For this Becker-Rose Café, Professor Andrew Mertha of Cornell’s Department of Government substituted Professor Benny Widyono and compiled a short talk about his research and discoveries in China, particularly it’s bureaucracy. I really enjoyed the talk that Professor Mertha held because he made it humorous and a lot his experiences were full of vigor and vivid detail. In a lucky turn of events, he found a bunch of old and secret documents that were allegedly blueprints of missile plans and factories. But on a serious note, his search was originally revolved around learning about China’s influence in Cambodia, but he ultimately did not find what he was looking for. I think that this shows how disorganized and difficult the Chinese government is, and likewise with what Professor Mertha has said, China has a lot to fix.

This was a very interesting event held by Mr. Benny Widyono. He spoke about the growth of China in the last century, and about its relations with countries like Cambodia.

His discourse on Cambodia was specifically eye-opening. He spoke about how Cambodia started to arrest, torture and execute its own people. 1.7 million were killed, and there were pictures of people tortured into confessions – things that made no sense except to the ear of the regime. Horrific things happened in Cambodia during the regime in 1975. China’s role in this was not much of an influence. China had well military bureaucracy but so did Cambodia.

China, however, had dozens of different bureaucracies (factories, design institutes, ministries), but Cambodia did not have coordination on bureaucracies. This says a lot about the different government structures that existed at the time in China and Cambodia, how they contrasted, and how this paved the way for future development in both of these countries.

Additionally, Mr. Benny Widyono mentioned that policy in China is relatively uncoordinated. When I asked him for further clarification, he stated that China’s foreign policy is only as good as the institutions that manage its bureaucracy. The bureaucracy varies over time. Currently, China’s foreign policy is worse than it was back then, because of the lack of coordination that we have today. Where before there was more coordination under a planned economy, now because of local leaders, each area or locality has its autonomy, but this has resulted in unwanted coordination.

This was a talk I thoroughly enjoyed, because I learned a different aspect of China and its government organization; I looked at China from lenses which I had not looked from before. I took 3.5 years of Mandarin lessons, and through history classes, I believed that I had a decent grasp on China’s overall culture and structure. However, through this event I learned about the intricacies of China’s bureaucracy and how it affects its foreign policy. By far, it was so convenient to ask Mr. Benny Widyono exactly what the driving factors were.

About a week ago, the Rose Scholars received an unexpected guest speaker named Andrew Mertha who spoke about the history of Cambodia and how China played a major role in influencing its development. As a speaker, Professor Mertha was a very entertaining, well-spoken, and engaging lecturer who was unafraid of admitting the large amounts of stress that his research brought on. Much of his work stemmed from the changes in world powers after World War II.

Professor Mertha discussed being rejected by a an entire organization network in his search for classified documents until he was able to pay Cambodian workers to allow him access to a plethora of Chinese archives that held the information he was looking for. These documents detailed engineering plans for Cambodian development, but he was not able to decipher its contents until after a student of his was able to connect him to her grandmother who had friends that worked in the mines during World War II and could translate the information for him. Seeing and hearing how passionate he was about his work made listening to the journey all the more educational and interesting, for I never knew how closely tied China was to Cambodia.

It was a very informative session, one that none of the scholars could have expected, but it was well received especially during this period leading up to final exams. We hope that his study abroad program in Cambodia continues to grow and look forward to having him speak with us again in the future.

Professor Andrew Mertha came to talk about Cambodia and China on behalf of the original speaker who couldn’t make it. Mertha was hilarious. He mixed corny jokes with politics and  history. He poked fun at how disorderly the Chinese government and bureaucracy are throughout the talk. One doesn’t necessarily think of China’s policies as being unstructured and chaotic as they were able to enforce their strict childbearing laws, but I guess when China does succeed at issuing a policy, it is a miracle. Another part I enjoyed hearing about was how he was so easily able to obtain classified Chinese documents from an archive in Cambodia. He got a hold of classified Chinese files that explained “missile plans, no, no missiles, but outlines for rubber factories.” He had no inhibition for overused jokes, but they were funny in the context of the all-important Becker-Rose cafe. At some points it was difficult to concentrate on the material because I was laughing at the jokes, but that’s okay. Afterward, an old man stood up and said that he had come to the lecture under the wrong impression, expecting something else, but then he said that he liked it more than he thought he would have if it were just a normal talk. It’s nice to have a break from the countless, interminable, lectures we attend.

