 Thank you so much for being here. We're really excited to get our program series come on come all kick-started And it's really nice to have everyone here. I just want to say that we do have some food here from Riverside Market Please help yourself. We have waters help yourself and Yes, so let's go ahead and get started My name is Eric and thank you for coming to libraries come off kickoff celebration And I'm a senior librarian here for the Long Beach library system And I just want to thank my colleague Christina neck who was a senior librarian at the Mark Twain branch for her help and helping with the wonderful program Come I come all series is made possible with support from California humanities a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the humanities that produces funds creates and supports humanities based projects and programs eye-opening cultural experiences and meaningful conversations Sonya Bautista who is my mentor and she's been a great mentor throughout this program is here So I just want to say thank you to Sonya. Give a little wave And I have a few more people that I really really want to think who this program could not be possible without I want to thank Joanna Belfort but console books for partnering with us to sell copies of voices of a new generation Cambodian Americans in the creative arts by dr. Christine sue who will be speaking in this later this afternoon and The guests featured in today's presentation are sons and daughters of refugees from the Khmer of regime We will hear their stories about how they immigrated to the United States and learn why Long Beach became home to the largest Cambodian community Outside of Cambodia, which is something that was really fascinating to me And I really wanted to focus, you know come I come all with our, you know, wonderful Cambodian community We serve as 4% of Cambodian Americans here in the city and it's just really fascinating And so we're going to learn more about the community and why this became the home of you know many Cambodian Americans So we're really really excited. We do have a lot of resources here on the Long Beach library system We have a come I book collection here at the mark twain branch for children and adults So definitely check that out And we're yeah, so we're just really excited to present this Now I do want to introduce to give a few remarks and also to begin our presentation our library director Kathy Dilley on To present a few remarks who's coming Good afternoon everyone and Welcome to the opening event of come I come all this wonderful celebration of Cambodian culture My name is Kathy Dilley on and I'm the new director of the Long Beach public library I want to say thank you to our amazing library staff Eric Cardozo and Christina neck For organizing come I come all through the support of a grant From Cal Humanities the Cambodian community here in Long Beach has always been so supportive of our libraries I wasn't here when this library was built But I know that when this library was built the Cambodian community Here rose up came together raised money built helped to build this beautiful building And so it's so wonderful to be able to continue to uplift and tell your stories here And so taking the time to uplift this community's history culture and heritage is so critical And to ensuring that the voices of this community are heard and that they're not forgotten So we are so happy to be a peak to be a partner in that and to be a place We're in this diversity that honors your experiences and Contributions to the city of Long Beach. So once again, thank you so much all for being here Excited to hear about to really see all of the wonderful events that are going to be a part of this month-long celebration And so once again, thank you so much for all for being here. Thank you Thank you so much Kathy. We really appreciate your support and Again, you know, just when I approached Kathy about this program, you know, she's very supportive And it means a lot to us to you know present this. So thank you I also want to Just really quickly let and remind everyone that if anybody needs translation. We do have Department of Language Access here with headsets. So if you would like translation to come I you're welcome to check out a headset and We can have a nerd then Tony or when wave in the back And so Now to introduce our first guest now our first guest is a co-author of the book Cambodians in Long Beach She is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at California State University Dominguez Hills and co-director of the Cambodian Community History and Archive project camp chat The project is community-based research and learning center created in 2008 in collaboration with Dr. Karen Cantigliani Who is a professor at Cal State University Long Beach and the Historical Society of Long Beach? Every purchase of her book Cambodians in Long Beach will benefit camp chat and the Historical Society of Long Beach We thank her for being a part of come I come all please help us welcome. Dr. Susan and Edom Well, it's certainly a pleasure to be here. Thank you all very much This is my favorite topic to speak on so First though before I start talking about Cambodians in Long Beach I'd like to draw your attention to the shadow puppets on the wall to your right and own net it Who went with me to Cambodia we went together and we went to different people who create the shadow puppets and We commissioned some to be made in the hopes that we can have a shadow puppet true Here in Long Beach And I didn't work out, but we had a great time And we brought shadow puppets back If you're not familiar with them, you might want to look them up Cambodian shadow puppets look them up online it's really quite stunning and amazing art form and it's called spike Tom in Dubai and that just means large leather and there's another form of shadow puppet Artistry that's smaller articulated puppets and those are Subite toy, which just means small leather. So anyway a little bit about shadow puppets If you're interested, we'll be happy to talk with you more about them after Okay, so my talk is about Cambodians in Long Beach and See, okay, and the outline for the talk is to first review why Long Beach Then I was hoping I could talk a little bit about the creation of the book Cambodians in Long Beach because they're directly related and then What the Cambodian community history and archive project? Cam chap is and how it came to be and then a little bit about maybe what's next and It I'm not sure we're going to have time But I had hoped that we might have a conversation about what do you see as next steps for the community? Here in Long Beach, so we'll see how far we get So I wanted to start out with some look at some population changes that have gone on in Long Beach between 1950 and 2000 Cam Long Beach went from being Iowa by the sea to a multicultural city or the International city they tried to do some rebranding and you can see that in the 1950s 98% of the population were European whites and mostly from Iowa which is why I got its name in fact a great number of people were recruited from Iowa to come to Long Beach and Then in 2000 we see a significant shift in the population and I just got the 2020 information from the website. It doesn't quite add up to a hundred percent. I'm not sure why I think there are some other There's a refined identification of people and groups and I think they added Native American so Unfortunately, I didn't add them so but two or more races became more important in 2000 so that gives you an idea of the kinds of shifts that were going on and especially in 1988 when I first started working in the community this was significant and A lot of the services in Long Beach just didn't know how to provide service for Cambodians And there were mixed feelings about this this new population in Long Beach. I also wanted to Let you know that there are different migration events that occurred that brought Cambodians to Long Beach so between 1975 and 1978 There were an educated middle class military diplomats and others who were connected to American business and the war effort in South Southeast Asia and so throughout all of the United States There were approximately 7,300 Cambodians and that would be 1975 when the US left Southeast Asia and The communists were able to take over in Cambodia. So between 75 and 78 we had about 7,300 Cambodians across the US in 1979. There was a small migration these were rural farmers artisans Ethnic minorities with little or no formal education or experience with Western institutions And that raised the that that was about 10,000 people who came in addition to the previous population and then in 1980 to 93 we had that influx of refugees from From Cambodia the population is similar to the previous group being mostly rural farmers But they had lived longer under the Khmer Rouge and in refugee camps And they had increased uncertainty and trauma. So very different from the previous groups And that was about a hundred and fifty eight thousand who came and spread across the US and then between 1995 and today the refugee program ended in 1995. So most Cambodians arriving now are immigrants and They're they're either purchasing properties, which I didn't So they're coming they're immigrants to do purchase of properties and businesses Or to join relatives or both and this average is about 9,000 per year. So that's an additional 243,000 Cambodians who have come to the US since then so we tend to think of the 1980 1993 refugee immigration as being significantly larger than Anything that's come after that but as you can see the new immigrants are are different and they're they're a different population and they've they're far more of them Okay, so We tend to think that Long Beach the Cambodian community began in 75 Our 79 with the big wave that came but actually there's a beginning in the 1960s there were 101 Cambodian students who came from Cambodia to attend a special program through CSU Long Beach and CSU LA and what's interesting about this is that Long Beach really stuck with people the Cambodians really felt like this was a smaller city They got to know people they made friends. They made friends with their professors And they felt and Long Beach also seemed to notice the Cambodian students who are here more LA Not so much. We've searched their records. We've looked everywhere throughout CSU LA to try to find any records of the Cambodians having been here and we couldn't find anything but Long Beach wrote in their student paper about the Cambodians who were here and The Cambodians really felt a really close connection with Long Beach during that time They're pretty cool-looking guys, too So Okay, so and they they were also interested in getting to know people So maybe that's this is why they actually taught themselves how to play musical instruments and they started a band and then they taught they got other CSU LA students interested in joining that band and they also put on new year celebrations and There were just men here from Cambodia So they taught the women how to do the dance and they made costumes for them I should have included a picture of it. It's really cool. So it doesn't it looks Sort of like my but not quite like my but it was a lot of fun And they really did a lot to socialize and get to know people so they didn't meet a lot of people make friends and About five of them stayed they didn't go back to Cambodia. They stayed here got married Built businesses and didn't go back some who did go back felt Concerned about what was going on in the country and so a handful of them returned to the US afterwards So Mr. Che is is one of those who returned to Cambodia. He went home and then decided to come back here So he returned to the US a lot of reasons When Karen and I oh, I should mention Karen's not here. Sorry. She's in Texas Helping a family wedding so she couldn't be here But she Extends her greetings to everybody, but a lot of when we started working in the community We didn't know why there were so many Cambodians in Long Beach and we would ask Cambodians Why are you here and the standard answer was the weather? It's pretty nice The food there's access to the kinds of Foods that are