A New Sun Rises Over the Old Land

A Novel of Sihanouk’s Cambodia

Suon Sorin, Roger Nelson

• Publisher: National University of Singapore Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9789813250772
• eBook ISBN: 9789813251298
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: History

This is the story of Sam, a young man who leaves the countryside for the big city to work as a cyclo driver, piloting his three-wheeled bicycle taxi through busy streets. Sam just wants to earn an honest wage, but he is constantly thwarted by those with money: his landlord, factory bosses, politicians, even the woman who rents him his cyclo. The city takes its toll, and Sam's humanity is denied him at every turn, leading to the devastation of his small family and his surrender to temptation. But a dramatic change to Sam's fortunes is heralded by the country's liberation from colonial rule. Sam returns to the countryside to discover that "the life of the peasants that had been filled with suffering and decline, was filled with a fresh joy and happiness, and a new hope."

First published in 1961, eight years after Cambodia gained independence from French colonial rule, A New Sun Rises Over the Old Land is an iconic work of modern Khmer literature, a singularly illuminating document of the new nation. This is one of the first English translations of a modern Khmer novel, and the text is accompanied by an extended introduction that situates the author in his historical and artistic context and examines the novel's literary value.

Chapter 1

The Family Line of Pitiful Farmers

The family line of Suon Sam is one of simple peasants. His ancestors on both the paternal and maternal sides were all rice farmers: rice farmers who only knew how to tend to the crops in the paddies. They are most deserving indeed of esteem and celebration, as the sowers of the seeds that feed the whole nation—but what farmer ever received such an honour? For rice farmers are the poorest of the poor, dressed in torn rags, without any education. During the colonial era, most rice farmers were looked down upon, disrespected and abused by the powerful and wealthy all across the countryside. And this continues today, because of the lingering remains of that colonialism. Whenever anyone is unhappy with someone, they invariably curse and call them a “damned farmer!” And besides that, farmers have sunk to being like slaves serving the capitalists or foreigners: people who are very cunning in the field of commerce.

Suon Sam is the only son of Mr Suon Sok and Mrs San, in the Bavel commune of the Sangker district, in Battambang province. In 1959, Suon Sok, Sam’s father, was accused of being involved with the Khmer Issarak rebels.² French soldiers captured him, and took him to be tortured in Sdok Ach Romeas. Then they murdered him there, leaving Mrs San a poor widow. At the time Sam was still a student, only in the sixth grade. He bid farewell to the classroom, that place for soaking up all kinds of knowledge and wisdom, and returned to work instead, to help his widowed mother.

One year later, the Issarak rebels suspected that Sam had become involved with the French. This terrified him, and made him very worried. He was forced to farewell his mother, who he loved as much as life itself, and journey to Battambang City, to escape from the Issaraks.

But that was a year of the most terrible misfortune for Sam: just four days after they separated, his mother died from a sudden illness. Sam returned to his hometown, to oversee her funeral. After the ceremony was completed, Sam—a cursed bachelor, who had just turned eighteen years old—resolved to make the journey to Phnom Penh, in search of work in the capital.

Sam had only one set of clothes left. He asked for a place to sleep with a monk in the Wat Mahamontrey temple.³ A monk named Sav had offered his support, bringing Sam to work as a labourer in a trading business. He earned just fifteen riels a day.

This was the first time in his life that Sam had earned a salary. He had always thought that his future would be one of happiness and health. But as it turned out, everyone from the bosses to the sales agents who worked in the trading business looked down on Sam. It got to the point where he couldn’t bear to work there any longer. The boss would curse Sam’s mother and father if he was even just a tiny bit slow or late, or if he displeased them in any other way. Clerks would swear at Sam and call him names, making him feel totally belittled.

Sam had always believed that he should never stoop to become a slave to money, and that he should always maintain his humanity, and be equal to any other person. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt defeated. Poor people can never win! Conflicts in the age of French colonialism were so filled with horrific injustice. There was nothing more for Sam to do than to stop working in the trading business.

After that, he searched hard for another job. He tried asking for work in some government trading offices, but everywhere he went, the supervisors spoke harshly and cruelly to Sam. He couldn’t bear their rude words, and so he often changed his place of work. He pitied his fellow workers, who had stooped to be the slaves of money! Workers who were sworn at and cursed, and who were looked down on in every way, no different from animals. Sam’s life took him to various other jobs … and finally, he fell into work as a cyclo driver.⁴

After that, Sam no longer slept at the temple, because he had a wife. Before they married, Soy, his wife, had worked as a servant for a capitalist. At Sam’s suggestion, he and his poor wife rented a small hut, near the Psar Suon Thmei market.⁵ It was the kind of place for workers who live hand to mouth, working in the morning in order to eat in the evening. As a cyclo driver, Sam had to pay a fee to the cyclo owner to rent the vehicle: it was thirty riels, every day.

Sam was the very poorest of the poor. On some days, he earned only enough money to pay the rental fee for the cyclo, and nothing more. Sam and his wife would go without eating in order to pay the rental fee, because the cyclo owner was the strictest of them all. She always gave the cyclo drivers a hard time, even if they did have the money to pay her. And any worker who didn’t pay the fee, even just for one day, had to return the cyclo immediately, and had no hope of ever renting it again. It was always like this, because the capitalist cyclo owner had no pity for the workers at all.

Chapter 2

The Life of a Worker in the City

In the middle of the monsoon season, the rain falls heavily, saturating the land almost every day. This makes it hard for cyclo drivers to earn any income, since there aren’t many passengers. Sam had to use some of the money that he had saved to pay the rental fee for his cyclo—the cyclo that would soon wear him out completely.

The sky had been darkened with rain for three days already; it rained almost without stopping.

