Making Art and Finding an Edge in Cambodia

Making Art and Finding an Edge in Cambodia

Nico Mesterharm has spent more than 15 years as director of Meta House in Phnom Penh, producing films, plays, and books, while offering a stage for aspiring local and international artists who have rebuilt Cambodia’s arts scene with the backing of foreign donors. However, Cambodia is no longer a struggling post-war country nor is it … Read more

World Music and Good Sports in Southeast Asia

World Music and Good Sports in Southeast Asia

Chris Minko and his daughter Anya have carved out prominent lives in Thailand and Cambodia through music, sport, and education that came with the backing of Australian World War II hero Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop and Thai philanthropist Mechai Viravaidya. Chris was raised in the small town of Myrtleford in the alpine valleys of southeastern … Read more

Vietnamese TikToker Faces Cambodia Entry Ban Over Angkor Video

Vietnamese TikToker Faces Cambodia Entry Ban Over Angkor Video

Last week, the Vietnamese media outlet VnExpress reported that a Vietnamese TikTok personality could be banned from entering Cambodia for 10 years for “defaming” the temples of Angkor Wat, a potent totem of the country’s national identity. According to the VnExpress report, Hua Quoc Anh made a video at the Angkor Wat temple complex that … Read more

One Dutchman and 350,000 Cambodian Refugees

One Dutchman and 350,000 Cambodian Refugees

Hans van Zoggel taught English in his early 20s when he first met Cambodian refugees in The Netherlands. He was barely out of college and jobs were hard to come by but he left home for the Thai border camps where he succeeded in putting his students in touch with their relatives. He was also … Read more

Five Cambodian Elections

Five Cambodian Elections

Podcasts | Politics | Southeast Asia A conversation with Gordon Conochie. Advertisement Scottish-born Gordon Conochie, an adjunct research fellow at La Trobe University in Melbourne, has just released his book, “A Tiger Rules the Mountain: Cambodia’s Pursuit of Democracy,” an honest look at the elections that the Southeast Asian nation has held over the last two decades. He examines … Read more

Cambodia’s Hun Sen: The Tiger That Rules the Mountain

Hun Sen Is Keeping Kem Sokha Hostage. Will The West Respond to His Threats?

Advertisement Last month, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen relinquished the country’s top office after more than 38 years at the helm, handing over power to his eldest son, Hun Manet. Coinciding with the handover of power, part of a generational transition within Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), was the release of  “A Tiger Rules … Read more

An Illustrious Photographer on Warzones and Hollywood

An Illustrious Photographer on Warzones and Hollywood

Podcasts | Society | Southeast Asia A conversation with Roland Neveu. Advertisement French photographer Roland Neveu has spent five decades covering Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. His work also took him from South America to Africa and Hollywood, where he shot stills during film productions for Oliver Stone, Brian de Palma, and Ridley Scott. His world had … Read more

From Cambodia’s Killing Fields to the US Secret Service

Podcasts | Society | Southeast Asia A conversation with author Leth Oun. Advertisement As a child, Leth Oun enjoyed a happy life in Battambang City in western Cambodia. His family was poor but his father, a lieutenant in the Lon Nol government, ensured he went to school and that there was food on the table. Then, in April 1975, … Read more