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The Bookrenter of Battambang and the Master of Uselessness

2021; University of Hawaii Press; Volume: 34; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/man.2021.0067

1527-943X

Rinith Taing,

Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

The Bookrenter of Battambang and the Master of Uselessness Rinith Taing (bio) the bookrenter of battambang On a blustery evening in October 2017, my fellow journalist Alessandro Marazzi-Sassoon and I were on our way to Battambang province, which borders on Thailand in the northwest. We were two young and enthusiastic reporters from the Phnom Penh Post hoping to write a feature about why the province has produced so many of the country's most famous artists. The golden-age singer Ros Sereysothea, writer and poet Kong Bunchhoeun, master mason Tan Veut, painter and writer Vann Nath, and more recently the acclaimed sculptor Sopheap Pich were all from Battambang. Even the legendary Sinn Sisamouth, known as the Elvis of Cambodia, made Battambang his home, composing countless songs that mentioned the province and its artists. His famous love song "Champa of Battambang" personifies the city as a beautiful woman to whom he longs to return, and has come to be regarded as expressing nostalgia for all of Cambodia. While we were searching, we were also hoping to find any material from which we could develop an additional feature; we couldn't justify having asked our editor for three days in Battambang if we returned with only one story. This was my first trip to the province, and even though I grew up in Cambodia, I did not know much about it; Alessandro knew even less. So we decided to leave everything to chance, rented two motorcycles, and set off in search of an interesting story. As we were drove along the southern side of Battambang's Phsa Nat Market, I spotted among the many cafés, pubs, and shops, which were mostly selling souvenirs, an odd hole-in-the-wall storefront. Above the door was an iron statue depicting an aspsara, a Hindu female spirit of the clouds and waters, like those carved in bas-relief at Angkor Wat. Below it was a sign: grandpa apsara—book rental service. We went inside and saw a shop that was dusty with age, but the shelves of old books, some yellow with age, were well organized and clean. The owner of the shop, Tran Sab, is seventy-nine years old, small in stature, and has a hairless head and hands covered with paper cuts. While we were [End Page 249] waiting to talk to him, we overheard him lecturing a young woman who had come into his shop searching for a translation of a Korean novel. "When you read Korean novels, you are supporting Korean writers," he admonished her. "When you read Khmer novels, you are supporting writers with your same Khmer blood." After greeting us, he told me that his eyes were now too bad for reading, but he still took pleasure in helping other people enjoy books—especially people who could not afford to buy them. In any case, compared to what happened to him about forty years ago, the loss of his ability to read is not the worst calamity in his life. ________ Sab was born in Kampuchea Krom, an area that was long part of Cambodia before falling under Vietnamese control, a change formalized by the French in 1949. He has always been proud and protective of his Khmer identity and culture, especially Khmer literature. In 1958, soon after coming to Cambodia, he enrolled in Phnom Penh Municipal Pedagogy School, hoping to become a primary-school teacher. There, he met Khieu Samphan, who at that time was on the law faculty of the University of Phnom Penh. Samphan would later become one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge. After the regime fell, Samphan was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison—all the time denying that he knew anything about the atrocities committed during the genocide. At present, Samphan is still appealing his sentence. Nevertheless, looking back, Sab said, "I found Khieu Samphan to be a good, articulate person; he helped me become a communist." While in school in Phnom Penh, Sab participated in demonstrations and protests. He even claims he was one of the leaders in the famous attack on the U.S. embassy by a mob of 20,000...