The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Investigate both” plus 9 more

The government will investigate both cases – the protesters and the security forces – over the shootings.

In this week's interview, Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, weighs in on the minimum wage debate in Cambodia and discusses the impact that China's increasing costs will have on the manufacturing industry here, as investors look beyond the world's second-largest economy.

As the title of your book, The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that Will Disrupt the World, makes clear, China is no longer the highly desired manufacturing location it once was. What happened?
Chinese factory salaries have gone up 15 to 20 per cent annually for the past five years. High salaries, combined with soaring rents and an ageing population, have squeezed margins for manufacturers, forcing them to relocate to lower cost countries like Cambodia, Indonesia or internally within China to provinces such as Sichuan. Nike, for instance, gets 37 per cent of its products from Vietnam versus 35 per cent from China.

What does such a shift mean for the region?
There are great opportunities for Cambodia and ASEAN in general to grab market share in the manufacturing sector, especially in light industry. Many apparel and footwear companies are looking to relocate to ASEAN as long as they can find the proper infrastructure and stable government policies. Thailand is attracting more auto sector investment, Bali and other resort areas will benefit from more outbound Chinese tourism.

Where does Cambodia fit in?
Cambodia is well-poised to benefit from China's rising costs. China-Cambodia relations are strong, so Chinese businessmen feel comfortable operating. Of concern, however, are the recent labour protests, which worry businessmen thinking about rising costs and low labour productivity. Lack of infrastructure is another issue. In today's world, where brands like Zara release new clothes every two weeks rather than every quarter, the speed of getting product from factory to point of sale is critical.

Is it all about low costs?
I was speaking with bankers recently who are setting up branches in Cambodia in order to help finance the expansion of apparel manufacturers. Cambodia needs to provide low-cost yet skilled labour for at least 10 years to make it worthwhile for companies to relocate. In my book, I actually track a furniture company that relocated to Vietnam but eventually moved back to China because of too many defective products. Cheap is not enough – it needs to be good enough quality too.

Will Cambodia really suffer if it raises the minimum wage immediately to $160?
Cambodia has a low-cost advantage right now over many of its neighbours which will allow it to attract more FDI. If the minimum wage was increased to $160 a month, that would make companies think twice about whether or not to invest in Cambodia as it lacks the infrastructure to lower costs in other ways and is farther from the end consumer than Thailand.

Has China lost its status as a manufacturing hub completely?
China will not lose its manufacturing dominance overall, and its share of world exports has risen in the past decade. It has far superior infrastructure and ecosystems than any other country. It is just the type of manufacturing that will change. Factories are automating factory lines and producing aerospace parts rather than T-shirts.

The relationship between Cambodia and China is stronger than ever. How is Cambodia benefiting?
Right now China is having increasingly tense relations with many of its neighbours, so it is a good opportunity for Cambodia to cooperate with China and thus attract investment and trade opportunities. China waves economic carrots to friendly nations. The prime minister of Japan's ill-advised rhetoric combined with inevitable South China Sea friction is causing too much tension – China can benefit from a nation like Cambodia in international bodies.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Li-Da Kruger, 39, was only a baby when she was flown out of Cambodia by the last American helicopter in 1975, just before Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, and was subsequently adopted in the UK. She was told that her mother had died and her father had been badly wounded, but was never sure how much to believe. A professional filmmaker, she returned to Cambodia aged 27 to make a documentary about her heritage. This year, she has returned to the Kingdom to make another film. She talks to Emily Wight about why she plans to tell the story of the Cambodian diaspora through dance.

You grew up in the UK. When did you first return to Cambodia?
When I was on holiday in Thailand aged 20, I went back for just five days. It was in 1994, when the Khmer Rouge was still in the jungle, and just after three hostages had been killed. I went around Angkor Wat for four hours and didn't meet one foreigner – can you imagine?

Can you tell me about the process of making your first documentary, Belonging?
I always wanted to learn about my cultural heritage and my roots, and whether or not I had a biological family still alive. To be honest I didn't think they would be. But none of my friends growing up had a clue about Cambodia, they didn't even know where it was – of course Britain doesn't have any historical ties with Cambodia, and there was very little information about it at the time. The documentary was to look for family, but it was also to discover what Cambodia meant for me.

