Woman Is on Quest to Resurrect Cambodian Culture
 

By Chris Boyd Peninsula News 2005/09/06

     During Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge era of 1975-79, government leaders did their best to quash creativity and imagination by routinely executing intellectuals. Less than three decades after the Khmer Rouge's fall, Cambodia still struggles to fulfill the dreams of its artists, writers and poets.
     Today, Rancho Palos Verdes resident Teri Yamada is doing her best to bring Cambodian literature back from the ashes. An associate professor in the Comparative World Literature and Classics Department at Cal State Long Beach, Yamada made a five-week trip to Cambodia this summer as director of the Nou Hach Literary Project.
     Yamada has traveled to Cambodia every summer since 2002, and she donates $7,000 to $8,000 of her own salary to the project that she started three years ago with help from the Toyota Foundation. This year's road trip to schools of pedagogy -- where instructors learn how to teach -- in Battambang and Siem Reap was a success.  "We had over 125 people attend, and it was covered widely on TV and in the newspapers," Yamada said. "This is the first year we did a road trip."
     Yamada and seven of her Cambodian colleagues held seminars for teachers at both Battambang and Siem Reap. They also took part in many FM radio talk shows with Cambodian poets."People call in and ask questions, and we tell them about modern literature," she said. "The short story is really underdeveloped in Cambodia, and they're not doing any free verse at all. Nobody does any book reviews."
      Nou Hach Literary Project supporters want to change that, but it isn't easy. Cambodian academics, like their counterparts in the United States, often disagree about how to reach their country's fellow intellectuals."Some of the poets and writers on the trip, they're sort of in competing literary organizations," Yamada said. "It's really easy to compete -- it's difficult to go beyond the competition and work for the whole ... There's a lot of ego involved." There's progress as well. Organizers are trying to develop a 30-minute radio program "where we're actually going to interview young writers and artists about what they're doing," Yamada said.
      The group also wants to secure funds from the Rockefeller Foundation to start a monthly magazine that includes poems, short stories, editorials, book reviews and international news. "There's very little international news in Cambodia," Yamada said.
      Cambodia native and Long Beach State employee Kiry Meng traveled to her homeland with Yamada a few years ago. It was the first time she'd seen the country in more than 20 years.  "It's such a great program. It's something that Cambodians really need, especially literacy-wise because there's a lot of talent out there," Meng said. "It's opened a lot of doors ... That's what the country needed, and that's what the people needed. It's a stepping stone.
"[Yamada] is great at heart. She's always giving," she added. "She's like a mother to the Cambodian community."
  Established Journal
    Publishing is nothing new for project supporters. They already print the annual Nou Hach Literary Journal, a collection of fiction and essays from Khmer writers in Cambodia and France.During her recent trip, Yamada attended the third annual Nou Hach Literary Awards ceremony, sponsored by the journal, which recognizes many of the publication's contributors. Professor Khing Hoc-dy, the world's top expert on Cambodian literature, attended the event.
"This project has actually surpassed all my expectations. The synergy of people working on this project, they're totally dedicated," Yamada said. "They have really done a great job with outreach. It's probably the most happening humanities project in Cambodia."
     With an illiteracy rate of 60 to 70 percent, Cambodia needs a literary shot in the arm. Can Yamada's project provide a Renaissance? "We are indeed having an effect. In short stories, the quality has improved," she said. "But you have to learn to be self-supporting. They've got to figure out how to get money from advertising and other sources to support themselves. There's very little grassroots business development."
     Yamada is committed to the project through 2012, and she has high hopes for Cambodia's teachers. "If they're inspired themselves to be writers ... they can inspire their students," she said. "Hopefully, somewhere down the line, someone can publish to a junior high level."  For now, the group is trying to reach thinkers in the 18- to 40-year-old range who can help fill the gap left by the Khmer Rouge executions. "I'm really working with a group of very thoughtful intellectuals. They want to increase the intellectual capacity of those who can already read," Yamada said. "I'd say this is a start."