In his talk last week Prof. Mertha offered insights on a number of different topics in Chinese/Cambodian history and the contemporary Communist Party of China. A number of points that Prof. Mertha touched on in his talk particularly interested me, and I am left with a couple of questions: what kind of aid and how much of it did the Chinese provide to Cambodia? How much of an impact did this aid have on the Khmer Rouge’s power and capability? What kinds of communication/coordination problems prevent the CPC from functioning more effectively today? Modern communications technology must overcome the physical vastness of the country, so is it just organizational problems that make it difficult for the party to delegate and implement policy plans? On another note, I also enjoyed Prof. Mertha’s humor and his accounts of the more fortuitous (the accommodating librarians) and serendipitous (the advisee’s relatives in China) moments of his research process.

Last week, Professor Mertha gave an eye-opening talk about the nature of the Chinese bureaucracy by connecting it to his research in Cambodia. He also told a lovely anecdote about his issues with research being finally resolved by a helpful undergrad of his.

While I understand that the talk was last-minute, as he had not been the scheduled speaker, I wish he had gone more in depth about the flaws in the Chinese bureaucracy. During the presentation, he briefly showed a convoluted flow chart portraying the tangle that is the Chinese government, and I feel as though his argument that “the Chinese bureaucracy is a mess” could have been better supported if he had explained the chart rather than just saying, “take my word for it,” though I do understand it may have been too complicated to touch on all the key points in under an hour.

Last week’s Rose Cafe was one of the most entertaining to date. The speaker, Dr. Mertha, gave an extremely interesting and enthusiastic talk about Cambodia and his novel. I had very little knowledge of pre-Vietnam War Cambodia before this talk, and Mertha did a fantastic job of extremely briefly summarizing this period. Surprisingly, I was extremely interested in his talk, which was aimed specifically at China’s role in Cambodia at the time; this is surprising because usually, when I do not have knowledge of the topic, these types of discussions can be extremely dry. Mertha used his extensive knowledge on the time period to extract the essential information without boring the audience at all.

It was also very interesting to hear about his experiences in writing his novel and obtaining the information for said book. As he conceded, discussing one’s own novel can be very boring for the audience, but this was not the case for this cafe series. Again, Mertha brought excitement and enthusiasm into this portion of the discussion, bringing up interesting and entertaining points about his journey of gaining knowledge. The book seems very interesting, and perhaps he should consider a career as a book salesman if the professor gig does not work out.

Overall, this talk kept me interested for the entire hour, even though it was a last-minute decision due to unfortunate circumstances. I am extremely glad that I was able to attend this discussion and hope to hear from Dr. Mertha again at some time in the future.

Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe event with guest speaker Andrew Mertha. Andrew Mertha is a professor of government here at Cornell who specializes in Chinese and Cambodian politics. His talk focused on a brief history of Cambodia along with his own research that he conducted on the influence of China on Cambodia.

I really enjoyed hearing about the history of Cambodia during the Vietnam war era. I had heard of the Khmer Rouge before but I never knew who or what they were. I had no idea that Cambodia’s history was so bloody as the Khmer Rouge were an extremely violent ruling group. There were the one’s responsible for the Cambodian Genocide, which led to the deaths of nearly 3 million Cambodians. I find it saddening that in my various history classes I took in high school, not one of them mentioned the Cambodian Genocide. A lot of these smaller countries go through so much suffering and turmoil, yet they never get any attention.

Another part of Professor Mertha’s talk that I found was interesting was when he went to talk to a Khmer Rouge cook about some Chinese blueprints he had found. I find it amazing that Professor Mertha was able to make all of these connections just because he was fluent in another language. His talk actually makes me want to sign up for a foreign language next semester.

What I found most interesting about Professor Mertha’s talk last week was his unique stance: while the general consensus is that China is set to surpass the United States as the world’s economic power, Professor Mertha argues that this may not necessarily be the case. In examining China’s relationship with Cambodia, Prof. Mertha has discovered great inefficiencies and a general lack of efficacy in China’s bureaucracy. Upon uncovering top secret Chinese government documents, Prof. Mertha realized how difficult it is for China– a massive country– to maintain and run an accordingly massive bureaucracy. Often when thinking to China, we cite the quantifiable: GDP indicators, the one-child policy. These data points drive us to the common conclusion that China will surpass the US– “When China Rules the World” by Martin Jacques is a perfect example. But beyond (and behind) these numbers exist other issues with which the cumbersome Chinese bureaucracy is tasked: working conditions, foreign investment, etc. In many cases, Prof. Mertha points out, only the quantifiable is accomplished; anything else that can be easily brushed aside or hidden is not prioritized.