Did you find out anything about your family?
No. But I met a woman who thought I might be her daughter, and we both kind of played out this mother and daughter relationship. She invited me back to her village to say "this might be my daughter", and for me it felt like meeting someone who might be my mother would – a complete stranger, with completely strange customs. She dressed me up in traditional outfits, and lots of monks came along. I left with a DNA sample and found out she wasn't my mother. But when I went back to tell her in person, I still felt emotionally loyal to her.

What did you discover about your identity?
When I'd made the journey and spent two and a half months here and met Cambodians, I realised I was totally English. The Cambodian culture was so foreign to me. I grew up with South African expat parents in England and lived in a manor house and had a very charmed lifestyle. Having had no influences from Cambodia before, it was a huge shock in every single way possible. I didn't really feel connected.

What will your new film focus on?
My new film is about the Sacred Dancers of Angkor, a troupe of child dancers up in Siem Reap who are beneficiaries of the Nginn Karet Foundation, a charity of which I'm a trustee. Whenever I saw these children dance it was truly amazing – they dance with such discipline and dignity and elegance. In September last year, they went on tour to the US, on a mission to form a bridge for Cambodian-Americans to the motherland during the Pchum Ben holiday, which is the month of remembrance of ancestors. I was attracted to this because of my displacement as a Cambodian in the UK, and I decided to make a film about the dancers, their tour and those who watched it. However, I still need to secure funding for it.

Why did you decide to make this film?
As well as my own personal connection, I wanted to make a connection between the refugees who went to America a generation ago and the children going now, as part of the tour. They're all survivors of the genocide, but they've gone in different paths. Obviously, the children represent the future of Cambodia in that sense.

You mentioned that the UK doesn't have any historical ties to Cambodia. How did it feel to see such a huge Cambodian community living in the US?
I wanted to meet fellow displaced people. American-Cambodians would start to cry and say, "I thought I'd never hear this music again!" It reminded them of their culture, and the country they missed. The children danced in the local Cambodian temples in front of Buddha. There was a real connection, and that inspired me.

Eddie Newman loves telling the story of the time he sunk Pontoon in the Tonle Sap.

It was 2008 and Newman had been tasked with boosting crowd numbers at the club, which at the time was on an actual pontoon floating off Riverside.

With a budget of $5,000 he improved the sound and lighting, booked former Studio 54 and Ministry of Sound DJ Bert Bevans and flyer-bombed the city.

"By 11:30pm the nightclub was under water," Newman says. "There were 16 ballast tanks keeping the thing afloat but one of them had a leak. With so many people, there was a domino effect and – glug, glug, glug – down we went.

"It took about 45 minutes. Even when there was a foot of water on the dance floor people were still going for it."

The club re-opened three months later with its reputation made – and with a vastly improved floatation system – and the crowds turned out in droves.

Five years on and Newman is hoping to repeat the success of the original Pontoon with his new club, Code Red – albeit on sturdier ground.

When a reporter spoke to the heavily tattooed Scotsman earlier this week, the venue was still being fitted out but Newman was confident it would be ready for the opening night on Thursday.

"The idea is to bring proper clubbing to Phnom Penh, like you would have in London or New York," he said.

"We want to have a place that people feel like making an effort when they came out. They dress up and make a night of it."

After several years with Pontoon – which moved to its current location in Street 172 in 2011 – Newman went out on his own in October 2012.

He has since started an underground electronic music festival in Singapore called Big Wig – each ticket holder received a free novelty coloured afro – and last year attempted to open another club called Code in the Riverside venue that used to be the Mao Club.

That venture was scuppered by complaints from neighbours before it could open its doors and Newman is hoping this new venue won't have the same issues.

Located across the road from the Naga World Hotel and Entertainment Complex looking out over the river, it doesn't actually have any neighbours who could complain.

"It's great," he said. "We've been able to save money on soundproofing and spent it on the sound system and lighting. We've spent maybe $45,000 on the sound."

Newman said he wasn't concerned that Code Red was a bit of a hike from the traditional entertainment districts at Street 51 and Riverside.

"We want to be a destination club," he said. "Even when we moved Pontoon there was just Heart of Darkness and a few hot dog stands. We want people to make an effort."

Newman insisted Code Red would have a strict policy of no "commercial" music with DJs playing "educated sounds" of techno, house and drum 'n' bass.

"We want to stand out for the music," he said. "Every club in Phnom Penh plays the same music every night from the same DJs. Pontoon started as an electronic music venue but it's gotten much more commercial.

"There's also nobody bringing out international acts on a regular basis, so that's something we're going to focus on."

In the coming months he has booked Leeroy from the Prodigy, Scotland's The Cuban Brothers and Ninja Tune's DJ Woody.