available that Cambodians were used to In fact, that's one reason why several people said they moved to Long Beach to Southern California Because you can grow the vegetables and the fruits in the racer hand You can grow everything that you want You can have access to the Asian spices There's already a large Asian population here and because of the trade and and because it is closer to Asia You've had access to everything you needed So the food was important and then other Asian groups that you could just blend into right? You don't stand out Like in other parts of the country because and people are used to seeing Asians So it's not that big deal and at sunset or sunrise. It looks pretty much like Cambodia. Huh? Yeah All right, so In 1975 When the US left Southeast Asia as I already mentioned the communists The Khmer Rouge took over in Cambodia and that Led to an exodus of those who could who were close to the border they crossed into Thailand And this is a picture actually of a group of people leaving to Move into Thailand So and the first migration event was 1975 immediately following like in May of 75 Camp Pendleton was told that they needed to prepare To receive the Vietnamese and the Cambodian refugees, which they did So Camp Pendleton was one of the places that refugees went to and then Fort Chaffee was the second one at that time in 1975 There are about 15 families living in Southern California, and they didn't get together very much They get together on New Year, and then they would kind of laugh Because they tried to speak Khmer, but they were forgetting Khmer, and they were a little embarrassed about that, but There really wasn't a population here for them to speak When they arrived Mr. Krang, Viridhat Krang, I don't know if you can make him out. He's right here He Immediately organized he was a nuclear engineer with Bechtel, and he immediately Organized to get the other Cambodians in the area together to bring food for the people at Camp Pendleton There were no Khmer monks here So he went to the Thai temple in Hollywood and he brought a monk to to You know do blessings and all of that and he said that people cried And one of the things he talked about a lot Was how cold everybody was It was May Camp Pendleton, and I know that compared to the east coast It's warmer here, but you know that the Offshore the the Fog that collects right and it's pretty cold in the morning And the people who had come came with their flip-flops and shorts They just brought what they had they didn't have heavy coats or anything to keep them warm So the Marines gave their coats to the little kids to keep them warm. Yeah Also, Mr. LC and had a small apartment building at Rose and 10th and when People started being sponsored out of the camps several of them went to live in the apartment there and that's really where the This the center of Cambodia town really began or the Cambodian community was really around that apartment people started Buying homes there and and then having family come And then mr. Lulai spring He had been a student He was one of the original students that came in the 60s and he was had made several Friends at higher levels and so he was able he got sponsored out right away and then was able to Arrange businesses and he started a bakery and then he started a grocery store and a Restaurant and hired people and got people involved in the community that way and helped to get them settled There was immediately People hadn't even left Camp Pendleton and the first of the Cambodian mutual assistance associations formed and this was Cambodian Association of America so CAA was the first one it was actually called Cambodian Solidarity Association and some an American said, you know, that sounds a bit too communist for people here in the US so they changed it to Cambodian Association of America And within a year there were There was a slight conflict in purpose for this association So it was a mix of military former military who? had formed Cambodian Association of America and then students who were here who had been stranded here so like Tom Paul was one of those he had been at USC and so he was one of the student leaders within this organization and The military group wanted to focus on trying to regain Cambodia So they wanted to raise money and fund a military group in Thailand to take back Cambodia But the students said no we're here We probably should see how we can address the needs of the people who are here So we should focus on that and so they split and formed the students formed the United Cambodian community After that so the two of them, but what's interesting is that they both were highly successful UCC became a model across the country for refugee services and Helping people to to get settled and established and There were other things going on to this. These are images from the very first new year in 1976 people put together a new year event they Used what materials were available here Of course, you couldn't get Cambodian cloth and and all of that so they put these together and then This is Mr. Did it where are you? Where'd you go? I Can't remember his name. Oh Mr. Yon, Mr. Yon He Had learned to dance in Cambodia and from memory. He made the masks paper mache masks He experimented with how to do that So they did the best that they could with what they had and put on started new year celebrations right away Which is one thing that that Karen and I have always marveled at us So wherever their Cambodians are celebrations and it doesn't matter what else is going on around them they're celebrating and and putting on shows and To quote. Mr. Yon. We didn't really do it for ourselves. We did it for the Americans because we wanted to tell them who we are and And that's been going on since the very beginning and it's such I don't know of any other culture group that's done that That's like we're here to perform and we're gonna perform for you Yeah, so you can learn about us because we're great and it's just really amazing Okay, the second migration event began in 1980 through 1993 And this was the large refugee Migration so about 158,000 Cambodians arrived in the US US government trying to spread people out across the US and in fact They paid people to leave Long Beach and go live somewhere else and they put together a Program where they identified smaller cities throughout the US That looked like they would be good places for people to get jobs because that was the focus for the US government was People needed to be employed right away So like Columbus, Ohio Seattle, Washington Jacksonville, Florida, you know, these were all places where Ithaca, New York These were smaller cities and so people were scattered in these different cities across the country And a lot of people said okay fine and they go and then they come back to Long Beach So and through what's called secondary migration a lot of people just moved to Long Beach even from other parts of the world and The US government didn't understand one of the central things of Cambodian culture that's so important and that's family and You can't spread family out and they didn't understand The extent of what's family right like they somebody would say I want to sponsor my uncle And they say what's his name and then Sam? I don't know his name, but he's my relative Right, he married my cousin no or his some I don't know some it goes on and on You know your sisters brothers families cousin it goes out Extents, but that is how you support yourself right the more people who are involved in the collective Support of the family the better off you are that's the support you had in Cambodia There wasn't any welfare or central government that could support you if you're unemployed Everything came from your family so extended family was extremely important So and then also the language you have a traumatized population That has just gone through so much And you they're ripped away from their language their family the food The everything about their life and so people were trying to bring that back together and Long Beach had it it had a range of people from different Social strata in the society so you could bring that back together they They had this core of people to Associations mutual assistance associations, so it had everything and so it attracted people and people would call others And other parts like a common work. I have a donut shop come and work, you know, we've got a grocery store so there were there there was There was a place to come and be with others who had just been through what you had been through and Understood in a way that in other parts of the country didn't know that doesn't mean that everybody wanted to be here I want to be clear about that some people were very like I met a family in Ithaca, New York And he said I don't want anything to do with Cambodians anymore Right, it's just too much and there are a lot of people who echoed that sentiment But you know people wanted to be most people wanted to be with others. So that was really important I'm Not quite sure what to do because I'm running out of time Let me skip. Let me see. So this might go faster. So school materials had to be developed Some of you might recognize mr. Lai Cree here. He was central in developing that in the school district Buddhist temples and ceremonies started to grow up what will those on the left and I wraps on the right businesses This is Lang hang. She was a dancer performer in Cambodia and she got her License to do hair Donuts of course are were a big deal and every immigrant group to the US finds their niche and Donuts was the Cambodian niche and then mr. Horn's auto center Right. So automobile repair was important because that was something you could a lot of people knew how to do Beauty pageants. We haven't had beauty pageants in a long time, but they were a big deal initially They were very important. This is 1998 And then Cambodia's introduced a new aesthetic sense to Long Beach. There's been a huge contribution There was a lot of federal money that came to Long Beach that wouldn't have if the Cambodians weren't here So the mental health department is an example of that the money came and everybody benefits from that, right? Anaheim the Anaheim corridor before the Cambodians got here Well in the first ten years when they were here, it was quite dangerous This was a very dangerous part of the city and the city had been largely ignoring it But no one would go out at night after nine o'clock. It's like or after dark You just wouldn't walk on anaheim Street. You could get shot. So that's not the case anymore. I don't think I don't think I don't know crime comes and goes but it's certainly been improved since the Cambodians got here So the new aesthetic sense you see Angkor Wat, how many Americans knew anything about Cambodia before Cambodians got here? A 2,000 year old history Incredible Yeah Yeah, but not that you're in the the minority Yeah, a lot of people hadn't a lot of people like me all I knew was President Nixon on TV showing the map of Cambodia and showing how we just bombed them You know, we're not even at war with them and we're bombing them this it was really horrible, but that's all I knew Okay, so Angkor Wat Architectural style. So this is what used to be the UCC building. That's typical in Cambodia So you can see how the architectural style Can I script which I think it's just absolutely lovely and you find it? Everywhere on the buildings, it's great. And then of course food right, that's the best part and Then oh, and I did want to mention that Cambodians aren't often thought of as being politically active But they were active from the very beginning So at federal and local levels So this isn't this is early early when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1975 And so they took to the streets, right? This is downtown LA and then this was After the there were a number of shootings. There were Cambodians who've been killed and gang killings in Long Beach, so Cambodians came out to protest that And then the establishment of Cambodia town July 3rd, 2007 Long Beach has always had a history of a lot of named Neighborhoods like I live in Wrigley, so I'm in Wrigley. I guess Southeast. I never knew that This was central And then they've