A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
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A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
Alfred Raquez (right) at the Colonial Exhibition in Marseille in 1906
William L Gibson and Paul Bruthiaux
May 2019
Raquez gives particular emphasis to Norodom’s “harem”, which numbered in the hundreds, a point of fascination for European readers.
Raquez travelled constantly during his eight years in Southeast Asia and left descriptions of every place he visited, from major entrepôts like Singapore and Bangkok to small towns like Lao Cai and Muang Sing, often published in periodicals affiliated with the French Parti Colonial, both in Paris and in Hanoi.
After his death in 1907, it was revealed that Raquez was the pseudonym of Joseph Gervais, a disgraced lawyer who abandoned his wife and three children when he fled France in 1898 after he was declared bankrupt as a result of running a Ponzi scheme and stealing money from a lay Catholic organisation he had helped to found.
Raquez visited Phnom Penh often and occasionally wrote about those experiences in now neglected descriptions of the city. His earliest sketches date from his first visit in June 1898, not long after he first materialised in Indochina, in the Mekong Delta town of My Tho, seemingly out of thin air.
At its best, Raquez’s style is remarkably modern, often concisely written in single-sentence paragraphs that show him keeping a sharp eye for the telling detail and mostly free of the lurid piling up of details or sentimental formulas of his contemporaries.
The screening in Phnom Penh in June 1898, most likely the first films ever shown in Cambodia, was an event so unusual as to merit a brief mention in the “Faits Divers” section of Le Courrier de Saigon of 22 June, which notes that the “highlight of the evening was the cinematograph”.
full https://mekongreview.com/alfred-raquez/
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Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
Damn, you read a lot kid! Anyway thanks for providing CEO readers with yet another plethora of historical and current insights.
As my old Cajun bait seller used to say, "I opes you luck.
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- phuketrichard
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Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
....I NEED a SEA expat forum in my life.....
wow....
wow....
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
A harem of Khmer women?Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 7:26 am Norodom’s “harem”, which numbered in the hundreds,
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Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
Your constant judgement of others continues to cast you in rather poor light, pr. Carry on.
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Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
it was a fucking joke!!!Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 9:36 amYour constant judgement of others continues to cast you in rather poor light, pr. Carry on.
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
who gives a shit what you say, put me of ignore an be done with it
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: A French fugitive who became a chronicler of Cambodia
PR- for someone that complains about posts that in your opinion state the obvious, here you are making one word pointless posts like 'wow'. Bit of a double standard, no? And then when a member picks you up on it, you dismiss it with 'it was a fucking joke'. Well, I dunno about that coz it looks like a pointless post to me at best and a bit of troll at worst. And why get agro with this sort of language 'who gives a shit what you say' when another member thinks its not funny.phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 10:27 amit was a fucking joke!!!Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 9:36 amYour constant judgement of others continues to cast you in rather poor light, pr. Carry on.
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