Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2009-06-02 Puppets, Pioneers, and Sport: The Onstage and Offstage Performance of Khmer Identity Marel Angela Stock Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Stock, Marel Angela, "Puppets, Pioneers, and Sport: The Onstage and Offstage Performance of Khmer Identity" (2009). Theses and Dissertations. 1851. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1851 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. PUPPETS, PIONEERS, AND SPORT: THE ONSTAGE AND OFFSTAGE PERFORMANCE OF KHMER IDENTITY by Marel A. Stock A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Theatre and Media Arts Brigham Young University August 2009 Copyright © 2009 Marel A. Stock All Rights Reserved BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY GRADUATE COMMITTEE APPROVAL of a thesis submitted by Marel A. Stock This thesis has been read by each member of the following graduate committee and by majority vote has been found to be satisfactory. Date Wade Hollingshaus, Chair Date Megan Sanborn Jones Date Eric Samuelsen BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY As chair of the candidate’s graduate committee, I have read the thesis of Marel A. Stock in its final form and have found that (1) its format, citations, and bibliographical style are consistent and acceptable and fulfill university and department style requirements; (2) its illustrative materials including figures, tables, and charts are in place; and (3) the final manuscript is satisfactory to the graduate committee and is ready for submission to the university library. Date Wade Hollingshaus Chair, Graduate Committee Accepted for the Department Date Darl Larsen Accepted for the College Date Rory Scanlon ABSTRACT PUPPETS, PIONEERS, AND SPORT: THE ONSTAGE AND OFFSTAGE PERFORMANCE OF KHMER IDENTITY Marel A. Stock Department of Theatre and Media Arts Master of Art Most tourists visiting Cambodia only seek to visit the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat. The Cambodian, or Khmer people are capitalizing on this booming tourist industry, but they are also disseminating a more complex Khmer identity through other sites and festivals. This identity simultaneously hearkens back to the affluence of the Angkor Period in Khmer history and looks forward to the modernization of the country. After the reign of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975-1979, which led to what is now called the Cambodian Killing Fields, the Khmer people needed to create a new, hopeful, peaceful identity for their nation. The new Khmer identity is still being created and strengthened today. This thesis is about performance and its intersection with identity. It argues that the Khmer are using performance—both onstage and offstage—as a means towards identity formation. The contemporary performance of Khmer identity is serving to increase nationalism as well as raise interest and funding for Cambodia from foreign tourists. This thesis looks closely at three sites of Khmer performance: a Khmer performance enacted onstage entitled Sokacha, the Pioneer Day celebrations of the Khmer-Mormon community in Phnom Penh, and the yearly Water Festival. Each of these performance sites demonstrates the dual performance occurring—a performance to reify Khmer identity to Khmer people from around the world, and a performance of Khmer identity packaged for foreigners to purchase. Performance on stage has been altered, choosing only elements of traditional Khmer performance that emphasize the new identity. But the Khmer are using other venues, like festivals and celebrations, to perform identity. In adopting only elements of Khmer history that fit the hopeful trajectory of the new Khmer identity, the Khmer are creating and performing a new identity, both onstage and offstage, to fit the present and future Cambodia. Two identities of Cambodia are being performed: one aimed at Khmer to instill national pride, and one performed for the tourists that help fund that effort. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my little family Arkun Chraun To Tom, my husband, translator, and friend who introduced me to Cambodia. To Celia Loey for loving Cambodia as early as seven months old and sleeping so I could write. To everyone that played with her when she was not sleeping: Tom, Allyson, Billy, Hilary, Chris. To my parents for everything. To my committee: Wade, Megan, Eric, for making it easy for me to have a baby, go to Cambodia, and still get a Masters. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................................1 Performance and Identity Formation.......................................................................3 Historiography and Performance.............................................................................6 Khmer History and Sources.....................................................................................9 Khmer Performers as Archives..............................................................................20 New Interpretations for a New Time.....................................................................25 Chapter 2: Khmer Performance: An Overview.................................................................29 Khmer Folk Dance.................................................................................................29 All-Male Dance-Drama (Lakhon Khol).................................................................30 Court/Classical Dance or the Apsara Dance..........................................................31 Shadow Puppetry...................................................................................................35 Chapter 3: Sokacha: Onstage Performance of Khmer Identity..........................................40 Cambodia’s Identity as Religious: Performance as Religious Ritual....................43 Cambodia’s Identity as Political: Performers as Ambassadors.............................51 Cambodia’s Identity as Social: Performance as a Representative of the People...59 Cambodia’s Identity to Foreigners: Charge—Five Dollars...................................68 Chapter 4: Khmer Mormon: Two Identities Defined Through Performance....................73 Performing Mormon History: A Parallel to Khmer History..................................77 Khmer Folk Dance: A Reification of Mormon Doctrine.......................................85 American Folk Dance and Imagined Communities...............................................89 The Conflation of “American” and “Mormon”.....................................................95 viii The Internal Tourist Gaze......................................................................................99 Chapter 5: The Water Festival: Offstage Performance of Khmer Identity......................101 Water Festival: History and Premise...................................................................104 The Presence of the King and the Government...................................................110 Influence of Theatrical Performance...................................................................119 Performance of Khmer Identity to Khmer...........................................................122 Performance of Khmer Identity to Foreigners.....................................................127 Chapter 6: Conclusion: The Cambodian Cultural Village...............................................135 Performance of Khmer Identity to Khmer...........................................................136 Performance of Khmer Identity to Foreigners.....................................................140 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................145 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Wedding performance at the Cambodian Cultural Village...............................1 Figure 1.2 Angkor Wat.....................................................................................................11 Figure 1.3 Apsara on the walls of Angkor Wat................................................................16 Figure 1.4 Khmer dancing student....................................................................................22 Figure 2.1 Khmer fishing folk dance................................................................................30 Figure 2.2 Apsara on the sign for the Electric Company of Cambodia............................32 Figure 2.3 The churning of the Sea of Milk......................................................................33 Figure 2.4 Apsara on the walls of Preah Khan.................................................................34 Figure 2.5 Apsara dancers at the Cambodian Cultural Village........................................35 Figure 2.6 A Sbek Thom performance..............................................................................36 Figure 2.7 Leather being stretched to make shadow puppets...........................................38 Figure 3.1 Young male dancers stretching........................................................................44 Figure 3.2 The offerings for the Sampeah Kru