He added that there would be a door tax of at least $6 on Friday and Saturday nights and a rubbery dress policy that Newman summarises as "no jasmine pants, no Angry Birds T-shirts".

"We want to attract more of the Cambodian crowd earlier on in the evening and the expats later on. Not so much backpackers," he said.

Newman said he was excited about finally being able to run a club on his own terms again.

"All the longest running clubs – like the Ministry of Sound or The End in London – were set up because of a love for the music, not to make money," he said.

"That's what it's about for me. I just want to make Code Red a fun place to be."

Many years ago in Cambodia, a devious woman tricked a group of thieves into disposing of her lover's corpse. Less than grateful, she subsequently sold them into slavery. When the gang escaped, they tracked down the woman and one admitted her shrewdness, which caused him to fall in love with her. So, naturally, she tricked him into French-kissing her, bit off his tongue and left him with the slaver.

This fable, called "Women's Wiles", is a Khmer morality tale that has been handed down through the generations. It now appears as the first story of a newly translated anthology of old folk tales, also titled Women's Wiles, with topics ranging from the birth of Angkor to piracy.

"These are morality stories. They're zany, they're witty, they're wise," Kent Davis, the 49-year-old independent researcher who spearheaded the new English translation, said in a Skype interview from Florida.

The anthology was first put to paper in 1922 by Guillaume Henri Monod, a French geologist who heard the stories from a Pursat governor known only as Khieu. The original collection, published in 1922 as Légendes cambodgiennes: que m'a contées le Gouverneur Khieu, was never republished and disappeared into the obscure depths of university libraries.

But three years ago, Davis, a self-described "literary archaeologist", stumbled upon the book while researching old Southeast Asian texts and decided to translate it into English.

[img]

"We really have a time machine of Cambodian culture and oral tradition," said Davis, who previously republished the works of colonial-era anthropologist George Groslier.

"Monod was collecting these things 92 years ago from a guy who was probably born around 1850, so he grew up hearing these stories from his parents who were born around 1800."

After posting an ad online asking for a French-to-English translator, Davis found Solang Uk, a 75-year-old retired Cambodian-Swiss biologist who had previously translated Chinese diplomat Zhou Daugan's account of 13th-century Angkor.

Uk, who grew up in Tuk Meas town in Kampot province under both French and Japanese occupation, said that he recalled hearing the stories from his town's elders. Despite being a Frenchman, Uk said that Monod accurately captured the essence of the tales.

"Reading the stories in French, I see no difference between what [Monod] wrote and what I had heard," Uk said.

According to the translator, the morals of the stories are still a source of debate, with some seeing Women's Wiles as a celebration of intelligence while others see it as a cautionary tale against treacherous women.

Many other aspects of the tales remain shrouded in mystery. Given the unstable transmission of oral stories, as well as the shortage of surviving written Khmer records prior to the 19th century, neither Davis nor Uk know for certain how old the legends are.

[img]

"Oral legends are going to change depending on the story teller, the place, the time, his or her mood, his memory, his sobriety," said Davis.

"Some of these tales could easily be a thousand years old, but we don't know and we can't tell."

Monod himself is a mystery, with only a handful of genealogical and colonial records confirming his existence, while no mention of Governor Khieu was discovered at all.

"We spent a couple years trying to piece things together, and even after digging through all this information, we were unable to find a single photograph of Monod, we were unable to find a single document by his hand or that he signed. It can be very frustrating when you go back to look at these people who created these literary works and then disappeared."

The stories themselves are told less and less among Cambodians, said Uk, with the overseas Khmer community particularly disconnected with the legends. He hoped the English translation would increase awareness among the Cambodian diaspora of their cultural narratives.

"The young generation might not speak Khmer, so it's a way of providing a link to this Cambodia diaspora to keep in touch with their culture."

Women's Wiles will be available at Monument Books next month in both English and French.

Cambodia is changing fast. Over the past decade, the capital city, Phnom Penh has expanded exponentially: its bodies of water have been filled in and green spaces diminished. Rural to urban migration has changed the shape of the countryside. Great shifts are under way and information has dated quickly as times change.

It was this realisation that led a team of open data enthusiasts to compile a comprehensive guide to Cambodia's development. Their new book, Atlas of Cambodia, covers a broad range of fields: from how the anticipated effects of climate change vary from province to province to Phnom Penh's rapid urbanisation.