Last summer, the NYT published a long piece on China’s investment in Ecuador. A running theme of the article was that in investing in Ecuador, China was “exporting its worst practices.” This amounted to poor working conditions and lack of concern for the environment, among other issues. Where China’s flaws are perhaps most evident are the foreign countries in which China involves itself– Prof Mertha’s research speaks directly to this point.

Last Wednesday, I met one of the most humorous professors I know thus far at Cornell, Professor Andrew Mertha. I had a chance to meet him as I walked into Rose House before dinner and he did not really know where to go. I had no idea he would be the speaker for the cafe that night– but from the beginning, I knew he was a person I needed to get to know better.

I was not wrong. At the cafe, I laughed the whole time and learned so much at the same time. He spoke of Cambodia and his experience with research there– the ups, the downs, the lessons.

He made me realize that Professors go through what we as students go through: times of walking without much direction. He was real with us and I appreciate that tons!

He also got me to consider a program that Cornell offers which gives students the opportunity to visit Cambodia. To be honest, I just really want to take a class with Professor Mertha.

If you want more information on it, visit: https://www.sce.cornell.edu/ws/courses/courses.php?v=2974

Last Wednesday, Rose Cafe hosted Professor Mertha, a professor of government specializing in Chinese and Cambodian politics. While his entire lecture was filled with interesting information and tidbits, the part that stuck out to me most was his personal story about traveling to Cambodia in order to collect information about past Cambodia-China relations and politics. While he wasn’t allowed access to historical documents in China, he found luck in Cambodia and was able to gain a substantial amount of access to related documents there. He expressed awe at the sheer amount of documents that he could read and learn from, including but not limited to documents detailing infrastructure projects that both countries were involved in at the time. These documents provided Professor Mertha with very clear insights into past Cambodia-China relations, vastly furthering his research. He also detailed a story where he had trouble decoding and translating some documents that had been written in very technical Chinese. He was able to solve this when an advisee of his offered the help of her Chinese grandmother who had been working in the Chinese government at around the same time as when the documents were written.

Having very little knowledge of Cambodian-Chinese politics, I found it very interesting to hear perspectives and stories about conducting research in a different part of the world as well as finding such a large wealth of very interesting information. This lecture has made me eager to discover and educate myself further on politics in that region in order to eventually gain a clearer understanding of Asian influences on global politics, both historical and current.

Last week, Professor Andrew Mertha discussed his research on Cambodia’s history and how the Chinese had a significant influence. To be honest, for me the discussion regarding how he researched this topic was more interesting then his actual findings (I’m not big on govt/political history). In discussing his research, Prof. Mertha provided interesting stories about how he obtained a lot of the information he used. For example, if I remember correctly, he was kicked out of one archive/library because the documents he was asking for were essentially classified. After that while in a Cambodian museum he stumbled upon a Chinese document that was labeled TOP SECRET that was very important to his research. He went to the information desk and said that he was from Cornell and that he was wondering if they had any more like that. Because the staff recognized Cornell, he was able to go through the documents upon documents of critical information (gotta love those Cornell connections).

The process of doing research and publishing the findings really provided me with an appreciation for what these researchers do. When I’m reading something for a class, I just think of it as another reading, maybe skim through it to get the main points and move on, but the time and effort that is put in to produce a given piece is truly remarkable.

Professor Mertha’s discussion about Cambodia was illuminating on several fronts.  Most importantly to me, I just knew very little about Cambodian history prior to the quick briefing that he gave us at the beginning of the talk.  Like many areas of Asian history, Cambodia’s bloody past is an era that is often overlooked in American history courses and text.  Most people understandably have little idea about what actually went down and how horrible it was, myself included, so receiving a quick lesson on it was much appreciated.

I also really just enjoy to Professor Mertha tell his war stories.  I took his class last semester (China Under Revolution and Reform, a GOVT class) and he always has a funny anecdote about his travels in Asia.  I’d highly recommend him as a professor for anybody interested in eastern Asia.