not unlike LA that had Neighborhoods named after The ethnic group that lives there the dominant ethnic group Long Beach didn't have a history of that so it took a long time It took a long time to convince the city council that Cambodia town as a cultural center should be established And they were successful and then out of that comes Cambodia town Parade and Culture Festival and then Cambodia town Film Festival and Pratch is here in the back there Yeah, and then the book okay, can I have five more minutes? Okay Okay, so the book the book. All right, so Karen and I were approached by Sorry, I'll go back approached by the editor for Arcadia He had read an article that we wrote and he really liked it and he thought that we could probably do a really good job with a book like this So we thought about it and we talked about it and we had a hunch that the community might like this and So we said, okay, we're gonna we're gonna work on it and we were shocked at the response Because up until this point we've been asking people could we interview them some people were yet? Sure, some people wanted to wait till they know it's better. Some people said I don't know anything as they backed away So and you know, I understand if we haven't been formally introduced, you know, it's like people are a little leery What are you gonna say? I'm not sure that I want you to write about me So that was fine, but we had a hunch and it was shocking And we also found out that this is actually a preferred way for Cambodians to do history Right you do it with photographs because words You can words can shift we all know that right Right, you can say things and then not mean it and then sort of mean it and yeah And you can interpret it differently words shift Photographs as someone told me you can't change them although now we can But at the time you couldn't and he pointed to the photograph saying This is the truth. This is what so that this was a good thing It turned out to be something that was really a good thing So we had already been bringing students our own students into the community For many years to learn about Cambodians and record their culture and history And we knew that Cambodians appreciated it because they would tell us that they they didn't have the time to do this And they didn't have anyone to do it Themselves so they were happy that we were there to to collect photographs and to do this kind of work So we began working on collecting photographs and stories We would take a bunch of students to somebody's house, of course They said it was okay. We didn't just show it and a scanner and we would scan everything they had and People were calling their relatives. This has never happened before We want photographs. I mean we would tell them what we're doing and they would be on the phone Calling somebody you have photographs sharing with these people. It's okay We also learned how precious photographs were and Because people risked their lives To keep photographs of family during the Khmer Rouge They would sew photographs into the linings of their clothes. If you were caught with a photograph you would be killed So people tried to protect their photographs and they buried them and then when they came back to the house They couldn't remember where they had been buried the tree that they buried them next to wasn't there anymore Or the place had been bombed So they didn't have so any photograph was precious So even though this we couldn't we didn't need all the photographs we were getting we scanned Every single photograph that people brought to us because we knew how important they were and People didn't care if this was a photograph of your family in Cambodia This was from Cambodia. This is a family portrait from Cambodia So even though it's not my family, it's still important so when we were all done we had Like 1500 Photographs and we can only put like 200 in the book so we from that we Decided that we needed to start an archive we were working together across two different Universities which really aren't friendly in that way. It's difficult to park. It's expensive. It's hard to get together We had a lot of materials our own materials We felt like this isn't it's part of our history But it's really your history and it should be accessible to Cambodians So we had all these materials all this ephemera all of this stuff And we decided that we wanted to bring it together in a place where we could work together without Carrying stuff back and forth all the time and that could be open to the public So we started calling around to see if we could Find a place we started with the library but what we were developing was is an archive and Archival materials you can't just rummage through them and take them out and that kind of thing You need an archivist to help you with it right to help pull things out It's not like a library where you can get the books off the shelf and the library doesn't have personnel for that So they couldn't accommodate an archive. So we called the historical society We happened to know Julie Bartolato who's the director there and she said oh, we're moving to a new place And we'll have space for you Yes, and also the historical society was suffering from a Too great a degree of whiteness Because if you read histories of Long Beach, it's usually white history they don't talk about the natives or the Japanese or anybody else who is here and Julie is very sensitive to that and she wanted to diversify the history and Include the people who've been important in Long Beach So she was quite excited to have us come so The idea for the Cambodian Community History and Arche project was born We're on Atlantic if you don't know where the historical society is we're across from where Trader Joe's used to be I don't know the name of that It's a good will place, but Yeah, it makes me know yeah Yes, yeah, it's like an upscale good will I think But anyway, it is open to the public if you're interested in coming to see what we have in the collection You do have to make an appointment and it does depend on when Karen or I We're available to be there, but we do try to accommodate everybody We've had an uptick in the number of people coming to see materials. So which makes us very happy We personally don't have a staff there. So that's why you get one of us Hopefully they'll change but anyway, you know everything takes money, right? so This is a picture of the historical society. So you might know it's on the East side of the street Okay so Yeah, so we wanted to develop an inclusive community narrative that gives residents a greater understanding of their role in the story of Their neighborhood and their city and that's their purpose So then the question is what's next, but we're running out of time So I can't unless somebody has maybe a couple ideas you want to shout out. Can we do that? Okay, okay So if you maybe have a question or two or you want to say where you'd like to see the community headed Yes I'll have it over here. I'll be signing it Okay, and then also at the historical society. Yes, they do have them. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Oh We don't sell them. Oh the little ones though, right the smaller ones Ones on the phone Yeah, the larger ones are not for sale. Yeah, they're part of our puppet troop Yeah, but the smaller ones are the smaller ones are for sale No, oh No, okay Yeah, yeah, so yes. Yes. Oh, yeah Cambodians have spread out throughout society. I think getting college degrees All sorts of different lines of work medicine Business, they're still donuts though, and there's still an interest among Cambodians to have donut stores I have a close friend who just purchased one So it's not it's there. They haven't stepped away from that entirely, but yeah Oh, I think Cambodia is now in all lines of work. Okay, hold on Thank you for advocating and collecting all these memories and history of the Cambodian community What kind of support that you've been getting from from the Cambodian community and the city of Long Beach in this work No, okay, the question is what kind of supporting we've gotten from the city not much And recognition to we really haven't gotten much of anything so And the historical society also is not high on the city's list of things to support So no now I'm trying to remember. I don't want to be We did get a community development grant From one of the foundations and now I'm blanking on the name of it Initially I'll have to look no, it's not one of those no But mostly our universities have supported us We've written small grants and between the two of us we've been able to get a course release for a while about ten years I received one course release to work on it Which was huge from my from my university because it is it's a lot of work So the universities have really stepped up, but oh and Cal Humanities For the shadow puppets The alliance for traditional gosh, I'm blanking on all of it right now But we for traditional arts in California. We got a grant for that. Yeah for the shadow puppets Yeah, so But no ideas for the direction of the community. Yes Donuts a man He was Cambodian came here. That's you know, another Donut King Yeah, yeah, it's very interesting. Yeah So, okay, so let me tell you we do have thank you everyone. Did anybody else have a question? Yes, yes, okay, so Kevin's question is what research am I currently working on in about 10 years ago now nine years ago I was introduced to the assana the altars that people have in their homes and so that's shifted initially it was Language transmission Education teaching literacy In the community, but it's kind of switched over now to be to this ritual aspect Which I find quite beautiful. Yes Oh Yeah, that's great my dad was pilot And you get to fly free to all over the world Yeah, okay, so if you'd like to purchase a book I don't have any way to take credit cards But if you go to hslp.org that's a historical society Click on shop and then click on book and go to page three of the that you can see you can select Cambodians and Long Beach you can purchase it there and then Bring that to me and I will sign a book for you. So I'm here to sign books. So, okay So thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Well, thank you so much. Dr. Susan Let's give another round of applause If you haven't read Cambodians and Long Beach It's so good and the amount of research that was put into this book by dr. Susan and Karen I mean definitely pick it up and to reiterate. We do have copies of the book here The table over there where the master Ho-chan is sitting and also I do want to extend my thanks to Nuret and master Ho-chan for bringing the shadow puppets. Let's give them also another round of applause Yeah, they're here to answer any questions Please walk around and we're gonna take a moment before the next presentation as I mentioned earlier We do have food here from Riverside Market. Please help yourself We're gonna probably re gather in about five to ten minutes for the next presentation I would first like to introduce the author of the book Voices of a New Generation Cambodians Americans in the creative arts she is a Historian writer and community activist based in San Francisco the biracial daughter of kamai father and a Scottish mother She has worked and traveled throughout Southeast Asia. Her research efforts have focused on Cambodian diaspora History and culture and multiracial and transnational identity She is the founder of the kamai generations project a digital story initiative that seeks to document the stories of kamai of all Generations through online oral history. Please give a round of applause for dr. Christine soon Thank you. Thank you, dr. Christine Okay, and now we're going to introduce our next guest. She was born in Kaui Thang a refugee camp on the Thai Cambodian border Just after her parents escaped from public kamai Rouge regime in Cambodia. She studied storytelling Earning a bachelor of arts degree in creative writing and a master of fine arts in film production at Dodge College a film and media Arts at Chapman University and began writing directing and producing her own films including testigo illegal in 2011 rupture in 2012 and Paulina in 2012 in 2011 she was awarded the zone