The 178-page atlas, published by Save Cambodia's Wildlife (SCW) and Open Development Cambodia (ODC), a website which aggregates economic and environmental information, features 69 maps, including those shown below, which visualise the latest data.

The information will be available online as well as in print. A Khmer-language video covering climate change and biodiversity was also developed. The book is on sale at Monument Books.

[img]

National vulnerability to climate change

At CLIMATE change talks in Warsaw late last year, the Philippine delegate, waiting for news in the aftermath of the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan, broke down in tears. "We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now, right here," he is reported to have said. While some scientists still say individual natural disasters can't necessarily be linked to the phenomenon, climate change is expected to impact the region. Temperatures in Southeast Asia are expected to rise by 2.5 per cent by 2080.

Both extremely hot and extremely cold days are expected to become more frequent.

While Cambodia should be spared the more extreme weather events occurring elsewhere in the region, climate change is expected to have serious consequences for the country. Sea-level rise has the potential to badly impact the coastline and parts of the Mekong River flood plain and Tonle Sap ecosystems, Atlas of Cambodia explains.

Agriculture and fisheries are major parts of the economy, and depend on natural rainfall and the annual flooding patterns of the Mekong River and Tonle Sap lake, so both the economy and food supply could be impacted by small changes in
the climate.

Rural Cambodians are at the highest risk, due to their lower ability to adapt associated with poverty, according to the book.

Seven provinces in Cambodia are among the 50 most vulnerable regions to climate change out of 590 in Southeast Asia. Southern provinces are more inclined to flood. Takeo is vulnerable as it is close to the Mekong river delta.

[img]

Domestic violence

According to a 2009 report from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, as published in Atlas of Cambodia, 22.5 per cent of married women have been subject to physical, sexual or psychological domestic violence. Up to 89 per cent have not reported it, the same study showed. The barchart in the book shows the different types of domestic violence against women reported by village chiefs in 2010. Fewer cases were reported in mountainous and coastal areas than in the urban and low-land regions.

[img]

Literacy

The young in Cambodia are far more likely to read than the old: 91.5 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 were literate in 2011, according to figures published in Atlas of Cambodia. This figure is expected to rise to 97 per cent by 2015. For the whole population, the figure in 2011 was just below 80 per cent. The northeast provinces like Ratanakkiri have the country's highest proportion of ethnic minorities, who may not speak Khmer; those languages they do speak may not have a written tradition. Schoolchildren may have to travel far to get to school.

[img]

Migration

This map from Atlas of Cambodia demonstrates the domestic movement of the population from lowland rice-growing regions where land is growing scarce to either urban centres or upland regions where land might be available. Rural to urban migration has mostly been to Phnom Penh. Cambodia is changing to a mostly landless society.

[img]

Phnom Penh in 2003 versus 2013

The capital has increased hugely in the past decade. These maps, published by Save Cambodia's Wildlife and Open Development Cambodia, and obtained from satellite images, show the decrease in lakes, canals, rivers and green spaces in the city.

The effect of their removal has reportedly been increased flooding, as water bodies and parks served an important drainage function. Phnom Penh in 2003 can be seen on the left, with the image 10 years later on the right.

For many, the chapei don veng is a key part of Cambodia's musical tradition. Will Jackson reports.

When Master Kong Nay walked into the studio it felt like a rock star had entered the room. Students rushed to offer water to the 69-year-old craggy-faced chapei don veng player. Others snapped pictures of him on their phones.

The blind musician sat in the middle of the room at the Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) organisation's headquarters with the long-necked, two-stringed instrument, feet tucked beneath his body as his fingers danced across the frets. The students watched in awe. Some tentatively strummed their own chapeis alongside him.

As well as an oft-cited resemblance to that other blind music great, Ray Charles, Nay has a unique booming vocal style and a talent for improvisation. He's toured internationally in the US and Australia, his musical style branded "Mekong Delta blues", and he counts Peter Gabriel among his fans.

[img]

Every chapei player in the room would have cited him as a continuing inspiration. But, perversely, he's also part of the reason few new students are taking up the instrument.

The chapei – which, according to ethnomusicologist Patrick Kersale is a kind of lute similar to Vietnam's dan dey and possibly evolved from the "crocodile zither" of Angkorian times – is normally played solo.

Because Nay and a few other famous players are blind, a superstition has arisen in Cambodia that playing the instrument causes blindness.

It's an idea Nay condemns: "Many chapei players aren't blind, only me and a couple of others," he said. "Why would I teach my own son to play the chapei if I thought it would send him blind?

