By Massiel Bobadilla
LONG BEACH –“Cambodian New Year? I’m Vietnamese,” said 62-year-old manicurist Anh Thi Dinh before adding, with the subtlest bit of sass, “What do you know about that?”
For Dinh, as one of Cambodia Town’s non-Cambodian residents, the holiday represents little more than background noise to a busy day at work.
Cambodian New Year will fall on April 4 this year, and Long Beach’s Cambodian Coordinating Council will celebrate with their sixth consecutive festival and parade.
Photo courtesy of the Cambodian Coordinating Council
“When the parade comes by, the streets are full of people, so we get a lot of business,” said Dinh, who works at the Kinh Do Design Hair & Nail salon on Anaheim St., “but you know, we always have a lot of people. I don’t notice either way.”
Southern California is home to dozens of cultural enclaves –Little India in Artesia; Little Ethiopia in the Fairfax District; Chinatown, Olvera Street, and Little Tokyo in Downtown L.A.—all of which boast their fair share of kitschy architecture, delectable smells, and the feeling that you’ve just fallen out of your own world into a new, pleasantly surprising one.
Long Beach’s Cambodia Town is none of the above. It is an amalgam. Though Long Beach is home to the largest population of Cambodians outside Cambodia, the one-mile stretch along Anaheim Street is hardly one unbroken, homogenous block straight out of Phnom Penh.
Cambodian clothing stores sit next to Mexican meat markets. Thai jewelers are in the same strip malls as Vietnamese markets. The banners say ‘Cambodia Town,’ but the streets reflect a little extra.
It is a literal –and perhaps, metaphorical—fusion that works its way into all aspects of life in Cambodia Town. Take, for example, the case of the highest-rated Cambodian restaurant on Yelp: Siem Riep.
Situated next to a boisterous Mexican bar on the corner of Cherry Blvd., Siem Riep doesn’t even bill itself as exclusively Cambodian. “Cambodian! Thai! Chinese!” reads the mini marquee outside.
In theory, one could experience all three cuisines at once if they ordered the chicken and broccoli (Chinese) with the lemongrass chicken skewers (Cambodian) and washed it all down with a Singha beer (Thai).
However, the cultural fusions of Siem Riep stretched beyond their culinary masterpieces. While the televisions softly crooned Cambodian music videos and the walls of the restaurant were plastered with images of Angkor Wat, two giant, golden dragons hovered over the dance floor, encircling banners calling for a ‘Happy Chinese New Year,’ and a wide selection of Thailand’s best liquors were proudly displayed over the bar.
“Everyone comes here, not just Cambodians,” said owner Alex Be. “The neighborhood is really diverse, so when something like Cambodian New Year comes around, you see them all come out. Blacks, Mexicans, Anglos…they’re all out there with us.”
Though headlines about racial tensions in Cambodia Town crop up in the news from time to time –and Dinh herself may have even harbored a little silent resentment—Be maintains that, for the most part, Long Beach’s estimated 20,000 Cambodians should be able to peacefully celebrate the coming New Year with their neighbors.
“[The festival] means a lot to a lot of people,” said Be. “My parents loved seeing it. I love seeing all those people come together. But I really love that the parade route goes right in front of our restaurant. It’s great for business.”
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The Sixth Annual Cambodian New Year Festival and Parade will take place on Sunday, April 4th. The parade will begin at 9:30 a.m. on the corner of Anaheim St. and Junipero Ave., and the festival will begin at noon at the El Dorado East Regional Park.
For more information, call 562-316-9099