test woman in film grants of most promising young filmmaker and in 2012 She won the 18th annual best female student director award in 2018 She directed in the life of music and inspired Powerful narrative that explores love war and a family's relationship to jump up at the bone a classic Cambodian song made famous in the 1960s by prolific singer sincissima Known throughout the country as the king of Cambodian music She is the Cambodian town film excuse me She's a co-founder of the Cambodian town film festival an honorary committee member of the Cambodian International Film Festival The founder of InnoVision Pictures a recipient of the Linden Mevalo's new directors new vision award and the winner of 32nd annual Los Angeles County women of the year award Please give a welcome to K. Lisa. He is an internationally renowned critically acclaimed award-winning artist His debut album Dalam became the first number one rap album in Cambodia Newsweek proclaimed him the first Cambodian rap star Through masterful lyrics that weave narratives about war Migration and the challenge of life as a refugee in the United States his music not only entertains but educates as well His involvement in film ranges from scoring music for the baseball documentary rice field of dreams in 2010 To creating original music for the Sundance award-winning and Oscar shortlisted enemies of the people He provided music for the student Academy Award Oscar finalist short film Sam Nam in 2013 and Nazir Nas Jones film shake the dust in 2014 He executed his executive produced in short excuse me in short film some now Say that I the life of music directed by Kay Lee so and Row and directed Satok a short film which currently screens in the music of Asian art the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C And He is currently working on a full-length music piece of collaboration with the Long Beach Symphony. Please welcome Prachli final guest Born to Cambodian refugees in Oakland, California He is one of nine children his innate passion for cooking was developing as a child His first learned how to cook by watching he first learned how to cook by watching his mom and his grandmother And was cooking simple meals by the age of five at the age of eight his family relocated to Long Beach After high school he enrolled in Long Beach City College where he used to walk from home His east side Long Beach all the way to the liberal arts campus on a good day It took probably two and a lot two and a half hours on a bad day Maybe three hours he said after earning his associate degree in culinary arts in 2011 Chef tea was hired by the western hotel for three months through the lbcc program When that program ended he worked in many different jobs from criss-nose and boston market to chilies and apple bees to the new now closed Creepery La Rue and Bixby Knowles And the federal bar he opened his own catering company during the cova 19 pandemic He is currently the executive chef at Gladstone seafood restaurant in Long Beach and lends his culinary talents to many Cambodian community events He recently published his book titled chrome Cambodian cooking with chef tea and we'll be launching it later this afternoon which a lot of us have already purchased And um, he will also be presenting a demonstration following the conversation today Let's welcome direct whistle also known as chef tea Thank you I just want to take take a moment to thank our four panelists for being here And i'm going to go ahead and pass the mic over to dr. Christine sue who will be leading the conversation and presentation Thank you so much Okay, hopefully our technical difficulties are behind us now But we'll see Thank you so much for coming today and i'm i'm so happy to be here and i'm so honored to be in the presence of these artists here And as you'll see they have so much to offer the community and i'm going to try not to get emotional But they mean so much to me and the fact that they shared their stories with me Just means so much. So um I wanted to start just with a quote here. I like this quote. It's it Let me know if i'm going off mic. You can't hear me a mural muriel resiker who is an american poet once wrote The world is made of stories not of adams and I really like that quote because I think that that's true. I think that You know while we can Did that go up? Did it go up? Sorry, I really like this book because I think that it's true. I think that Stories make us think and they make us feel Um, and they help us to share in a way that creates an emotional connection that we might not be able to do Just with long pieces of information like statistics or numbers or lists of facts Um, and it was through hearing and writing down stories Including those are the artists who you're going to hear from that I began to exam on my own history and my own identity as a Cambodian american I did just want to say this is sponsored by cal humanities and I wanted to thank them for that and um In my day job, I worked as coordinator of programs for the career center at college of san mateo And that involves a lot of students coming in trying to figure out what they want to do And sometimes the parents will come in with the with the students They'll ask if the parents can come in and so when they come in if they ever mention humanities Or liberal arts the parents start to tense up a little bit You say what are you going to do with that? What are you going to do to humanities are humanities important? And I think that humanities are the stories and ideas that help us to understand the world No matter what you end up doing in your career, whether you're an accountant or a filmmaker or Construction worker we still have stories that are important to us And the humanities introduce us to people we've never met Places we've never visited and viewpoints that may never have crossed our minds So why study the humanities? They're tools for passing on traditions values stories and accumulated wisdom But they can also be employed as tools for reflection analysis Critique and change and I think that's really important, especially the way the world is today We need to really stop and think about how We're affecting other people So by showing how others have lived and thought about life the humanities Help us decide what's important and what we can do to make our own lives the lives of others better So the voices of a new generation Cambodian America and the creative arts is a collection of 15 stories the stories of 15 artists And in the book they're told these stories are told through written work because that's the medium that I'm most comfortable with But stories can be told in many different ways through dance painting cooking and other art forms And you'll have the opportunity to hear about these types of stories directly from the artists themselves One of the reasons I wrote the book in the first person Because I really wanted to have their voices come through and not be about what I thought their art was but for them to express themselves Um just to give you a little background on the project I do want to read a little excerpt from my introduction in the book And one of the things I really like about the book is that it doesn't necessarily have to be read in order from front to back I do recommend you read the introduction because I wrote it no because it gives you some context for the book itself But if your interest isn't dance You can go right to the dance chapter if your interest is in filmmaking you can go right to kaley's chapter It doesn't necessarily have to be read in order Um, and that's one of the things I like about it. So this is from my own introduction My father was born in in kambori in the province of kapat to the south to the southwest of penampan in a place called tenebdukmiah While I know very little about his childhood. I like to imagine that daily life was much like we see in idyllic paintings Coconut palm trees swaying in the warm summer winds Green rice fields people making offerings at the bodhis temple I like to imagine my father running along the road on his way to elementary school wearing a white shirt and blue shorts Excuse me or trousers But sadly much of my connection with my father comes through my imagination As we heard in dr. Neum's presentation on april 17 1975 and most of you in the audience probably are aware of this The commuters entered penampan And forced all of the inhabitants out into the countryside to undertake hard labor They implemented a radical Maoist marxist-leninist policy with the goal of transforming kambori into a classless society Abolishing money and private property Education religion and cultural practices Schools bogotas moths doors and government buildings were turned into stables granaries torture centers and prisons During the Khmer Rouge regime more than two million people died of starvation Disease overwork Torture and execution of what became known as the killing fields Among those were my father's parents grandparents siblings cousins and friends Cambodia was not spoken of in our house and as far as I knew it was a bad place Or at least a place I had believed I believe had stolen my father's happiness Any mention of Cambodia listed one of two reactions Unresolved anger of which I was afraid or a look of such hurt and helplessness that I didn't want to have it happen again So I didn't ask So my story about Cambodia was one of sadness of loss of silence And in fact, I spent much of my childhood pretending I was somebody else An eskimo a native american as a mixed-race child I kind of just went with the flow Because to be cambodian was a source of hurt not to mention confusion because most of my school friends had no idea Where or what Cambodia was It wasn't until I traveled to Cambodia for the first time many years later That I actually began to see the brilliance and beauty in Khmer culture and I remember one day very distinctly I had taken a taxi with some friends from Phnom Penh the capital to Siam Ria Which is where the Angkor temples are located and of course since it was my first time I wanted to visit Angkor Wat first But it was early afternoon when we arrived and our taxi driver Insisted it would be best to wait either till evening or till the next morning So you could see the sunrise or the sunset depending on what side you're on And he sees I let's go somewhere else. So we actually went to something called the bayon, which is part of Angkor Tom Built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman the seven the bayon encompasses hundreds of huge faces carved into stone And these photos do not do justice the stunning magnificent magnificence of this monument And I had gone expecting to see huge buildings, but not faces in the stone Faces that seemed serene and at peace The tranquility reflected in the gentle smiles and partially closed eyes of each face So to stark contrast generally all of my beliefs and perceptions about Cambodia as a place of war destruction and trauma I looked up at the faces and I literally fell to my knees Overwhelmed with emotion For the rest of the afternoon I walked among the many faces and felt that they were watching me and comforting me And while silent they spoke to me This was a pivotal moment because I realized just how much I had been focusing on Cambodia and my identity in a negative way And without discounting the trauma and suffering Inflicted by the Khmer Rouge regime and we'll never forget it I realized that that period is but a very short fragment within the timeline of Cambodian history So when I returned to the u.s. After my first trip I promised myself that I would help to rewrite the limited narrative that had to find the fine Cambodian culture For me and many of us in the diaspora I wanted to acknowledge and honor complex history and convey that Cambodian heritage is a source of dignity not shame So to this end I started to learn the language for the first time And I also realized how hard the language is and realized I wanted to do other things to kind of Learn about the culture that didn't involve being fluent in Khmer So I started to observe art and when I say art, I mean I listen to music I listen to sinsi samut rastraiz utia um I went to art galleries and I looked to