The most recent Rose Café was not only very fun but also highly informative. Professor Andrew Mertha spoke about Cambodian history and the various Chinese influences found within. During the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s the militant group known as the Khmer Rouge basically kept Cambodia under its thumb with its brutal savagery combined with nationalist propaganda. Surprisingly, the Khmer Rouge was filled with child soldiers who committed acts of genocide. The picture shown during the event was quite shocking, one of the child fighters had a look of violence yet sadness in his eyes. I could tell that life had dealt him a crap hand, in his mind he probably though that he was doing the right thing. It’s the classic story of good intentions leading to bad consequences with history as his judge.

China supported the Khmer Rouge and thus played a huge role in the country’s economic growth. The comparisons to the Chinese cultural revolution were stark and shocking, one could even say that Cambodia took it a bit further.

My favorite part of the evening was a story that Professor Mertha told about how he found some rare Chinese documents in Cambodia that were very hard to decipher. He spent copious amounts of time trying, but he still made no progress. Funnily enough, a student of his connected him to one of the few people who could make sense of the documents and all the pieces finally came together.

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.

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.

This week Professor Mertha gave a great lecture. He was so entertaining and made the lecture interesting. My knowledge on Cambodia was not great prior to this lecture so I did not know what to expect. Professor Mertha told us about the genocide that took place and how the regime killed different groups of people until it finally turned on its own members. It is crazy to think that about 1/7 of the population was killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge and most people do not even know that this event took place. Why is it that some events such as this are not well known yet everyone knows about the Holocaust? I think that the information we are exposed to is limiting in many circumstances. I am glad I went to this discussion to learn about the events that took place in Cambodia because it is important to learn about history and the awful events that took place to prevent them from happening again. Professor Mertha also had to investigate this time period and it’s amazing that he compiled all of the information for his book with the help of one of his students. They spoke to many people in China that were there and familiar with the events that took place at the time and were excited to share their stories. I think it is important for us to listen and learn from those that came before us because they have unique experiences to share with the rest of us that help us understand and appreciate the past.

This past week I was able to hear Andrew Mertha talk about the role that China has had in Cambodia’s history and economy. This is a topic that I am not very familiar with so I found it interesting to hear his personal stories of travelling to Cambodia and interacting with the people there. I found it interesting that the librarians he worked with were not being paid and therefore were willing to work on a national holiday, as long as they were paid. I also found it interesting how he found many materials that were entirely in Chinese, especially since that it is not the main language spoken in Cambodia. When he explained how China was a big influence in Cambodia at this time, it made a lot more sense.

I find the history of other countries to be very intriguing. We are taught US history throughout our entire time in grade school, middle school and high school and it is refreshing to hear what other countries went through and where they are at today. Andrew Mertha did a wonderful job presenting the information and kept the audience engaged the entire time. I also thought it was fascinating that we have a program that allows students to go to Cambodia during the winter January session and earn credits. Overall, this was definitely one of my favorite talks thus far.

This past Wednesday I attended a talk with Andrew Mertha about the his interactions with Cambodia and China. Although I didn’t fully understand his role because I arrived a few minutes late, I really enjoyed his talk. He discussed how he spent time in Cambodia, trying to learn as much about China and it’s secrets as possible. Although I didn’t really understand the purpose behind his stories, I really enjoyed his talk.

He talked about how we spent time in Cambodia, and how many people were motivated by money. He mentioned that he wanted to spend time in a library, but it was closed due to holiday. In order to open it, he said he had to pay their salaries for the day, and he had it open to him self. Additionally, they were more than happy to make him copies of top secret documents because they made money.

I thought it was funny to learn about a culture that was so motivated by money. I originally thought that our culture was like that, but based on this, it seemed like we were less.

Overall, I really enjoyed the humor and anecdotal talk.

I knew little to nothing about Cambodia before tonight, and my previous knowledge consisted of knowing that it was somewhere in Asia.  When I discovered that it borders Vietnam I was surprised that I hadn’t learned more about the country, especially since I studied the Vietnam war in US History classes in middle and high school.  Professor Mertha explained that Cambodia was an United States ally, but were reluctant to become involved in our war with Vietnam.  Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge rise to power and its subsequent genocide of Cambodia’s people removed it from the United State’s attention.  Regardless, I was surprised to learn about the genocide by the Khmer Rouge, its lack of participation in the Vietnam war, and China’s attempt to pull the strings of Cambodia’s leaders.  Perhaps more surprising was Cambodia’s ability to push back against Chinese influence and maintain its own volition.