"The people who made up this rumour must not want to preserve the culture of chapei."

Nay went blind at four years old as a result of smallpox, and at a young age decided that playing the chapei was something he could be good at without needing to see.

His uncle, Kong Tek, who already played the instrument, needed some convincing because he thought it would be difficult to teach a blind person but Nay's enthusiasm won him over and at the age of 13, his uncle taught him the basics.

Nay spent a year gathering material for his songs, begging everyone he met to read him poems or history books or tell him about the goings-on in the countryside.

Chapei players – who alternate between singing and strumming their instrument – are as much storytellers as musicians.

They are not only expected to be able to play traditional folk standards, but also improvise, incorporating their surroundings and audiences into the songs.

The songs tend to be educational – many these days warn of the dangers of drugs and promiscuity – but usually include humour in the form of amusing descriptions or wordplay.

By the time he was 15, Nay was a professional chapei player and had garnered a reputation as a witty and unique musician.

[img]

"The reason I am so well known is because I can sing louder than other chapei players," Nay said through an interpreter. "But also because I can compose and improvise my songs and not just sing the traditional songs."

Now at nearly 70 years old and semi-retired, Nay is part of a thinning generation of chapei players that some worry are not being replaced.

Cambodian Living Arts chapei teacher Pich Sarath – who is not visually impaired and was taught by Nay at CLA from 2003 onward – said few young people were interested in playing the chapei because they were scared they would go blind.

"This rumour means that a lot of people don't want to play chapei," he said.

Sarath – who is one of only two teachers in Phnom Penh – estimated there were only between 20 and 30 professional chapei players left in Cambodia and said that among his 20 students at CLA, only four took learning the instrument seriously.

He said the superstition was so strong that when one of his students coincidentally started suffering from an eye problem recently she immediately stopped coming to classes and hasn't come back.

He even admitted that at first he himself didn't tell his family and friends that he was learning the instrument.

Charismatic and talkative student Nou Samnang, 21, who has been learning to play for a year and is a natural chapei player, said his parents objected when he started going to classes because they thought he would lose his sight.

They decided it was worth the risk after CLA sent him to Singapore in October last year to speak about his experiences and instrument at a music conference hosted by regional music education magazine Music Education Asia.

"My parents didn't want to let me study chapei class," he said. "They told me: 'If we let you study it's not good because if you study you cannot see'.

"But they stay far away from me [in my village] so I come to study by secret, but when the organisation sent me to Singapore my parents said: 'Wow you are so good, that is good. Continue to study, no problem'."

However, he added that the blindness rumours weren't the only thing preventing more young people from learning to play the chapei.

He said there was a steep learning curve and improvising rhymes was extremely difficult. More young people were interested in playing guitar.

"The guitar is a kind of Western instrument and more people pay attention to the modern music because it's more popular nowadays," he said.

"Chapei is very ancient and from the past, so people think it's old fashioned."

Nonetheless, Samnang said he would eventually like to become a chapei teacher himself in order to take Cambodia's cultural heritage into the future.

Can you imagine a performance building like Sydney's Opera House on Koh Pich? How about a skyscraping shopping centre next to the Japanese Friendship Bridge? Or a Toul Sleng memorial like the vast black waterfalls at Ground Zero?

Architect Hun Chansan has visualised how such monumental structures would look as part of a project for the Our City Festival's Ideas for Our City: Phnom Penh group exhibition, which kicks off today.

The festival showcases ideas to improve the city from artists, architects, designers, performers and city planners through dance, art, video, photography, panel discussions, workshops and more at venues across town.

Chansan, the design director at Re-Edge Architecture + Design, is hoping his project will stimulate a push for similar buildings to be built in Phnom Penh.

"The new city needs this type of architecture because as it moves forward they link the past, the present and the future together," Chansan said.

"We always mention, and depend our economy and culture, on the great temples but they should not be our only resource, the great history should be our source of inspiration to keep our nation up-to-date."

With high-rises, shopping centres, apartment buildings and hotels haphazardly mushrooming all over the city, it needs to adopt a co-ordinated vision to avoid traffic congestion and retain its cultural legacy, Chansan said.

He believes the landmark buildings could anchor different "zones" – Riverside/Koh Pich (cultural development), Memorial Park (social development) and Gateways (landmark development).

"This work pinpoints certain buildings in Phnom Penh that are key factors in urban planning by mapping their locations on a city map, simultaneously referencing other cities around the world," he said.

