Paste-up Modernity: Visual Depiction of Modern Cambodia in the 1960s in the Magazine Kambuja Review

Abstract

Modernity is central to postcolonial discourse. This paper examines how the state of Cambodia constructs modernity in the public imagination. Reflecting upon Homi Bhabha’s discussion on mimicry “almost the same, but not quite”, this paper looks at different aspects of modernity that appear in the state-owned magazine Kambuja. While many scholars have examined the political and ideological angles of this modernity, however, few have examined the artistic and visual representation of it. This paper examines how modernity is presented in Kambuja. To accomplish this task, the paper proposes a new concept of “paste-up” modernity as a way to demonstrate a unique character to Cambodia modernity which incorporates heterogeneous elements taken from traditional and Western images in its semiotic representation of modernity. And in doing so, the paper hopes to highlight the fluid nature of modernity as a semiotic signifier in which different meanings can be “cut and paste” to evoke a sense of “imagined community.”