A Beautiful Play: Cambodian Rock Band
Today, I read the script for Cambodian Rock Band (linked) by Lauren Yee, and it may be my new favorite play. The entire play revolves around a Cambodian immigrant, Chum, and his experience under Pol Pot. It’s filled with happiness, anger, sadness, and nostalgia, all paired alongside an incredible Cambodian-style rock’n’roll soundtrack.
(Cambodian Rock Band at Signature Theater)
To start, the music in it of itself was phenomenal. I read the entire play while listening to the soundtrack, and every single song almost seemed to have a mind of its own! There were slower songs, more tense songs, but also very happy and upbeat ones. Each song also fit the mood and tone of whichever scene it was in. At the very start of the play, a character, Duch, says “music is the soul of Cambodia.” He further explains that while people nowadays generalize the beautiful country as one with a history of genocide and dictatorship, music is something almost sacred to the country; and this play is a testament to that.
To be honest, I feel like music is something almost underrated in many Asian cultures. Of course, that’s not always true, with Bollywood music and K-Pop being incredibly popular examples. However, I also know that much of traditional Asian music strays far away from typical pop music in the Western world and sometimes can be seen as strange or weird. For example, as a Chinese-American, I always feel like traditional Chinese music is always overlooked, and if some songs ever come under the spotlight of American social media, they sometimes become a target of mockery (With the song Xue Hua Piao Piao being a good example). To this extent, I, alongside many other Asian Americans, have to grapple between being proud of our heritage and conserving cultural art versus conforming to the Western standard of music and performance.
This play does it perfectly, showcasing the almost hidden beauty of Cambodian music and making it the center of the play. So, what are your thoughts on your own relationship with music? What do you think music’s relationship is like with your own culture, and what do you think it should be?
Another large theme this play talks about is trauma and what immigrant parents do to “save” or even “protect” the next generation. Many Asian immigrants have fled from war or terror in their home countries to come to the US, and many more escaped famine and poverty to seek the supposed American Dream of success overseas. I know many immigrant parents resort to simply not talking about their past so that their kids won’t have to know the pain that they went through to reach safety in America. In the case of this play, Chum has a Cambodian-American daughter, Neary, who he raises to be as American as possible to save her from his trauma from first-hand experience with the Khmer Rouge. Neary simply doesn’t know of her father’s past, believing he was just a simple rice farmer far away from any violence. However, she is completely wrong, and the two of them navigate Chum’s past to truly understand the reality of Chum’s life.
Personally, I can relate a lot to Neary since I know almost nothing about my grandparents’ lives. I even teared up at some points, both from the emotional value of the play but also the relatability of it. I know that my grandparents most likely came into contact with members of the Communist Party during the revolution, but I know nothing deeper than the surface level. In some ways, I am grateful that they’re protecting me from truly understanding the violence they probably encountered, but I also want to know more about my own family history.
Do you also have similar instances of either hiding or being hidden from certain trauma? Obviously, this information-hiding isn’t an immigrant-exclusive experience, but how do you think being Asian ties into all of it?
With that, I totally recommend reading this play since I think it was an amazing read. If you don’t have the time to, I also recommend listening to the amazing soundtrack!