"As Phnom Penh develops, a unified vision for the city is essential. By envisaging its potential as a global city, we can create awareness for the new generation of Cambodians."

Our City Phnom Penh curator Sovan Philong said the artists taking part in the festival were asked to propose ideas on the themes of urbanism, the city and its evolution.

"In the exhibition, entitled Ideas for Our City: Phnom Penh, the diversity of aesthetics, techniques and tools used to create the works are testament to the original and coherent language of thought developed by each artist in response to this theme," Philong said.

"As a viewer, the purpose is not to compare or judge the works, but to examine and engage with each of the artistic proposals presented."

Other exhibitions in the Ideas for Our City: Phnom Penh group show include a plan for a public transit system, a video demonstration of a modular compact living unit from Sweden, an art piece on waste disposal, a mixed media exhibition on the themes of home and security and photographs taking circus performance to the streets of Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh Visions, a collaboration between architecture publication Lumhor Journal and artists Kong Vollack and Prom Putvisal, has visualised ideas generated from interviews with 50 citizens of Phnom Penh through drawings and a visual model.

"We believe that the urban development and design should not only be based on the architects or urbanists but also it needs involvement strongly from any kind of people such as students, sellers, people on the streets of Phnom Penh, artists and so on," Lumhor Journal's Pen Sereypagna said.

They also had 10 architecture students work on a project about re-thinking Diamond Island and its surrounding area as an arts district and Boeung Kak Lake as a public space, combined with existing development project proposals.

Various other venues around town are also hosting architecture-themed events during the festival.

Swedish architect Inari Virkkala and her team from Komitu Architects will present a video at MetaHouse about the Kouk Khleang Youth Center, which they designed as an example of sustainable design, and run a free bus tour to the site.

Virkkala said the principles used in the two-storey 15 metre by 30 metre multi-purpose building – such as the use of bamboo and compressed earth bricks – could be applied more widely in Phnom Penh.

The carbon footprint of earth blocks was ten times smaller than of red bricks per mass and didn't require advanced technology or a large production plant, she said.

"In the beginning the contractor warned us that the laying of earth bricks is a strange technique for him and it might raise the costs but it seems that the cost of earth brick walls was $14 per square metre compared to $17 for red brick wall including bricks, labour, mortar," Virkkala said.

The Ideas for Our City: Phnom Penh group exhibition is on at The Mansion, 2 Sothearos Boulevard, everyday during the festival from 10am-10pm until January 26.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

LAUNCH PARTY
The festival will kick off with a party at The Mansion featuring performances by musicians Ingolv Haaland (who wrote the theme song to the festival) and Ouch Savy and Pandemonium Dance. Complimentary food and drinks will be available and revellers are encouraged to wear yellow with the best dressed winning an OCF 2014 T-shirt.
The Mansion, 2 Sothearos Boulevard (behind FCC Phnom Penh). 7pm Friday, January 17

[img]

MOTO MOTO
Choreographer Becky Devitt has worked with performers from Epic Arts to put on a show about the risks of driving motorbikes around the Kingdom using humour and physical theatre.
The Mansion, 2 Sothearos Boulevard (behind FCC). 3pm Saturday, January 18 and 10:30am Sunday, January 19

FESTIVAL LOUNGE
Every night during the festival, The Mansion turns into the Festival Lounge featuring live music, films and performances with food and drinks available to order.
The Mansion, 2 Sothearos Boulevard (behind FCC Phnom Penh). 6pm every night.

[img]

VILLAGE FESTIVAL
Phnom Penh's iconic White Building will host a festival within a festival with a series of cross-platform exhibitions and events taking place throughout the neighbourhood from sunset on the rooftop. Highlights of the event will be the opening of the White Building Archive, which aims to store visual and audio work created by White Building residents, a "pop-up exhibition" of artwork among the market stalls, shops and storefronts on the ground floor and a mini film festival.
The White Building, Sothearos Boulevard, 5:30pm Saturday, January 18

OUTDOOR CINEMA
Over five nights during the festival the Bophana Centre will be screening films in The Mansion courtyard. The films focus on Phnom Penh over the years and its residents.
The Mansion, 2 Sothearos Boulevard (behind FCC Phnom Penh). 8.30pm Sunday, January 19 to Thursday, January 23

[img]

LIGHT, SHADOW AND GESTURE
An exhibition of recently produced artwork from Battambang featuring portraits, public interventions, memes and shadow-play. The performances will be held on the balcony of Romeet Gallery, with guests encouraged to sit at the stalls on the opposite side of the street to try the local street food. Artists include Loeum Lorn, Kong Kosal, Make Maek, Mao Soviet, Michael Laub, Pip Kelly and Studio Revolt.
Romeet Gallery, #34E1 Street 178. 7pm Monday January 20.

