Professor Andrew Mertha’s talk on Cambodian-Chinese relations was a very lively one, and one that was particularly interesting for me, being in the process of finishing a course on China. It was really great to hear not only about Cambodian and Chinese history however, but also a first-hand account of the research that Professor Mertha did that ultimately led to the writing of his book. One of my primary takeaways from his talk was perhaps how unpredictable the research process is and how often the findings diverge from the expectations. Professor Mertha explained that during his research process he only happened to stumble upon an old Chinese government document in a Cambodian museum labeled “top secret,” and when he asked the staff, it turned out they had piles of them. In a turn of events, however, the type of Chinese the files were written in was so technical that neither the professor nor his Chinese friends were able to read them. However, in another astonishing coincidence, one of professor Mertha’s students happened to have relatives that worked in technical jobs back in China in the 1970’s. As a result, Professor Mertha flew over to China and was able to have them translate the documents. This incredible sequence was truly fascinating, but the professor told us that after all that, it turned out that the Chinese proved to not have very much influence in Cambodia because their bureaucracy was too mismanaged to coordinate an effective strategy. Ultimately, I thought this past Wednesday’s talk was very unique and interesting, and I was lucky to have attended.