a French-speaking country that instinctively unites us."

The main point I would make from this podcast is that we have this tendency to homogenise Asians in Western countries. But when we take a closer look, as we did during this event, we haven't experienced the world in the same way.

And even taking a small sample like the artists' community. I find that in the way they express themselves, in the way they look at Cambodia, there are many differences. And that's the beauty of our community.’

‘ Banh Mi Media certainly also contributes to getting a glimpse of this myriad of personalities that is Asia.’

Celebrating Khmer heritage through the universal language of art

A first live podcast in Phnom Penh, where bridges are being built, particularly between Cambodia and France, and where a certain universal culture is being born around respect, sharing and this common glory for the Kingdom and its heritage.

It's a country where we let ourselves be guided, with humility, by its energy and its soul, and where the Cambodian communities, but also those from elsewhere, come together, are inspired and rise together for Cambodia.

A new episode of Banh Mi Media that inspires us to support new Cambodian talent and to promote the international influence of Cambodia, and more specifically Phnom Penh here, as a dynamic cultural hub in South-East Asia.