see what had been painted And I started started trying to my food and people always ask me can I cook my food and as chef will tell you No, I cannot but he can And I also like to watch dance and listen to the Pimpi ensemble with the dance and somewhere in the beauty and grace of the dancers and the stories they told I found peace So my hope is that this book sheds light on some of the collective experiences and individual journeys of the members of the 1.5 generation and will inspire us to share more and just before I turn it over to our panelists I just want to go very briefly over what is the 1.5 generation So first in reference to integrant and refugee communities We often talk about the first generation Which are those who are born in an outside country and come to the united states and second generation who are us born And there's some confusion about those terms because where I work at community college We refer to first gen as the first generation of students to go to college Not necessarily their parents who came from another country, but in this context We call first generation those who were born in the homeland Native country whose identities were formed in the homeland and who made the decision to come to flee as refugees to the united states And the second generation is those who were born in the u.s And for whom homeland mainly exists as a representation formed by parental men parental memories So for those who are in between we call them the 1.5 So where did this term come from very briefly in the late 1960s? There was a sociologist who was studying cuban americans and he came up with the term one and a half generation to talk about cubans who were born In cuba but then came to the united states or again in that in between phase Later referring to southeast asians to the united states he started to use the term 1.5 generation I won't take too much time on this for the sake of time But there are a lot of variations on the term some people will call people the 1.5 generation or the 1.75 generation Depending on when you were born or when you came to the united states But for the purposes of our talk here, we'll just call the in-between people the 1.5 generation But it's really interesting to study that If you have time Okay, so I put an interest in the experiences of the 1.5 generation for some time As someone who's mixed race and has cambodian identity, but doesn't know what that didn't know what that meant I really wanted to explore it But what really pushed me to write this book was a film called in the life of music And as background the 1960s and 70s were kind of a before the kamayush were kind of a golden age When they had wonderful rock musicians and jazz musicians and cuban Latin musicians doing some wonderful things in cambodia and king cianook who had ascended the throne in 1941 And brought cambodia to independence in 1953 was a really big Advocate for art and music and encouraged people to go abroad to learn new things Okay, so kaley. So is the director of in life of music and it was screened at the cambodia town film festival 2019 and I really wanted to show you a clip But we have no sound so maybe at the end if we can get the sound come on I really want to show you a clip from this wonderful movie When it was screened at ctff 2019 I was the moderator for the q&a session after the film screen After the film screen and as I saw kaley and the others involved in making the film come on to the stage For the first few moments. I was so emotional. I could hardly speak I finally managed to start the discussion with this is the film. I've been waiting to see my entire life Indeed I had always looked forward never found a film that explored the intergenerational issues faced by cambodians and cambodian americans Until this remarkable work by this remarkable individual kaley's ability to explore identity and place in this film Coupled with the constant pull of the characters back to cambodia through a song Which is woven throughout the film may be want to know more So I got serious about wanting to know the stories of more cambodian american artists So with that I'm going to actually turn it over to kaley to tell a little bit of her story And hopefully we'll be able to see the clip at the end Thank you so much christine We're I know that you know, we're on the panel here, but we're so grateful that you approached us and Was able to say I I want to collectively make a book and I want to put your stories in the book and And I was so honored by that and still very honored by the fact that she you know Got all our stories together and a lot of the artists and the people in this book is actually people that we know because as you know You know the cambodian our artist community is pretty small And but growing very rapidly which is amazing and cool and I I love to see this like Renaissance of things that are happening within the community Christine asked me to read a section in the book. I've actually never read Pratt said it it would be weird to read your own story to other people and I I agree with him But I did choose a section and I chose this section because I think it explains Um why I became a filmmaker really Um, so I'll just go into it and try to read it the best I can without You know Reading it to my five-year-old, which is a different voice if I revert to that apologies Or any as So this section is called uh searching for my mother's history When my family and I buried my mother Her gravestone was engraved with the dates april 10th 1952 to november 22nd 2002 In the month afterwards my family members and I began debating about whether 1952 was her real birth year And in the u.s. We knew she used to use the names of poly mom But we were unsure whether or not that was her true birth name Oftentimes refugees changed their information fearing the collage might find them later Confused by my father's recollection and my sibling's doubt in the accuracy of what I had believed was the truth I became fixated on my own Comodian the hyphen american narrative. Who was I? Where did I come from? What what did it mean to be born in a refugee camp after the time of ballfoot? When when most of my aunts uncles Um, sorry, this jump's really strange one. Sorry to the book. I think it's missing portion What did it mean to be born in a refugee camp after the time of ball pot when most of my aunts uncle grandparents had been murdered? What was the kmyrush genocide and why did my parents barely speak of it? And why did it never matter to me before? My thoughts returned to a memory from years before While I was in high school just months before the tragedy of 9 11 I signed up to join the u.s. Military. I hadn't told my mother. I was going to do so when she found out She looked at me with the sadness. I will never forget I didn't understand why at the time because for me this represented a commendable path I was choosing for myself as an american to my mother However, me joining the military meant deliberately putting myself in danger and embracing war Something she had left everything she knew in order to escape My parents silence about their lives under the kmyrush kept me very far removed from kambodia's history I hadn't understood the extensive loss the genocide had on our family Collectively we lost more than 20 family members But we also lost our home our sense of connection to a place and the people Now that my mother was gone. I felt the weight of her sacrifices And felt compelled to piece together her history as a way to somehow keep her alive I began writing trying to fill the holes within my soul her absence had left I transferred to george mason university and traded in a business degree for an english creative writing degree Numbers and charts were objective and concrete and no longer bore any interest for me Stories were subjective mysteries. I wanted to understand and I sought to write my own stories into existence That's my section that's why I became a filmmaker But I also and and it really did um help me keep her alive because in every single story that I write or every single film That I make there's there's an element of her in it like the character's name in the life of music is named pauli I know in paulina She used to be the The the old lady that she wasn't old then but she used to be the lady who showed up at the gambling house trying to sell like Food that she had bought from the store But she knew everyone would get hungry So she would like sell it at like twice or three times the price So I created like that character because I was like that's you and then in the in the scene in paulina where The father had bet on an election When I was in basic training. I had talked to my mom and she had bet that George bush would win the election I said mom. Why are you betting money on an election? You know nothing about she goes I don't know people saying george bush is gonna win so I just put money on it So I put that into the movie So like this always sprinkles of her and every work that I do and I think you know, it's a profound way to keep people alive And have history as well collectively. Thank you. I want to go last so We'll pass it on to pratch who is a dear friend of mine. I've known him for many years Although I'm only 29 so And he's so talented in so many ways and actually I'm just gonna let it let him tell you about himself So, thanks Raise your hand If you haven't had his barbeque, he's known as the cambodian cowboy Great barbeque. So do you see his truck anywhere? Make sure you stop buying Across the street I don't I'm I'm not sure where I can go with this or to tell my story, but I can tell you a story And this kind of like involve Dr. Christine as well So there's a if you don't know she you she hosted a client conference in Ohio Who here has been there? All right, Terry Yes, Don's been there So every year almost every year and she has this a client conference in Which happened in Ohio and I'm gonna Tell you about this one occurrence because it involves music humanity and also I'll get to that but So if you don't know who I am I I'm a musician. I'm a rapper Also, I'm a I guess I'm a filmmaker now Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Kaylee. I got some acknowledgement from a real filmmaker, right? But um, I forgot what year it was but we were invited to uh to Ohio and for the the client conference and I remember that year the ambassador from Cambodia was there 2015 thank you 2015 guys 2015 2016 Yes, um 2015 or 2016 but um the Cambodian ambassador was there And I remember seeing the students and and they knew that I was gonna perform I was gonna rap something and they were like, what are you gonna rap? What are you gonna rap and then the student? I've noticed the student from Cambodia Um came up too many goes you need to do that song I go what song they go Please do that song the ambassador is here You know, you need to do that song like what song are you talking about? And then they say, um And then the the girl came up to me one of the student came to Fincio's you need to do that song Would you say prime minister? I'm like, um That's when the real moment when I noticed that That Music is powerful You know it speaks value Like they are afraid to go back to they want to say But they can't You know to go back to Cambodia. There's consequences So here I am making um You know the music and they're like you need to do that song I don't care what other song you need to do but you need to do that song in front of the ambassador You need to say it So Yeah, I did this song It wasn't to my surprise or anything You know, we got the reaction in the room that was that we got that I was anticipated But I noticed that once that line dropped The students kind of like giggled up and was like in awe And it's like this is what we want to say that we can't say You know and that's when one of the key moment where I realized that The freedom of speech is very powerful and especially in the entertainment and also in the music when you have the platform to do it Um, and I was just in the morning Right Um, and then in the daytime they got you know, uh the conversation started started more and then I started to ask them more about your situation and They were telling that um, you