Phnom Penh History

Rim Kin’s book, “Sophat,” did not feature the princes, high-ranking officials or mythical characters of traditional Khmer literature, said Khing Hoc Dy, a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris. It was about a young man in search of the father who had abandoned his mother before he was born.

Rim Kin had to borrow to pay for the publication of “Sophat,” which was printed in Saigon. The 2,000 copies arrived in Phnom Penh in January 1942; they sold out within six months, which enabled the 30-year-old teacher to pay his debts and buy himself a bicycle, wrote Khing Hoc Dy in his 1993 book, “Writers and Literary Forms of Cambodia in the 20th Century.”

“Sophat” would set the tone for novels of the era that, unlike previous Khmer language works, would be written in prose rather than in verse, and feature city and village people, from farmers to public servants and market vendors.

In the 1930s and 1940s, publications in Khmer were still rare, Khing Hoc Dy said.

Over the centuries, most writing was done for religious purposes on palm-tree leaves, and printing presses took a long time to arrive in the country, Khing Hoc Dy said.

“The French first brought them to Hanoi, then Saigon, and then Phnom Penh toward the end of the 19th century,” he said.

They served mainly to print official and administrative documents—not to publish literature, he said. The first Cambodian literary texts to be published in 1878 had to be lithographed.

The other difficulty with printing Khmer was using the characters of Khmer script, said Khing Hoc Dy.

“The French had suggested writing Khmer in Roman letters, but a very strong nationalist movement had risen to oppose this. [Giving up Khmer script] would be losing the Cambodian soul, because the writing is magic,” he said.

By 1954, only 80 Khmer novels had been published, compared to 524 that would be released between 1954 and 1969, a period during which then Prince Sihanouk led the country, said Khing Hoc Dy.

After independence, in 1953, authors of the mid-1950s would favor romance and historical themes, sometimes using historical or mythical characters to hide social and political criticisms that could not be openly expressed, he said.

“Authors of the 1940s did not express hate toward the French—they were just trying to awaken the national conscience of people,” said Khing Hoc Dy. “They were in search of their Cambodian identity, and advocated nationalism, but by legal means.”

Rim Kin was a teacher, he said. “He wrote in a simple way to reach ordinary people.” His goal was, above all, to educate, said Khing Hoc Dy.

Nou Hach, the other great novelist of the period prior to independence, was a humanist, he said. “He did not just want [Cambodia’s] independence, but also political awareness and some sort of social equality, which was very idealistic and unachievable at the time.”

Born in Battambang province—which was under Thai administration in the 19th century and for much of the first half of the 20th century—Nou Hach made his main character in “Mealea Duong Chet,” or “The Flower Garland,” vow not to marry the Thai woman he loves until Battambang is returned to Cambodia.

In the mid-1940s, both writers supported the Democratic Party of Prince Sisowath Yuthevong. Rim Kin wrote a play to promote the party during the country’s first national electoral campaign in 1946, and Nou Hach served as the prince’s secretary, said Khing Hoc Dy. Throughout novels of the time, Angkor Wat would appear as one of the main themes, said Khing Hoc Dy.

“It’s the eternal theme, used to remind Cambodians that we once were glorious and that we must aim to reach this level again.”

The first Khmer cultural publication, “Kambujasuriya,” appeared in 1926. Ten years later, Cambodia’s first Khmer language newspaper came out.

“Nagara Vatta,” which adopted a pro-Cambodian stance and did not hesitate to criticize the French administration, had a circulation of more than 5,000 by 1937, wrote historian David Chandler in the 1992 edition of “A History of Cambodia.”

Its readers tended to be young Cambodian men in lower echelons of the public service and based in Phnom Penh, he wrote. Editorials would gradually turn anti-Vietnamese, Chandler wrote.

Rim Kin died in 1959, when he was 47-years-old. Nou Hach, whose last position was Cambodian ambassador to Indonesia, retired in 1972 at the age of 56. He disappeared in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over the country, Khing Hoc Dy said.