The second part of Professor Mertha’s talk was devoted to his finding top secret and classified Chinese documents that related to Cambodia and his subsequent adventures in understanding them.  It was incredibly lucky for one of his students to have had the connections to help him understand the documents he found, and this is a prime example of why teachers should discuss their current research/projects with their classes.  Moreover, Professor Metha’s successes in understanding the documents highlight the importance of persistence and hard work.

Professor Mertha is one of my favorite professors here. Hilarious, vibrantly knowledgeable, and–as he told us the first day of class last semester when i took a class with him–has a pepper on ratemyprofessor.

I’ve always had an interest in Asia. When i took CAPS 3403 with Mertha, that interest became something like an obsession. There is so much to be learned, studied, and enjoyed through China. Even the Chinese language is great.

What was fun and fresh about this talk however, is that it wasnt all about China. The Cambodian Experience of the Khmer Rouge was brought into light.

Mertha is really interesting in the sense that he has such a bank of analogies. In this lecture, he told the story of when he interviewed, in Chinese, Pol Pot’s cook-turned-China ambassador.

After the lecture was over, I went up to Mertha and asked him about Beijing, which he is familiar and where I’ll be for two months this summer. He told me of the Chinese War Museum, which should have a connection to the Khmer Rouge as well as China at large. I’m pretty excited to check it out, and pretty happy to attend another one of his talks after my time in his class has elapsed.

I’ve probably learned more about China in my two years at Cornell than I have in my entire life. It might be helpful to note that my roommate is an international student from China (thanks Marco). I actually attended a talk on China with Thomas Christensen, author of “The China Challenge,” a couple of weeks ago. I found the talk to be quite interesting and insightful. Throughout my time at Cornell, I have been learning more and more about a country that can be considered as both “developing” and “powerful.”

The original speaker for this Rose Cafe talk, Benny Widyono, could not come due to health issues. I would like to take this moment to wish him the best in whatever complications he is going through. In Dr. Widyono’s absence, Professor Andrew Mertha took his place. Professor Mertha talked about Cambodia’s history and China’s influence for the majority of the hour. He was very lighthearted and provided comic relief for the moments in which he discussed some of the more darker days in Cambodia’s history. It was interesting to hear about the Khmer Rouge regime. After the talk ended, I actually looked up Pol Pot. Although I was familiar with his name and reputation, I never really knew the man himself.

Professor Mertha gave us a glimpse at how challenging research could be. He had some difficulties in accessing information from the libraries/archives in Cambodia. In fact, one of the individuals in charge of a particular information center refused to give Professor Mertha access simply because the official didn’t like him (haters gonna hate). After talking about Cambodia, Professor Mertha moved on to China. Is China as “dangerous” as some people make it out to be? Does China want to take over the world? Why is it making investments in Africa and South America? Does China “own” the United States? Will we all have to learn how to speak Mandarin eventually? According to Professor Mertha, this perception of China is inaccurate. It is a very large country with its own issues that it has to deal with. Overall, I thought this talk was quite informative. I was especially intrigued with Cambodia because I didn’t know too much about it before the talk. Can I call myself an expert on Cambodia and China now? Well, probably not Cambodia. But, China on the other hand… 😉

This Rose House Cafe Series was interesting to see how a researcher goes about searching for sources in writing his book. It is obviously not easy to write a book, but I had no idea the exact challenges that went into making one. The speaker’s adventures opened new insights to me about the research process.

I thought it was hard to select one specific topic that the speaker wanted to focus on for the book but how he involved so much history to support his main idea/point. He talked about the history of the regime of the Khmer Rouge and how people under the regime worked on construction and mechanical projects that brought upon great influence and connection to China. I liked how he made that connection in his research and presented that in the book.

It was interesting to listen to his adventure of finding Chinese documents on the projects worked under regime of Khmer Rouge. It was impressive in how he tried to use the documenter center in China but was not allowed access and did not give up and tried the national archives of Cambodia, where he stumbled upon numerous research secrets. It was a great lesson to see that even if one door closes another door opens for a new opportunity. Also, I thought his story showed a great lesson on the Cornell community where the librarians at the national archive actually were trained at Cornell and they helped him to gain access into the archives.

His story also showed the importance of networking where his post-doc student was able to gain him contacts with people who actually worked on some of those projects in the Khmer rouge regime and was able to interview with them. It was great to see how he enjoyed the interviews with the people.

Overall, this talk gave some great insights and lessons in how to pursue research for a book or anything in life in general.

