Professor Andrew Mertha lead a highly engaging discussion on Cambodia and its relations to China. He discussed how Cambodia’s recent history has been dominated by the rule of the Khmer Rouge, who committed vast genocide against the Cambodian people. Unfortunately, because the United States was in the midst of a war with Vietnam during this period, they were somewhat reluctant to destroy the vicious and brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge.

He also discussed the relationship between Cambodia and China that has existed for quite some time. China has arguably had the most commercial and cultural influence on Cambodia, and in fact, China supported the Khmer Rouge. This was due to both ideological and political reasons, as the Khmer Rouge’s approach was perhaps a more severe implementation of Mao’s cultural revolution and also China viewed the Khmer Rouge as a counter to Vietnam. I found the professor’s adventures to study the relationship between China and Cambodia incredibly fascinating. For example, he discussed how he attempted to decipher dense Chinese documents he discovered in Cambodia and was actually able to do so through the help of a student. The professor definitely allowed me to realize that education, learning, and research are not necessarily linear activities, but require some degree of adventure and meandering to achieve truly satisfying results.