know, they They liked my music. They loved to to play but there are some areas where they can't play the music because it's band and it's censored and I got I got I got to that part and then that night we screened a film called still I strive Which is a great film documentary film Adam is not here, but Adam was one of the rector and Adam was uh, they're asked they're as well as uh at the conference And um later that night we'd screened the film and then afterwards we were going back to our hotel And our hotel was in columbus, ohio so So it was like a uh, it was like a 45 minute hour drive from from Yeah, so it was about we all crammed into like a van like a mini van, right? And I still we have pictures to this day of that of that van It was like 15 of us. So I felt like I was all you know in cambodia all over again, right? Going from there to to columbus, ohio Um, and then when we got there we were starving. We was hungry, right? So I have these I have a filmmaker. I have a musician. I have kids. I have philosophers. I have You know professors and doctors with me in the in the van and we were hungry So we're like we need to go somewhere to get some food, right? and we're like in the middle of nowhere in columbus and um, we decided to go get some food And adam he was like in his his pajamas, right? And he's like he was he was cold like his nose was snodding and everything and then um, Steve was with us too. Steve man was with us and then We everywhere we went everything was closed because it was late night, right? The only thing that was open was mcdonald's So we went to mcdonald and then we didn't have a car. So we walked to the drive-thru And then the people going no, you can't do a walk-through. You have to have a drive-through So we're like, oh man, what can we do? So we walked across the street and it was a strip club So I don't think it's weird, but it's it's true So adam is in his pajamas, right? And then he's like snodding and everything he looked like he's about to die this white guy It's about to die And then you have these asians like in our like, you know formal clothes and we're walking into a strip club and then we're like All we wanted was food, you know, and if you've been to the strip club the food is fantastic, right? But we all we wanted was food and then it goes well the kitchen is closed The kitchen is closed, but what can we do? So The manager of the strip club let us in Imagine that in his pajamas and it was like a Friday night. So it's a packed house And he's like, okay, you can come in you sit here Just just tip the bartender or whatever, right? He goes, what do you need? We're like, we just we just want some food from McDonald's and he's like, all right Just give me, you know your money, whatever I'll go for go get it for you And he actually went to McDonald's to give us food while we're sitting in a strip club in our pajamas So it kind of shows like the humanity of no matter where you at what place you are There are kind people out there that are willing to take care of you And um, it was just over a course of like a day and a half That this happened, you know from from music to like I'm with this award-winning filmmaker and he's like in his pjs But it also showcased that the freedom of speech and then there's also Good people out there And with that being said like the collective story share everyone has a story to tell And I'm kind of went off the wheel a little bit without reading the thing, but I just figured like, you know Sharing a little bit more stories a bit Before we head to chef T I just want to say thank you because perhaps you always speak from the heart We can always count him just speak from the heart and just to follow up what he was saying I was the director of southeast asian studies at ohiro university, which is in athens, Ohio Which is right on the border of west virginia So let's just say there aren't a lot of kamae people there And then we had this conference and all of these kamae people came from kambonia from england from australia From all over the u.s. And it was just an amazing experience because they cared so much about getting together with Like-minded people who wanted to just do the same kinds of Discussion and conversation about kambodia and also just to be with other kambodians That they all came to this little tiny place in ohio and it really meant a lot to me I didn't know about the columbus fiasco until later on But it's it's wonderful. And if you have the chance and you have the book, please Will you I wanted to read everybody's stories, but pratcha story is one of the most interesting That I've ever heard including the fact that he had made an album here And he didn't it was a wasn't In the top 10 or anything. It was a great album But most people didn't know much about kambodian rap, but then he went to kambodia and found out that his album was number one there But they had taken his name off of it So it was it was under a blank name and then somebody tried to sell him his own his own cd So as you can imagine the process of writing this book, um, there were a lot of tears There were a lot of tears a lot of smiles a lot of just oh my god that that really happened And as I said, it was just such an honor to be entrusted with those stories and um for them to trust me to write them down and know that I my intentions Were to tell the tell the real story without being exploitative or being um A condescending so I do want to turn over to chef tea and he's going to talk a lot more later And he's going to do a demonstration for you But I do want to also introduce him because he's here And I just want to tell you the story of how I met chef how I met chef tea And if you have the crew of the book, you'll know this already, but I had gone to a conference um posted by the my student coalition here in long beach and um Chef of course as he always does in addition to talking he also had made a whole bunch of food And also as the pipe pipe or he had all of these students helping him He had all of these assistants and he was running around like crazy Yet he had sweat on his forehead and he was really it was very clear that a lot of people and things were demanding his attention But I didn't care and I said hey I want to meet you and he kind of just looked at me and I said I wanted to let you know that I heard you speak earlier and your story really resonated with me And I hope that one day I can write your story And so chef was so nice. He stopped what he was doing He said how honored he was to be part of a kamae centered event And he gave me a big hug and then he probably thought who is this lady? Who had walked away, but from that point on I've always been fascinated with chef and the things that he does and his story is so Um inspirational and you'll hear more about it later, but for now. I just want you to say a little bit about it Hello, yeah, just gonna say a little bit about it. I don't like to sit. I like to talk, you know, I'm a chef always stand up So this is The first book that I was in boys She got me into this book and uh It's it's kind of a funny story. Not a really funny story. It's a true story We used to email each other like one a.m. In the morning and stuff like that My wife is like who you talking to Talking to this lady, you know, she's like what lady and I'm like she's she's my life. She bought right my life my life You know, I'm your life, you know, it just keeps going and going and And then I'm like dr. Sue. Why are you up so late? And then she asked me to say a thing I'm like, yeah, I'm changing my son's diaper. My wife's knocked out you know, so it keeps going and uh, she keeps forming these, um ideas about uh, Making more books because she said it's very interesting. So, um People keep giving me book um offers and stuff like that and dr. Sue has been behind it to help me like, you know panel my way which direction I want to go so, um We have a couple more ideas coming up I don't want to talk too much about my life right now because In the next book, that's when I'll go deep into, you know, the gangbanging stuff You know became a chef and all that but right now I'm just gonna uh just about my relationship with her so She wanted to do like a kids, um recipe book next. I'm like, oh, I got recipe when I was four So yeah, I got recipes like like about this high, you know Sometimes I go back and I look at it. I know what age I was at in what era by what I was using So I went to the five six year old era. It was in crayon And it said, uh Spicy ketchup was through a giant ketchup and mustard With an egg and a steak. So I know what level I was at just by reading And uh, we try to think of something like that and for the kids maybe alphabets and you know, um And uh, a cuisine of a kid and such like that and uh, we got bigger projects coming up She probably wants to do a violin And a little bit disney wants to be involved with a script She's gonna be a part of that so that I'm very excited about that and uh We're gonna start on that very soon. So you guys look out for maybe uh, I don't know maybe a motion picture suit, but uh, and uh, you know, uh She's been out there and she's been traveling for Cambodians And I got even buck bon bon in one of the stories and he's right here, you know Dr. Christine sue she she does everything for a lot of people and she doesn't even ask for anything back And uh, you know, she keeps like sending me stuff like what do I have now like boxes at the boxers at the boxers She's like chef. Did you receive this? Did you receive that? Did you see this? I'm like, yeah, I got it on Did you open it? No, not yet So I don't even know because she's always surprised with me with something But um, I just want you guys to know I'm thankful for all you guys here I hope you guys all stay for the next book. Um, my wife is bringing like a hundred of them right now. I'm sorry. It's sold out She's running late. She said she's putting her lashes on Yeah, I'm like, yeah lashes, you know, and then she said that an hour ago and now she's putting on her shoes How many shoes do you have? Well, anyways, uh, I'll do a little bit of food demonstration soon and uh, you know Little signing and then uh, I wouldn't like to take a couple pictures with all you guys and You know, uh, just make today a glorious day not just for me, but for all of us For Cambodia town. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I have two microphones We don't need it no more Thank you chef. I I just um I don't know how we are on time because I haven't been watching it But I do just want to say again that It really was an honor to write these stories and that may sound a little bit corny or a little bit, right? But it really was because to be allowed into someone's life and to hear about the things that really affected them So this wasn't just I went to school today and I you know, ate a peanut butter sandwich and I came home This was real stories and oftentimes we had to stop You'll be meeting me a laugh. I think I'm in a couple of weeks here And for the first fair we had to stop many times because it was just so painful for her to To tell that story, but again to be entrusted with that was really quite an honor And I guess just to conclude with that what I was going to say before I have some questions for the panel is that As I had said earlier the film in the life of music was the film I had been waiting for my entire life And I also want to say that this book was the book that I wish I had growing up because I had no reference points I had no idea what other Cambodians were doing what they were feeling All I knew was what my dad had experienced and what he didn't want us to talk about So it was it was really cathartic for me to write But I know some questions and we can go up and download the panel But my first question is what have you been doing since this book has been published in 2021 and you'll be shocked They've been doing a lot of stuff I just actually a year to this day that I started production on a long American family drama And we filmed in Long Beach actually last November and we just finished editing it and it's in print right now So we just had our first kind of screening for it and and I hope it will be out in 2020 early 2023 for