Melancholy love song big hit in Cambodia 4 yrs on

Date: 18 Apr 2003 00:57:19 GMT
Newsgroups: soc.culture.cambodia
Size: 3,251 bytes

FEATURE: Melancholy love song big hit in Cambodia 4 yrs on
.c Kyodo News Service
PHNOM PENH, April 18 (Kyodo) - By: Chikamasa Sato A melancholy Cambodian love
song continues to tug at the heart strings of the nation more than four years
after it first went on sale.
The song describes a ferryboat captain who has a crush on a girl he carried on
his boat but who now laments that she will never come back because the bridge
over the Tonle Basak River has been rebuilt -- with a Japanese grant.
Sale of the song on compact disc have totaled an ''unprecedented'' 12,000 in a
country where it is considered a big hit if 5,000 CDs are sold.
The song has captured the hearts of Cambodians in its depiction of the feelings
of ordinary people who have tended to be left behind during the reconstruction
of the country in the decade since the end of the civil war.
''My heart trembled every time I saw you,'' the song goes on to say. ''But my
lovely girl now crosses the bridge. How can I forget that flower that used to
shuttle across the river by boat?''
The song has been very popular since it first went on sale in 1998. Cambodians
used to sing the song every day in karaoke bars in Phnom Penh before Prime
Minister Hun Sen recently closed them, saying that they were the ''hotbeds of
prostitution and drugs.''
Video discs (DVDs) in which Cambodian singer Leng Buna, who recorded the song,
appears as the ferryboat skipper continue to sell and the song can be heard on
the radio every day.
The bridge in the song is Chroy Changva, a 700-meter stretch across the Tonle
Basak River in Phnom Penh. It was destroyed in a battle in 1972 and remained
abandoned until it was restored in 1994 with Japanese grant aid.
Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk renamed it the ''Cambodia-Japan Friendship
Bridge'' and it is now a celebrated spot in Phnom Penh.
The song also includes a line that says, ''I was able to ferry the flower while
the bridge was under destroyed. But she turned her back on the poor ferryboat
skipper once the bridge connected'' both sides of the river.
When the song became a big hit it caused something of an uproar, with many
Cambodians saying it was ''impolite to Japan'' which had assisted the country,
and a senior government official criticized the song's lyrics on the radio.
San Akara, who wrote the lyrics and the music, said, ''I didn't have any
intention whatsoever of criticizing the (Japanese) assistance.''
The 51-year-old haberdasher said his motive was to create original Cambodian
music since all the songs popular at the time were foreign.
''Phnom Penh is changing rapidly,'' he said. ''Reconstruction and development
are good but I want to cherish old things.''
Tien Dee, president of Golden CD Music that produced the video for the song,
said, ''The secret to the popularity of the song is that it realistically
portrays poor people.''
He said he plans to produce a new version of the video and market it soon.
04/17/03 20:45 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Kyodo News Service. The information contained in the Kyodo
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed
without the prior written authority of The Kyodo News Service. All active
hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.