Ancient Angkor image use in present day Media.
Angkor warrior, known in the Cambodian community as the
artist or future protector of the Khmer Art culture, funny part; I was the first
ever Cambodian American to take a photograph of a male “Khmer” figure of
an ancient look to display the power and strength of the hidden warrior of
Angkor. The male would be me, a self-portrait.. I wanted to let everyone know
in my time Cambodian or not, my culture is very strong and stays within each
Khmer if he or she chooses to represent it. Khmer Pride is not enough, having
the soul connect into your vein and building an image to stay strong by the
force of ancient time.
After the Khmer rouge power was over, many Cambodian
flew to the US learning and adopting into a new culture. Each generation lost
their roots or some-type of Khmer background and feel ashamed of their traditional
culture because of power in the media. But when time gets older, the young generation
becomes an adult and trying to find their identity. I know we live in a society where we need income but in my heart and soul I make sure to show my pride as a
Khmer.
By looking at the photograph on the right, I put “Hi I am
1000+ years old” his hair is braided, because this look show the power of a
human and style in a human, nowadays “Hip-hop artist” has use this for the
image of a Gangsta or a rapper. Because is a power of a male figure. The photograph
on the right has all type of craft of art that show and represent the image of
a human with strength. I wanted to let people know the media control the image
of a race but in history of walls or stone show the power of their kind. I put my
photography on the left because I wanted to show the strength and power of a
real warrior. Braided, Khmer outfit, with a 200+ year old sword I got as a gift
from Cambodia. The Media now, is using ancient image to display the power of
human, but do not give credit to the ancient people But why use it in Hip-hop
in the 90’s? As a figure of gangsta or betray as thugs? I will never know why,
but my goal is to show the real hidden image of this hair-style to the real
power of a warrior. I got a lot of feed-back as a “handsome strong warrior male figure”. We can also talk about rap, "A lyrical system for the voice with a
high speeding vocal that Rhymes, this is what the ancient and present monk use
to talk into the meditation world". The reason why I adapted well in this both
field because I was raise in the ghetto of Oakland, California, loving rap and
the hip-hop scenes I relate well with both Hip-hop and the Khmer culture. But now
my generation uses the lyrical voice by saying and targeting people with “bitch,
slut, and shoot” in the media now and the fashion world of Hip-hop is to show
the “hood-life” where Police can stereotype a person to get pull-over compare
to a person in a Expressmen suit..
This is why I got to show the positive image of this power
of a human from the ancient history of Cambodia that the media uses for the
90s-2012. Hip-hop was created in the 80s with positive words and fashion to breakdance, but
selling it to the media; media made it evil for the hip-hop community to feed with income. People say the Ancient Kingdom of Angkor is long gone of power, but being educated in the mind and strong in the heart, the Khmer community can become strong again. Don't let the media weaken the image of Angkor in the US or around the world. Look at the Jewish community, came into America being hated on, but never gave up on education and invest within the community now own of the media in Hollywood + banks + FACEBOOK ! haha :)
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