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Welcome to my blog, Southeast Asia is comprised of 11 countries including Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Despite different languages, many Southeast Asian countries share similar cultures and traditions that can be hardly distinguished in foreign perspectives. Therefore, in this blog, I'm going to show some of my works on Southeast Asian cultures and traditions that are being shown in films.
Under the title is my content, you can either click on those contents to view my works or you can one-time scroll down to do so since it is more convenient for mobile users.
Besides my blog, you can also check out my friend's blog:
. Ra Panharatanak: https://2019026ra.wixsite.com/filmliteratureblog
. Chanraksmey: https://chanraksmeyveal.wixsite.com/filmandliteraturehub
. Seng Chutema: https://2019118seng.wixsite.com/southeast-asian
. Ly Vychormpichda: https://2020079ly.wixsite.com/midterm-blog
My presentation on Films
First they kill my father
For my presentation on first they killed my father, we are discussing about the tragic history that happened in Cambodia. In the movie, there 3 major course themes which are religion, arm-conflict and nationalism. In fact, I believe the movie is really crucial in term of reminding the viewers around the word about how the catastrophic the event is that caused Cambodia to spiral. Moreover, the film also illustrates many cultural and traditional aspects like the dancing, religious and traditional clothing that gives the world a glimpse into Khmer customs before and after the war.
Mae Nak
In term of culture and religion, Cambodia has a really major belief in supernatural entities likes gods, spirits, ghost, toyol, preta, etc. These entities are believed to come from human depends on their deeds on they pass away. For example, according to Buddhism, people who keep committing crimes are believed to becomes preta which is a supernatural being that is constantly hungry and thirsty as a punishment for their bad deeds when they were alive. Nonetheless, ghost is also believed to be vengeful spirit that is hugely believed Southeast Asia as well. For this matter, we presented about a film called Mae Nak whose legend has been passed down for generations and generations for her undying love. Furthermore, the film also displays many similar cultural and traditional aspects between Thailand and Cambodia that are still being implemented today.
Dialogue
Religion is one of the biggest factors that keep the world in order. Nonetheless, religion has a really huge impact especially in Southeast Asia. To describe how impactful it is, I chose to present about the origin of Buddhism and how it inspired to create many cultures, tradition, etc. For example, in Cambodia, Buddhism plays a really big role since ancient time to the point that most of Cambodian cultures are religion related like Khmer new year and Pchum Ben events where everyone would go to pagoda to celebrate while simultaneously also sends prayers to their ancestors. Therefore, religion is worth discussing about when it comes to Southeast Asia literature.
Interview
In this interview, we are talking about one of the most famous khmer literature called Tum Teav. The story is a love story that revived a controversial Cambodian proverb that says the cake is never bigger than the basket meaning that the daughters won’t be able to find a good husband without the help of their mothers. Back in the days most marriage were arranged by the parents rather than the individual choice which means that sometimes women were forced to marry someone that they didn’t love for the rest of their lives . Moreover, the story of Tum Teav is about defying that orders for their own love’s sake which may sound similar to English literature called Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
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