Post/colonial Discourses on the Cambodian Court Dance(<Special Issue>New Japanese Scholarship in Cambodian Studies)

Abstract

Under the reign of King Ang Duong in the middle of nineteenth century, Cambodia was underthe influence of Siamese culture. Although Cambodia was colonized by France in 1863, the royaltroupe of the dance still performed Siamese repertoires.It was not until the cession of the Angkor monuments from Siam in 1907 that Angkor beganto play a central role in French colonial discourse. George Groslier's works inter alia wereinstrumental in historicizing the court dance as a "tradition" handed down from the Angkoreanera. Groslier appealed to the colonial authorities for the protection of this "tradition" which hadallegedly been on the "decline" owing to the influence of French culture. In the latter half of the1920s the Resident Superieur au Cambodge temporarily succeeded in transferring the royal troupeto Groslier's control.In the 1930s members of the royal family set out to reconstruct the troupe, and the Ministerof Palace named Thiounn wrote a book in which he described the court dance as Angkorean"tradition." His book can be considered to be an attempt to appropriate colonial discourse and toconstruct a new narrative for the Khmers.After independence in 1953 French colonial discourse on Angkor was incorporated into Cambodiannationalism. While new repertoires such as Apsara Dance, modeled on the relief of themonuments, were created, the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh reprinted Thiounn's book.Though the civil war was prolonged for 20 years and the Pol Pot regime rejected Cambodian culturewith the exception of the Angkor monuments, French colonial discourse is still alive in Cambodiatoday. The dance has not ceased to be presented as "tradition" through the media.