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February 11, 2012
Brian Calvert | Oakland, California
Voice of America
More and more Cambodian-Americans are finding their own voice in art and music. Add to that list musician Bochan Huy, who grew up in Oakland, California, and has just released her first album, Full Monday Moon.
Singer songwriter Bochun Huy is putting an American twist on a Cambodian classic. The original song, “I Am 16,” comes from the heyday of Cambodian rock-the 1960s and 1970s, before the Khmer Rouge.
Huy’s version, though, is something entirely new.
“I kind of describe ‘Chnam Oun Dop Pram Mouy’ as sort of like a new culture. It’s a melting pot of everything that I’ve absorbed: from living in Oakland, from being Cambodian, and from being American. It’s Cambodian-American,” said Huy.
The song comes from her first album, Full Monday Moon, which she has just completed. Huy says she wrote the album after the death of her father, a refugee and a musician who loved the classics.
“I decided to do the album because I realized after he passed away - he was a big musical mentor in my whole life - that the only way that I felt that he was still around was to do music," Huy added. "That was something the Khmer Rouge did not take away from him. He was able to bring that from Cambodia to here.”
Huy produced the album under an independent label in a New York studio. It is a departure from much of Cambodia’s own music scene, which favors cover versions of the classics and little experimentation.
“I think it’s because so many Cambodians have held on to that generation, you know. That’s when things were good. It was before the Khmer Rouge war," Huy explained. "And so it’s going to be a challenge to kind of get people to let go of that and go, ‘OK, you know I think we’re ready to move on.’ I think people are ready, they are ready, and that’s why I hope people will give ‘Full Monday Moon’ a try, you know. Yeah, the whole album’s not in Cambodian, but some is, you know, and I sing of struggles related to being Cambodian. And who’s to say nowadays what is Cambodian and what isn’t. I mean, we’ve all landed in all parts of the world, and I think what Cambodian is is that we’ve landed in all parts of the world, we’ve been able to kind of adapt, adjust and re-create, and we’re forming something new for ourselves. And that’s to me what it means to be Cambodian.”
Huy is now in Cambodia for the first time since 1999, to promote the album. And find new inspiration. It’s the end of one journey, and perhaps the beginning of another.
14 comments:
She's cool with her fluent English with almost no accent at all!
No trying to hate but you obviously took a very popular song and just twist it into one jacked up shit. One thing that those era have over everyone now is that they made the music our. This lad just made it sound Jamaican. LoL your not a song writer when your simply jocking someone else's materials. But she is right, people are ready to move on but not her. Obviously she is singing the old classics. Sorry but keep trying. Maybe you'll be the next one hit wonder Preap Sovat.
identity crisis.
She is not Khmer. What planet is she coming from?
Her Khmer accent is worse than the Viet!
12:09 PM
How do you define Khmers? Do you see them dark like Negros with flat noses to fit your vocabulary "Khmers?" You are deadly wrong. Khmers are not dark like Negros if they did not mix with North Indians or Srilankoans.
This woman is Khmer, the same as million Khmers I used to see. I met many Khmers grew up outside Cambodia cannot speak Khmer at all, at least Bochun can speak.
Jayavaraman VII was not Khmer either. He migrated from Java Island, a pirate gangster with army then he claimed he was Kambojan origin.
Is there a pure Khmer? A pure Khmer is someone who was born in Cambodia or was born from the Cambodian' parents AND LOVE Khmers & Cambodia without betrayal, that is called Khmers.
These bastards above love to attack and other Khmers for Yuon.
Of course she speaks Khmer but not the same level of most the TV Khmer anchors. The Khmer TV anchors repeated most of time the same words and without a real good and perfect Khmer grammar.
I thought this would be something special. Just another fame seeker riding on the backs of old famous singers. I don't want to sound mean but give it up with these old and new remix. You have the foundation that the old musicians and singers put out. Now run with it instead of twisting it into some flat out American, Jamaican ; etc. BTW you sound like any other home karaoke stars.
I thought this would be something special. Just another fame seeker riding on the backs of old famous singers. I don't want to sound mean but give it up with these old and new remix. You have the foundation that the old musicians and singers put out. Now run with it instead of twisting it into some flat out American, Jamaican ; etc. BTW you sound like any other home karaoke stars.
I'll stick to my wilderness sounds of Wisconsin. The ducks and geese sound more delightfull for my good sense ears.
Wild~Wisconsin
3:14 PM
Eh, I am Khmer-American. My Mother is Khmer from Cambodia and my Father is a White American of Italian origin. I speak very little Khmer but everywhere I go when I am asked I answered I am Khmer born in the US.
Does it bother you, the racist? You care too much, do you see Yuon now can write/speak fluently Khmer, and do you consider them as they are Khmers to you?
Whatever it is those Yuon DO NOT LOVE Khmers at all but they love Cambodia to be part of their country. I love Khmers and Cambodia together.
OK another example. Men Sam An is Yuon who spoeaks and writes Khmer fluently, and she is a second in line should Hun Sen dies, she will be the next PM of Cambodia.
You should not judge everyone how to look to fit your vocabulary.
Bochun, Go girl you get my vote baby.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..
One thing you don't look good on that Apsara outfit, but what the heck, you are an artist, so what???
2:08 PM - Where did you get the idea from, that Jayavarman VII came from Indonesia. You are bullshit. You learned the wrong history. Jayavarman VII was sent to school in Indonesia and after he completed his training and school there, then he returned to serve his country Khmer Empire state.
You must be brainwashed by learning the rewritten history books were written under CPP regime. Some books had been burned down during the Killing Fields and some of them have been saved and hidden in Paris and some Universities with high reputations in NY, Ill, CA and other states.
It is unbelievable you mentioned the Jayavarman VII came from Indonesia. You allowed Yuon/Vietnamese to be a leader to destroy Cambodian and swallow Cambodia and then the Khmer Empire histories will be disappeared by Yuon evils. You gotta be careful.
You are very stupid the rewritten histories under CPP regime.
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