Hope to see you in number at our next Human Sciences Happy Hour ! 

 

Once a month -  6pm – Baitong Restaurant

(7 st 360, near Beung Keng Kang market)

 

Contact:

Emiko Stock & Pascale Hancart Petitet

012 521 093 – 092 399 273

hshhpp@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

•  Wednesday 10 February 2010, 6pm 

   

   

   

  Siti Keo will present:

    

  A Tale of Two Cities: Soth Polin and Phnom Penh During

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  Sangkum Reastr Niyum

       

   

   

   

   

  From 1955 to 1970, Phnom Penh was a source of national pride for the postcolonial Cambodian state.  State newspapers featured articles and pictures, highlighting Phnom Penh and its changes.  The openings of a luxurious hotel, a branch of a multinational business, or an air-conditioned movie theater were seen as yet another sign of how Phnom Penh was “in route to being one of the great cities of Asia.”  The newspapers boasted of how some of these new buildings incorporated authentic Khmer architectural details and existed alongside old colonial buildings.  Phnom Penh’s growth signified, according to these government newspapers, Cambodia’s ability to progress even as it remained firmly rooted in tradition and in the past.  The state used Phnom Penh to build a bridge to its past, instilling a sense of pride in the populace for the new direction of Cambodia.  Therefore, Phnom Penh was a crucial site for the enactment of Sangkum’s ideology and for the construction of a modern, independent Cambodian nation. 

       

   

   

  However, social tensions emerged from the gaps that “opened up in this period between Cambodia’s rich and poor and between the cities and the countryside.”  These tensions manifested itself across a variety of mediums, from films to literature.  The literary works of Soth Polin, in particular, provided an outlet for these tensions and a means to express the discontent against the government.  The Phnom Penh that was described in his novels differed radically from the one that littered the pages of the government newspapers.  Rather than the Phnom Penh celebrated for its modernity and its embodiment of the country’s progress, Soth Polin depicted it as a site of modern anomie, a place from which to escape.  For him, man became a machine in Phnom Penh.  By contradicting the state’s image of Phnom Penh and by revealing the alienating consequences of urban life, Soth Polin’s works challenged Sangkum’s representation of the city and its claimed progress.  The discontent within Sangkum Cambodia, exposed through Soth Polin’s writings, later translated into political action against Sihanouk in 1970.  Either as a site of modernity or a place of alienation, Phnom Penh played a central role in promoting the political agendas of the state and of Soth Polin. 

      

   

  Go to Siti Keo profile.

 

 

 

 

 

• IN MARCH 2010, wednesday 24h ...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s Easy to Go to Phnom Penh, It is Hard to Come Back !

 

Cartography of Prostitutional Mobility from An Giang Province (Vietnam) to Cambodia

 

 

 

Nicolas LAINEZ

 

 

PhD student, Social Anthropology

 

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (France)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This paper addresses cross-border mobility for the aim of prostitution between An Giang province (Mekong delta) and Cambodia. It focuses on Vietnamese women traveling without proper documentation to Phnom Penh. At first, methodology and deontology issues will be discussed. Indeed, several barriers have been encountered in the field –complex administrative procedures to obtain research permits, police surveillance, institutionalization of lie, informant’s fear and distrust when talking about clandestine issues– that call into question findings validity. Secondly, routes of mobility and means of transportation will be described using data collected with brokers, human smugglers and prostitutes. Do women cross the border by river (boat, canoe) or by land (motorcycle, bus, car)? What borders do they cross? How? What are the conditions? Thirdly, the paper will consider local perceptions about Vietnamese prostitution in Phnom Penh as well as its related risks such as labor exploitation, deception, usurious indebtedness and use of violence. These dangers either real or imagined spread by brokers and transporters ground the popular saying titling this paper “It’s easy to go to Phnom Penh, it is hard to come back” (Nam Vang đi dễ, khó về). Lastly, local prostitution in Châu Đốc municipality will be described, especially during the religious period of the festival of the Lady of the Realm (Sam Mountain). Indeed, a majority of informants strongly advice against migrating for prostitution to Cambodia and suggest, instead, prostituting locally or migrating for the same purpose to Ho Chi Minh City and to industrialized provinces like Bình Dương.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This paper is based in 15-months ethnography in An Giang (from June 2008 to August 2009. It results from collaboration between the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the University of An Giang, the NGO Alliance Anti-Trafic, the Bangkok-based Mekong Anti-Trafics Project and the Research Institute of Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC). A French version of this paper will be published early January 2010. 

 

 

 

 

 

• AND AFTERWARDS ! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lonely research doesn't sound that much fun after a while ?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to express yourself ? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need to share ? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for guinea-pigs to test an upcoming article / symposium presentation ? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Send us an email with a short abstract of your future presentation and a few lines about yourself and ... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we'll discuss dates !

 

 

 

hshhpp@gmail.com