22 Facts About Chheng Phon

Chheng Phon, was born in 1930 in the Kompong Cham province and died on December 22,2016, was a Cambodian artist who served as Minister of Information and Culture in the early 1990s, who is remembered as a "prominent dramatist and professor of Cambodia" as well as a "visionary of formidable knowledge, dedication, and energy" who has devoted a lifetime to preserving and nurturing Cambodian culture.

Chheng Phon was born in 1930 in the Kompong Cham province.

Chheng Phon studied to become a teacher in 1955, and received a scholarship to pursue his studies in China which he completed in 1960, returning to Cambodia, not without difficulty, as his relationship with Sihanouk become more tense.

Chheng Phon then started working at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh where he founded the Khmer Folklore Troupe in 1964 in order to fight against what he considered "rampant pessimism" in the field of culture in Cambodia.

Chheng Phon become a full-fledged professor at the university in 1968.

In 1972, Chheng Phon became the President of the Khmer Artists' Association.

Chheng Phon tried to develop an Artist Village intended to showcase the customs and traditions of Cambodia, through handicrafts, dance and music, but the idea fell short because of the war.

Actor, poet, and director Pich Tum Krovil and Chheng Phon were among the cultural stars who miraculously survived and now dedicated the rest of their lives to resuscitating their cherished traditions of dance.

In 1981, Chheng Phon was named director of the School of Fine Arts which he reopened in Phnom Penh, as a place where he could gather the artists scattered across the country and train a new generation of dancers.

In 1981, Chheng Pon was appointed Deputy Minister of the People's Republic of Kampuchea, thus becoming "the first person without any revolutionary or definite communist background to be appointed to a party leadership position".

Professor Chheng Phon reopened the University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, the former Royal University of Fine Arts, in 1989 to promote the preservation of both tangible and intangible cultural assets of Cambodia.

Chheng Phon retired from most of his political affairs in 1992 and used his own money to establish the Center for Culture and Vipassana at his home in the suburbs of Phnom Penh, in a place that was originally, in the late 1980s, a place for artists to study meditation in relation to performance.

Chheng Phon travelled to California in 1993 to meet former students who had sought asylum in the United States.

Nevertheless, his neutrality was appreciated in the election process, even by international observers such as Human Rights Watch as well as the Asian Network for Free Elections, which acknowledged that Chheng Phon actively helped deploy a network of independent observers during the election cycle.

Chheng Phon died on December 22,2016, in Ta Khmau in Kandal province at the age of 86.

Chheng Phon wanted horse-drawn carts as taxis and no airport close to the archeological site.

Chheng Phon had an ambitious vision for the restoration of national monuments of Cambodia:.

Chheng Phon was a representative playwright of Cambodia and a professor of the study of ancient Khmer art.

Chheng Phon contributed to the restoration of traditional culture in villages that were destroyed during the Khmer Civil War.

Chheng Phon dedicated his life after the Civil War to the training of specialists who would devote themselves to the restoration of cultural property and was especially well known for assembling the artists and performers who survived the Khmer Rouge.

Chheng Phon is survived by two sons, who are filmmakers.

Chheng Phon was the mentor to a whole generation of Khmer artists, such as Pech Tum Kravil who considered Phon as his "mentor".