everyone But yeah, the film is called The Harvest and it's about a long American family. So that's kind of amazing What's coming up the biggest thing right now, I got invited back to Supermarket stakeout champion of champions around in February. So that's the biggest thing that's coming up for me and Also finalizing the script for my life for For Buena Vista, which is uh, Disney Thank you Okay, thank you guys You just dropped the mic right there I I did a I did a A film for the Smithsonian It was a part of their Revealed in Krishna exhibition in DC It was from it was part of the exhibition and they screened it from April to September You can see it online now. Um, so if you look up Sattu S A T O O K. It should be on their Smithsonian channel Other than that, I just uh, I had this opportunity Um from the Long Beach Symphony to do a show with them And if mark it on the calendar, so it's April 29th of next year And it's going to be at the Terence theater It's the largest theater in Long Beach and I was also told On the day of signing the contract to do a show with them I was told that I am the first rapper that they're working with In the history of the organization and they've been around for 88 years going on in on 89 Thank you Uh, yeah, so April 29th of next year and we're prepping up for it It's going to be with the just going to be with the master Ho Chan I got I got them out of retirement. They're going to be playing thin fit. I got master Chanery Ong out of retirement. He's going to be composing some new set piece Your daughter is going to be in she's going to be the vial in this In the the songs Um, and then I got Kaylee and Robert to uh make a behind the The scene making of the the film. I mean not the film the the show So at first she's like, no, I'm not going to do it. I won't do any more documentary Then I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to maybe sit your kids no more True story So then yeah, so that that's that um, but then otherwise I just kind of been traveling a little bit Hello, this was wonderful, my name is James Nash I'm on their arts council for the city of Long Beach. I'm on the board of directors and we We are making an appointment that our board get out in the community Because things have changed People have changed When I say that for the good your artist community here, it's just vibrant So I'm glad to be here. So that's all I wanted to say We're here the arts council Thank you so much and we're glad you're here and I think I want to just underline that You know for a long time I I was kind of I want to say I was embarrassed to be in Cambodia But I didn't even know what it meant and now I'm so proud of it And I come to Long Beach every chance that I get And if you follow me on social media, you see I always put hashtag I come to Long Beach to eat because I want to eat my way through the entire city Because in San Francisco, we don't have very much Cambodian food and there's so much good food here Including chats barbecue, which we ate a lot of yesterday Okay, does anyone else have a question? Yeah in the back. Oh, I'm sorry Well, I'll thank you. I could be loud. I'm just curious as to um Your selection in term of the Southeast Asia Conference why did you Yeah, what was the reason I didn't have a choice No, actually I lived in Hawaii for many years with my husband and then when the economy had a recession We left Hawaii and moved to Las Vegas and for a whole year I couldn't find a job an academic job But it's not like California where there's so many schools and community colleges and whatnot at art schools And in Nevada, there was really unlv And you and Reno in Nevada state and that's pretty much it There's a few others here and there but there really wasn't anything for someone who was a southeast asianist to do there So believe it or not. I actually got a call and I got an offer To work in the southeast asian studies center at Ohio University There was one of eight in the country and so I said don Can you watch the cat for a little while? So I can so I can go to Ohio and actually even though it was in the middle of nowhere It happened to have faculty who had traveled through indonesia through malaysia through singapore And it was a fantastic experience. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah, I think you need to revive it That's what I was saying earlier that it was really surprising to me that they came all the way to Ohio And they had to come into columbus and then drive all the way down to Athens through West virginia and whatnot and they were all willing to come because they really just wanted to share Their arts and and community and whatnot. So I'm really grateful for that and I saw somebody else Hold the crew I'm Sanha a partner of three kids And also a community volunteer. I volunteer all over the place So as the community member, Cambodian community member, I really proud of our community Rising the amnesty you can see So my question to our rising stars Because at the end of the day, we realized that there are two main factors that still challenging with our Cambodian community First, language area Second, the gap between the older and younger generation. So my question is how do you guys contribute to this Two main factors that we actually achieve every day Thank you Can we lose Shaq? Yeah, he went to prep for Oh, yeah I think I think um, well My contribution um, yes, I think with the language barrier and the generation gaps um You know me me and Kaylee we founded the Cambodia town film festival So if you've ever been there, you see kind of the result of that Where not just one generation comes out. You have three separate generations You have the kids the parents and the grandparents And they all come and they enjoy the film and they have a conversation about it. So that is probably My best way of contributing back to try to help um With the generation gap and also the stories being told Um, I don't you know, I don't know what else to Tell other people what to do or how to contribute But that is my way of contributing to it Yeah, um, I I go that I think that um, one of the biggest successes or the biggest thing We're really proud of with the Cambodian town film festivals is able to bring those three different Generations together and to kind of like bridge that gap and create conversations about Um history and why we are the way we are in our relationships with our parents our relationships with our grandparents and things like that um, but for me I When I first Interred into the Cambodian community and because I went to film school at Chapman University It felt like an island all by itself So I actually wasn't really part of a big part of the community until I made Paulina and then I kind of was like Wait, you know, I'm making this short film about the Cambodian community Yeah, I haven't had conversations with the people the Cambodian community within Long Beach because I'm from originally from Northern Virginia Um, so I just started to go to every single organization and volunteered for everything To kind of get to know the community. I'm trying to tell a story about And one of the things I learned as a volunteer And working with the older generations is that What they had done before was amazing because you know, they're preserving the culture. So now The next generation has to be the torchbearer, you know And and how do we do that and how do we build upon what they've created without In any way erasing it So that's kind of like the conversation I always have when we're in Meetings and I know the Cambodian Cultural center is something that we're talking about. Um, how are we going to make that? An idea that is formed with the older generation and the newer generation and merging those two ideas to make something that we can all be proud of Any questions I thought I saw somebody else's hand up And there's a there's a lot of talents in this room too. I mean we have Vanara and I saw filmmakers by the way Your their body of work like speaks about you like they kind of cross over to like international film like she edited Scooby-Doo or Batman Legos Yeah, so there's yeah, there's definitely a lot of talents in here I agree with that and I think we should have a kami art conference. Yes. Yes And I've got headliners here How are we on time? Are we good? Okay. I just want to say thank you to Eric and to Christina for having us I'm sure that the panelists will be happy to talk to you individually And we also have books for sale if you want to have them sign their chapters While chef is getting ready for his demonstration. So thank you so much again for coming and I look forward to getting to know more of you Thank you very very much. I just want to say thank you again to dr. Christine sue Kaylee so proch and chef tea So just hang tight in a couple minutes. We're going to go ahead and begin Chef tea is going to present a food demonstration. So just a couple minutes We're going to set up for that and yeah, it'll be really fun. I told you I was going to come back and do this Okay, so second book of the day. So this is called green Dr. Sue and I pursued this probably a year now and We wanted to do a pamphlet from a pamphlet to a brochure to a book a book to a mini book and now I don't know me 200 more pages coming in such sorts like that But uh, like I said earlier emails at 2am in the morning You know why wondering why I'm talking to And uh, she's here today. First time she's here to speak My parents will be here today the first time ever And I got all my in-laws here, too. Can't believe it. Uh, shout out to Ida C over there My parents stand on the chair My brother-in-laws here Shout out to a Gladstone Shout out to my CSS uh, the kids of Casting University Long Beach. Yeah, you see them back there. There you go These kids they're good parents So, uh, so I guess I'm gonna start my story now It's uh, so it's based on a cute story. That's why it's unique as it is Just begin as though with uh The depth of my sister I just start from there and then that that the whole thing changed my whole life because I was in I was in like games. I was in the dark path Right You know I live I live the life Where I wasn't proud of and uh I was a very terrible person And I hated myself but uh When my sister died It changed me so well So I started to become trying to be a better person and when I did Uh I actually became a really good person because they say that uh, if you're uh, if you were bad and you become good You become the best Okay, because everything I did was 100 so might as well do that right now So when I decided to feel good, you know, I gave everything 100 but you know, the journey was very hard and uh Once you get out of that lifestyle and start to begin and try to do something positive If one is harder than self and um number two the hardest thing that I ever had to overcome was um people don't believe it Especially your own family your own friends and they're here to they can they can witness and they can tell them themselves They're probably the first ones to say this this kids never gonna make But um, you know, I persevered, uh, let me see how up to uh, obviously in college for four years About two and a half hours each way so probably four hours a day And uh, you know every single day when I walk I say this story so many times. It's like you know when you guys ever walk in the rain, you know Nasty feeling of water, you know in your shoes. It feels man. It's just a disgusting feeling, you know But for me, it wasn't it was a water. It was like, uh, it was blood that it was blisters. That's from like The many days of walking, you know You know, you know bus rides don't bus fares But I walk I walk for four years I walk until I graduated with two degrees in culinary arts and Hospitality management and I was second in the nation in culinary arts student that year So, uh, yeah, yes You know, I grew up I grew up in uh, oakland, you know, um It was you know, oakland still pride to say right now, you know, that's not the reason why I'm a ravers fan But uh, like I said, you know, I used to be a very bad kid and uh, I was the type of person You know that steal your wallet and then hope you look for an hour later You know one of those guys though