On Cambodge

Fascinating work on the emergence of Cambodian (or more precisely, Khmer) nationalism during the colonial period. Essentially, Penny Edwards is a constructivist, but her real contribution is that Khmer nationalism did not emerge in the journals of anticolonial thinkers, but through the French colonial administration. Above all, Edwards argues that, when the French came, they recognized Angkor Wat as the architecture of a powerful civilization and imagined what the Khmer people must have been like in this period. In doing so, these colonizers articulated an “ideal type” of what the Khmer people should be, which was taken up in anticolonial newspapers and—after the end of colonial rule—the Cambodian state. I imagine that this is a controversial argument, but I’m not familiar enough with the other literature on Cambodia to know what others have to say about this.

However—given the emphasis on an ideal golden age that Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea looked to revive through revolution, I wonder if the Khmer Rouge would better be characterized as fascist, rather than Communist. I don’t have any answers, just more questions, so I guess I’ll just have to read more!