PHNOM PENH PAINTER
An exhibition that highlights the work of the late artist Svay Ken. While attempting to avoid clichéd images of Angkorian temples and idyllic rural life, Ken aimed to document his everyday surroundings, including ordinary street life in Phnom Penh, survival under the Khmer Rouge and illness. "My paintings are like a camera of my life of sixty years," Svay Ken is reported to have once said.
Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard. 6pm Tuesday, January 21

[img]

PHNOM PENH: RESCUE ARCHAEOLOGY
A group exhibition that aims to approach contemporary performance practices in the context of Phnom Penh life. A 90-minute screening features twelve videos by nine artists, while a reading station offers contextual material from the past and present. Featuring artists Amy Lee Sanford, Khvay Samnang, Lim Sokchanlina, Sok Chanrado, Svay Sareth, Than Sok and Tith Kanitha.
Sa Sa Bassac, #18E2 Sothearos Boulevard. 6pm Wednesday, January 22

BODY AS SITE
A presentation from a performance art workshop facilitated by Anida Yoeu Ali with visual art students. Themes include regional exploration of performance art, dance, performing arts, theatre, and the search for meaning. The presentation will be followed by a series of films selected by Amrita Performing Arts on the theme of urban dance and a Q&A session.
Institut Français, #218 Street 184. 6:30pm Thursday, January 23

[img]

ENGINEERS VS KIDS
Advanced engineering consultants will hold workshops and hands-on activities to "reinvent" the city through workshops involving toothpicks and Legos. The public is invited to view the results, while children are encouraged to contribute their own structures.
Mith Samlanh, #215 Street 13. 2pm Friday, January 24

JORNG JAM
Jorng Jam brings together artists and members of the Cambodian community to reclaim, reinvent and remember their family photographs and stories from Cambodia's vibrant past. Through the use of film, photography and mixed media, a collection of five young Cambodian artists aim to discover the intimate stories and historical photographs of those living in Phnom Penh during Cambodia's "golden age" in the 1950s and 1960s. Each artist takes a journey to investigate, connect and re-interpret another persons' vibrant past in order to create their own new works relating to contemporary Cambodian life.
Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre, #64 Street 200. 3pm Saturday, January 25

[img]

DESIGN AS ACTIVISM
Last year, architecture students participated in a workshop that focused on vulnerable communities at Andong and along the railroad tracks. Participants were asked to invent design solutions that solved community problems at the two sites while maintaining the residents' dignity. The resulting designs, models and 3D animations will now compete and the prize for the best will be awarded.
Hiroshima House, near Wat Unalaom. 3pm Saturday, January 26

COMMON SOLE
A gathering of various performers, all from the Common Sole art collective, who will participate in improvisation performances with themes based on moon cycles and architectural forces. Common Sole aims to spread creative ways to perform, learn and teach.
The Mansion, 2 Sothearos Boulevard (behind FCC Phnom Penh). 7:30pm

Imagine Willy Wonka went through a K-Pop phase and you'll get a sense of what Conekla is about. A giant lollipop made of iron and melted glass stands in the corner, while pop music blares from the speakers. The centrepiece of the cafe is a candy bar made from Haribo gummy bears, M&Ms, Skittles and just about anything else you can find in the sweets section of a grocery store.

The self-styled entertainment bistro, which opened officially on Monday in Boeung Keng Kang One, is a little odd. But it could work. The premise is simple enough: candy, coffee and gaming sessions for a target audience of Cambodian teens.

Downstairs is an atrium-style room flooded with light from floor-to-ceiling windows and kitted out with highly-glossed wooden furniture covered with candy-coloured cushions. There, you can buy drinks, snacks and even full meals.

But the real fun goes on upstairs. Three rooms feature large flat-screen HD TVs, wrap-around couches and sound systems. The idea is that they are rented: $10 per hour for a small room that can seat four people, and $15 for a bigger one to fit six.

Whether you want a private film screening or a games session is up to you. Each games room is equipped with an Xbox 360 and PS3. The owner says PS4 and Xbox One are on the way.