very nice thief You know, uh, and uh, let me see, um, so So I started this journey of being a chef when I was four years old and my parents they they could tell you Um, I used to go to the fridge and just everything they have I probably took it all out Just started looking at everything at a very young age At one point they even had a sign up don't touch the food no more They said don't touch the food don't worry It said they both letters Because I always even wasn't I wasn't even hungry. I could and this is when I was four and five years old I nearly earned a house down You know one day I was tearing off some steaks and making me some eggs and I think I was four or five I watched them light the lighter off the stove, you know, you can't light it up Because I was wondering why they make this sign I'm like, how do you get past that man? This is complicated. Then I saw my grandma use a match And then they hid the match and then I I was peeking and then when they slept they like around one I put my little steps And uh, I I turned on the stove and started cooking my steak. It was perfect. The only thing wasn't perfect was the house Um Yeah, so I burned like the kitchen down. I went I went to the living room and watched Sesame Street fell asleep. So Yeah, you know Kermit the Frog, you know And the Muppets and all that they were, you know, Sesame Street and then Yan can cook, you know, that's all I woke up to just, you know, trying to make a dish just like yeah Back in the day, if you got no youtube, you know, you got you got nothing If you wanted to cook you have to go read a cookbook So I did it the hard way now. I wish I was going to come to our school right now. I was like right here I don't need to teach it. Don't want but yeah, it was it was difficult. Um, so but the most difficult challenge is our believing in yourself and others believing in you those are the two things that I have to overcome and uh, the journey that I I came, uh, you know upon is one of the journeys that Not just the hardest, but as an inspirational story because I want I want to help out the community so much because I've never got that, you know, that help that I wanted So that's why I'm always volunteer helping. I don't take a dollar because of a reason because I imagine myself back then And I wanted to know that's why, you know this uh That's why, you know the community means so much to me and can't probably tell me a lot because you guys are my family, you know, I The depths of my heart for our community is the depth but everything in family and uh I believe that um ever since because my mom and dad they always believed me. They taught me the right way my mom that's right here They used to So um a saturday sunday, uh, you know cartoons. We didn't get to watch it, you know at the time I was very mad Damn, this guy don't let me watch my x-men You know and this spider-man comes right after that into power rangers like damn. I miss power rangers again But uh, he would he would turn our tv off and then he would start Oh, we get that for like three hours. And then finally when you know, I was me and my brother's like Oh, let's go turn the tv back on now soap opera You know, like the whole day and went by I miss all my cartoons. So growing up we kind of like oh, man he's doing this to us but Soon as high school started to come around, you know, I started to realize Wait, this is actually a good thing because not a lot of people know I'm I blew it in Cambodia and I could read I'm right. I can speak Where's my css students at? Hey Here it is so, uh, this book meant a lot to me and this new chapter because of Two people in my life right now one man most important thing in my life and She knows this too. It's my son Phoenix. I'm aware that he's so bad So bad he reminds me of me Like like, uh, let me see the other I used to my dad told me when I was young I would not stop trying to touch the fire No, I kept on doing it and doing it Then one day my dad was like, you know what? I'm tired of this. Just love touch the fire I touched the fire and I've never touched it again See these are reasons why I became a chef I was always around fire. But anyways, my son is similar to me all those aspects and uh, second person, of course, my wife And uh Becky, you know, she's the reason why this story is uh the way it is And uh, she inspired me while, you know, talking to dr. Terry about a woman Well talking to dr. Terry every night. So, uh, she inspired me to be the person I am right now You know In life, you're gonna meet people that propelled you to their next level. I got to You know, I I got I got a success for a guy But then I couldn't get over the hope of something else and that's You know, loving my inner self. So she taught me that she taught me how to love myself all over again She taught me how to rise And she taught me how to be a better husband and to be a better dad And for that, I want this book not only to be for today. I want this to be something for us for the entire lifetime, I love you um, and thank you everybody for being here. I'm gonna do my, uh Demonstration soon. I take my parents This is the first time I'm in here and it means a lot to me. So I got even more emotional this time because of that I didn't get into the gangs and stuff too much. But uh, you guys already know of the bad boy, so But thank you guys. So we're gonna start demonstrating some stuff and then hopefully you guys can stay You know get some more books signed and I hope you guys Try all the advertisers that uh, Gladstone's donated today. Well, actually I would I uh, You know, we cooked this and you know, we decided to like try to make something a little different and Taste a little bit fine dining, but it you know, like always I try to be too much and then get swapped over something You know always try to make something a little pretty, but um, I'm glad you guys are here. So let's get this going Yeah, I just start by the greens. I don't know if I can cut uh in this because there's electricity There's no fire guys. I'm not gonna hurt myself ever with this. I wish I could have had this when I was four So I'm just gonna kind of like uh Tell you what it is. Most Cambodians know what they are already. So this is lemongrass, you know It's like gradient climbing And I got shallots and garlic Right here. I read that place. They're very beautiful. So I got galanga And I got like a lot of leaves over here. So usually Nowadays I see kids throw this is a blender So you see this you see this puree and uh, the consistency is different It was made it was made to be, you know, in a You know a mortar and pestle. So we It can give you the sense of the grain of Cambodia because The more you use these stuff, the more the flavor goes in and the more the history comes out in your food So clear means ingredients and recipes. So that's why we decided to go with that Ingredients and recipes not just for the book, but ingredients and recipes for life And that's why we went with that word and uh Dr. Sue want me to demonstrate I'm just gonna show you um I After you put it in Yeah It becomes uh, it becomes a paste this paste is used in Cambodia. There's were a lot of things, you know, uh, or So called you got is used in Even for like chicken saute. It's used in curries. It's used throughout and uh, besides besides green Bahá'uq is used quite often as well. I'm glad we didn't go with the word Bahá'uq Now we're in the different book. Yeah Yeah, you can smell the stink on the book right away Like man, this book's thinking But I just uh, I'm just glad you guys are all here. It's so hard for me to demonstrate I can just see right now. It's not gonna work. But I want you guys to uh, uh Know that is you guys are my crew right now. You guys are ingredients that made this all happen So, um, I want to send it back to dr. Terry. I don't know what she wants to do after this, but Okay, okay, so basically you put all your degrees in here, okay Mostly for people that never used this before. What's up, Luis? How you doing? So you just put it in and you just won't this is called won't so A lot of people that don't know the word Okay, guys, so you just go at it just like that until it becomes this Nice taste right here. So you cut it up or whatnot and you just go you just go to town with it Like a lot of uh, uh, Cambodians Thai Laos Burmese Miramar and all that we use a lot of these because uh, you know southeast agents of our Technology even in a culinary world back in the days wasn't as advanced as everybody else and That's why our food is more salty and fermented because of our refrigeration and understanding So that's why I'm actually proud of the ingredients of life that Was produced by them and because that shows us where we came from our rich history and culinary and basically now I see people put in a blender and You know, it's it's it passed it passed But everybody here knows all the Cambodians know the best way is to actually just get pound it out. That's it and and uh, and The the best thing about it is When you when you do that, you know, it's just it says I see my grandma, you know, I see my mom and gives you history and reminds you of memories of the past and Generations passed down because as you know, a lot of our a lot of our kids the language is not there no more It's like it's not it's about to fade away And the only thing that's passed down Is culinary it's food even though If a Cambodian does not know how to say one word In quiet, he does know how to eat all the quiet food in the world And he knows what it's a lot to go with You know, even though he don't know how to say bye yet You know, but um, that's what food is food passes down You know generations to generation And food is language and it's language of love and um, I'm so glad that you guys are over here I'm so excited mostly for uh, my relationship with uh, dr. Sue dr. Christine sue and we have a lot of projects coming up She tells me a lot not to say too much things, but me, you know, I got a big mouth Yeah, my wife tells me the same thing not to say too much, but I always like to you know, say good news So, um, I want you guys all to know I got invited back to a supermarket steak out For the second time. I would be going off nowhere third Yeah Actually Also, so Yeah, so but it's okay, you know, and uh, also the biggest project so far that I won't be having is uh, You know, I had an audition with uh, disney last year About my life. So I went into the studio, you know, just sat and just rambled all day about it And you know, they they didn't say anything. They said it was a great interview and about a year later And they called me back and they said, uh We love your we love your story so much. We got we got to make a non g or pg-13 Script we got it. We got to put all the darkness in because I was a little skeptical when disney's gonna handle this how are you gonna handle it if If um, I I curse every second and if the movie is so nice, that's not me Yeah, so every every every minute. I'm gonna drop an f-bomb. So So I I I decided like, you know what? It's not true. We're not gonna do it But uh, they they called me back and they said well, let's go forward with it and um, so far, uh, that's where we at right now And uh, we're starting to write the script soon and that's my biggest, uh, that's my biggest thing yet to tell I could hear my son crying in the background Yeah, so thank you everybody for coming out. Thank you everybody all my friends for every different place I want to thank all my culinary brothers. I know, uh Chef chaps stepped out already, but he came to show love. That was a lot of love. Dr. Terry. Thank you Terry Henry, you're still here and John. Thank you. Louise Thank you, man. My mom and dad and all my family and all my friends at CSS Thank you guys. I love you guys so much I still have books and if you want to support chef tea and learn how to make food They are not sure where they are. They're somewhere In the bathroom, okay great And he'll be happy to sign them for you And just if you haven't seen the book the structure of the book is really neat. It's not just recipes. It's actually Woe and throughout the story of his life. So I think you'll really enjoy Thank you all for coming and Eric if you want to