Socheat Kuch will not just tell you who Sinn Sisamouth is.
If you know the right quesitons to ask, he will unleash his collection of CDs, pictures, records, and even re-mastered video footage of the man in Cambodia that they call “King of Khmer pop.”
If that’s not enough, he will talk you about the Khmer language. He will talk to you about philosophy.
Just another day at the Mietophoum National Library & Cultural Center, a small corner suite in a building that once housed the United Cambodian Community in the Cambodia Town district of Long Beach.
“He’s a hero,” says Tamara Soria Pok, a social worker, from Columbus Ohio. Pok is one of Kuch’s supporters, collecting and sending over $200 a month to Mietophoum's operating expenses. “He’s trying to save any documentation because he’s trying to keep our culture and language alive.”
Since 1988, Socheat Kuch, 52, has spent over $400,000 of his own money acquiring original Cambodian books, magazines, records. His collection includes folk tales about King Norodom Sihanouk and has a large collection of Cambodian folk and popular music available.
“Almost all the educated people were killed during the Khmer Rouge,” says Kuch referring to the Pol Pot Regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 - 1979, in which an estimated 2 million Cambodians died from starvation, directed killings, or disease. “They also destroyed a lot of pieces of Cambodian culture.”
He’s hard at work in his latest project: translating information from American health books and medicine into Khmer script.
“I don’t want people to just learn the language,” says Kuch. “I want to make Khmer a language of knowledge.”
His collection is not limited to just Cambodian collectibles but includes a wide variety of books, from well-known canons in German philosophy to American contemporary cookbooks.
The former hospital administrator estimates that around 20 visitors a day come visit his collection. Every day from 10 AM to 7 PM, he works on various projects that involve translating and teaching, sometimes working into the wee hours of the morning.
Students, researchers, community members compliment for him for his commitment and resolve.
“When Cambodians come and see my collection, they see it, they nod and say it’s nice, and that it’s expensive,” says Kuch. "I don't understand why people don't want to support it. It's a place that belongs to all Cambodians."
Kuch has been struggling to maintain the library’s expenses. At $1,200 a month to rent out the suite, Kuch works a variety of jobs while at Mietophoum. This includes translating documents for visitors, selling CDs from Sinn Sisamouth with hand-crafted cover art.
“Sometimes he doesn’t have enough food to eat,” says Pok. “Whatever he needs, we want to make sure he has what it so that he just focuses on writing.” Pok’s donations also help Kuch get by.
In May of last year, the Library took the step towards becoming a nonprofit organization and is currently waiting on a decision. He is hoping the status is approved and would enable him to seek grants.
You can visit the Mietophoum National Library & Cultural Center, where all visitors are welcome at:
Mietophoum National Library & Cultural Center
(Resource Center for Cambodian Culture, Hisotry, Literature, Musics, Documentation & School)
2338 E. Anaheim St. Suite 102
Long Beach, CA, 90804
Telephone: (562) - 607 - 9572
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