[img]

The place is the creation of the 27 year-old entrepreneur Klanetra Ching. He developed the cafe concept three years ago when he returned to Cambodia after studying in France. He realised there weren't many spaces for young people to hang out together in a safe and comfortable environment.

He even gave it his own nickname – as a child, his mother dubbed him "Little Tiger'" or "Conekla" in Khmer.

Five months in development, the cafe is equipped with a full kitchen and caters to two groups: those who want movie snacks and regular diners. The menu is expansive, encompassing the usual coffees, smoothies and frappes available in the cafe-rich neighbourhood, as well as plates of spaghetti, sandwiches, waffles and elegantly presented pastries.

The food isn't the selling point, though. A roast chicken sandwich ($3.75) was presented beautifully on a black stone tablet, but the bread was hard and chicken sadly tasteless. The salmon was worse: a sopping mess of wet lettuce and not-quite-defrosted raw salmon. Sprinkled nuts on the top added nothing but confusion.

Not that it matters – Ching's clientele will probably be too busy noshing on milkshakes and candy to care about the quality of the roast chicken.

Conekla is located at #168 Street 51.

Short, dark Street 308, which is really more like an alley, is becoming something of a self-contained dining and drinking strip. After the much-lauded pizza joint Piccola Italia Da Luigi moved into the neighbourhood last year, it was soon followed by the discrete boozery Red Bar and micro-bar Seibur.

Now a fourth establishment, La Creperie, has set up shop in the little community, serving up savoury and sweet crepes, plus a decent selection of wines, in a setting designed to evoke the spiritual home of the dish, the Brittany region of France.

Walking into the white colonial villa's calm and elegant courtyard – cut off from the slightly intimidating street outside by a high white wall – the decor and setting really do transport you. My dining partner and I felt we could be in another country entirely.

Waiters in blue striped mariners' T-shirts greeted us next to a tall model lighthouse – not unlike the iconic lighthouses on Brittany's rocky coastline – built into the building's exterior. Nearby was a boat-shaped lounge. Inside the airy building, the theme continued with paintings of typical French seaside scenes adorning the walls. It seemed natural that the handful of other diners were speaking French.

We took a table in the dimly lit courtyard and were soon perusing the menu, which offers an array of crepe dishes and a few token mains such as pasta. There was also a decent list of alcoholic drinks including cider, a traditional accompaniment to crepes in Brittany.

Eschewing tradition, we ordered a bottle of Bourgogne Chardonnay ($22), the second cheapest bottle of white*.

As an entree, we shared a spicy minced chicken roll ($4.50), which was like a rolled-up crepe served sliced into eight bite-sized pieces. It was tasty but a little dry and could have done with some sort of sauce. The pieces disappeared quickly enough anyway.

Then for our main we ordered two savoury crepes, or galettes.

Our L'Americaine, ($9.50) came with the edges of the crepe folded into a kind of flattened cone filled with minced Australian beef and Emmental cheese, and topped with fresh sliced tomato, lettuce and a sunny-side up fried egg. I'm not sure if my taste buds have been irrevocably altered by Southeast Asian food, but I found it a little bland. And again, it was a little dry.

More to my liking was the Les Poulains ($12.50), a salty mess of oozy raclette cheese, potato, smoked ham chunks, sliced ham and pickles. It was more substantial and tastier than L'Americaine.

For dessert we split La Krampouz crepe, which hit the right notes with all the elements – the crunch of the crepe, smoosh of the caramelised apple, sweetness of the drizzled caramel and magical dusting of cinnamon.

The service was excellent. The wine, entree, galettes and sweet crepe dessert were all delivered only moments after ordering – although the restaurant was not busy – and the owners approached us several times over the course of the meal to see if there was anything we needed.

My only real complaint is the crepes really aren't substantial. Anyone with a decent appetite isn't going to be satisfied with just one, and when you're paying on average $10 each, that makes it an expensive meal.

The big factor, I guess, is that most of the raw ingredients – the buckwheat flour, cheese, cream, salted butter, mustard and whipped cream – are imported, which is obviously going to have an impact on the price.

If you want to get good, cheap food in Phnom Penh you're better off finding a restaurant that utilises more locally sourced products.

La Creperie seems to cater those seeking a very specific experience, mainly French expats or tourists after an authentic experience of home. They won't quibble over a few dollars and for them, that authenticity is probably worth the price.

La Crêperie is located at #12C Street 308. Phone: 0236 407 600.

* Never pick the cheapest bottle of wine. That would make you seem cheap.