And this morning was soaked with rain again. Sam sat in their little hut, his arms wrapped around his knees. He was worried about his poor wife, Soy. There was nothing at all of any value in the hut, just a mat for the floor, a pillow, and an old mosquito net. The cyclo was parked in front. Sam’s face was dark with worry. He hadn’t been able to pay the rental fee yesterday. He wondered what they could do if the cyclo owner came to take away his vehicle…. It would be very difficult to find someone else to rent a cyclo from, because he would need a guarantor, and money for a deposit, too.

“What else can we do, Soy?” Sam asked his wife, sadly. “Perhaps you think I’m lazy, and stopped driving the cyclo just to enjoy myself ? But I promise, I’ve been working so hard, hardly even stopping for a break, but there have been no passengers at all. And if the rain continues like this, there will still be no passengers, since people don’t really go out in this weather.”

Soy was a beautiful-looking woman. She was around seventeen years old, with a pretty, pale complexion and a good figure. She was a well-liked, quiet woman who didn’t talk much, but was always honest with her husband.

Sam’s words made Soy very upset. “No, my dear!” she replied. “I never think that you’re lazy. Driving a cyclo is a risky job, and it’s just bad luck to have no passengers! Today, you need to earn at least sixty riels to be able to pay the rental fee. You should hurry! If the madam who owns the cyclo comes, I’ll lie and tell her that you’ve been unwell since yesterday, and couldn’t take the rental fee to her. Please, my dear, hurry off!”

“Let’s see how it goes today,” Sam answered with a long sigh. “If I can’t earn sixty riels, the madam owner will take the cyclo back for sure. And perhaps you and I will die from hunger, who knows?”

Soy sighed, and looked pityingly at her husband’s face. “Give it a try, my dear. Maybe today you’ll have better luck.”

Sam smiled at his wife, and answered, “Yes, I’ll go now, darling. I’ve done nothing but sit here while the rain falls, and it’s almost noon already. If I come back a bit late tonight, please don’t worry about me, okay?” He stood and walked out of the hut.

Sam drove away in the cyclo as the rain fell. Whenever there was heavy rain, the road in front of the hut would turn to deep and sticky mud. One of the front wheels of Sam’s cyclo got stuck in a pothole; he had to get down from the seat and pull it from the front to get it out of the mud. At that moment, suddenly a car appeared. The driver’s head emerged, and glared angrily at Sam, screaming, “Damn you! Why have you stopped your cyclo in such a stupid place? I almost crashed into it and killed you! Get out of here, quick! Sheesh, look,—I mean it!”

Feeling belittled, Sam tried to smile. From the way that this driver was talking and acting, it was clear that he looked on Sam with utter contempt. Sam wanted to answer rudely, but he stopped himself in time. “Oh!” he thought. “This is a rich man. If anything happens, I’ll lose to him for sure.” Thinking like this, Sam tried to stay quiet, and not say anything. He hurriedly pulled his cyclo out of the way to let the car pass. Then he jumped onto the seat and turned the vehicle away. And in that moment, Sam was suddenly stunned: he looked up and saw a woman standing with her hands on her hips in front of the coffee shop. It was Mrs Kim Leang, the wife of Mr Kim Chhun: a wealthy man who owned around 30 cyclo which he rented out, including the cyclo that Sam was driving.

Mrs Kim Leang was short and fat. She didn’t bother to dress herself up much, but she loved money more than anything. This woman had a filthy mouth, and the meanest of all faces.

At that moment, Sam almost lost his senses; he was terrified that the woman would take the cyclo back, and deprive him of his livelihood. Seeing Mrs Kim in the middle of the road like this, Sam stopped his cyclo, and jumped off to beg for mercy.

“What the hell are you doing, damn you? This isn’t like you! Why didn’t you bring me the money for the cyclo yesterday?” As the woman spoke, her face was filled with a mean arrogance.

“Sorry, madam!” Sam answered, while lifting his hands in a sampeah gesture of respect.⁶ “Yesterday I earned only ten riels. I’ll bring the money to you this evening.”

Mrs Kim Leang laughed cruelly, and said, “Damn you, you’re all like this! Ugh, I’m so sick of doing business with the likes of you.”

Sam lifted his hands in a sampeah once more. Mrs Kim Leang’s manner of speaking was upsetting to his ears. “Damn, damn”: they were harsh words, rude and disrespectful. All the workers who hired this woman’s cyclo had to endure this kind of language from her.

“Go on then,” the woman continued. “You’ve never done the wrong thing by me before. You told me that you couldn’t earn the money, and I’ll take a chance and believe you this time. But if you don’t bring the money for me this evening, I’ll send someone to take back my damned cyclo! There’s nothing more to say, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• A New Sun Rises Over the Old Land, by Suon Sorin
• 1 The Family Line of Pitiful Farmers
• 2 The Life of a Worker in the City
• 3 No Job and Nothing to Do
• 4 Under the Roof of the Capitalist’s House
• 5 In Prison After Falling for the Capitalist’s Trick
• 6 Terrible Suffering in the Kuk Thom Prison
• 7 The Traffic Accident
• 8 The Foreign Capitalist
• 9 The Deceitful Politicians
• 10 City Gangsters
• 11 Soy Dies with No One to Take Care of Her
• 12 The Ungrateful Politicians
• 13 Sam is Imprisoned for Being Homeless
• 14 Morality and a Plate of Rice
• 15 Sam is Imprisoned for Being Honest
• 16 A New Place to Depend On
• 17 The New Peasant
• 18 Modern Phnom Penh
• 19 The Ninth National Congress
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction Endnotes
• Introduction Bibliography
• Chapter Endnotes
• Copyright