This week’s Rose Café focused on Cambodia. The substitute speaker was well versed in the topic and very funny as well. My main takeaway from the talk was how he was able to conduct his research, gather sources, and interpret those sources. I thought it was fascinating to learn about his ability to gain relevant documents and his determination to understand the value of each document that he collected.

The speaker talked about how his search to find relevant documents for his research took him to China ad Cambodia. In China he was not allowed to access the documents that he needed and then he went to Cambodia. In Cambodia he was welcomed with open arms. This was partially because some of the employees of the Cambodian National Archives were trained at Cornell. The speaker was also able to rent out the entire Cambodian National Archives during a holiday to collected the needed documents.

Once he had the documents he needed to interpret the documents. One lesson I learned from the talk is that you never know where help will come from. By luck and coincidence, one of his students had a relative who was able to help him interpret the documents and connect him with other knowledgeable people. This connection ended up being critical for the success of his research.

Overall the talk was very interesting and well worth the time. I think his talk contained valuable lessons about resourcefulness.

Professor Mertha’s talk about the complex politics of the khmer revolution was intriguing and filled with many complexities. His bit about the frustrations with research made me think about the research experiences I had my freshman year.

I was involved in the OADI Research Scholars Program with a cohort of about 15 other students. One of the biggest problems we all had was finding a topic to research. There were a vast array of things I was interested in, and I found that I could spend hours searching about topics and still not find something where I felt I could expand in my own unique way. Then, I ended up talking to a professor about my interests and he told me about the Cornell Migrant Program. After talking about it with other people who knew more about it, I came to know of the tumultuous events that led to its creation during the late 1960s, an especially active time on Cornell’s campus.

After some research into old Cornell Daily Sun articles, I realized it was time to go into the archives. I found some free Saturday mornings, ordered some boxes from the annex, wiped the dust off of them and sat down and went through hundreds of letters, newspaper articles, photos, ledgers, and other documents. What I unveiled was a very complex story that was much more exciting that I anticipated. However, this did not happen fast. I spent hours upon hours going through materials that did not apply to my research question. This is one of the struggles of archival research. You can go through four boxes of material and never get the information you were looking for. Then, when you get to the eighth ten-pound box, you find something amazing. Looking back at my archival research, it was rewarding in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. I value the information I gathered about migrant  farmworkers in the Upstate New York area, and the events that led to the creation of various community outreach programs. Moreover, I learned about the complexity of linking the rhetoric of research to its execution in community outreach.

Andrew Mertha, a professor in the Department of Government, gave an intriguing talk with a lot of interspersed humor on a few topics that can hardly be considered funny: the bloody history of Cambodia and the struggles of research. Professor Mertha started with a brief introduction to Cambodia and relations with its monarch before delving into the horrors of Khmer Rouge and the complex politics between China and Cambodia.

What interested me most, however, was Professor Mertha’s description of his process of finding sources for a book while doing research in and about Cambodia. After acquiring many papers he couldn’t fully decipher, he became frustrated and told a student about his efforts, not anticipating that she would be the key to finding the information he needed. It turned out that the student’s grandmother had several contacts who were alive during the time of the Khmer Regime and were more than willing to be interviewed or help him interpret the technical documents. It’s bewildering to realize that world can be a small place, and sometimes help comes from the least expected sources. Besides enjoying this interesting talk about a region of the world I’m very unfamiliar with, I’m glad to be reminded that inspiration can come from anywhere.

I really enjoyed the entertaining, funny, and engaging talk by Professor Andrew Mertha today. Professor Mertha skillfully injected humor into more serious subjects concerning the Khmer Rouge, the relationship between China and Cambodia, and China’s political structure. 

The topic that Professor Mertha talked about that really captured my attention was regarding the Khmer Rouge. When I was in high school, our World History class briefly talked about the Khmer Rouge. We viewed it as solely a political party that overthrew the previous more pro-US regime. However, Professor Mertha was able to shine more light onto the Khmer Rouge and their practices. The Khmer Rouge evacuated entire cities, abolished currency, and forced the population to work in collective infrastructure projects. Many of these workers perished under these harsh labor conditions. In a country like Cambodia that has a total population of around 7 million, around 1.7 millions Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge reign from mass execution, torture, forced labor, and famine. This was all very grim and shocking news. 

The question from the audience that really sparked my attention was comparing the U.S influence in Cambodia and the rise of the Khmer Rouge, to the current U.S involvement in Syria. Part of the rise of the Khmer Rouge was sparked by the U.S exercising more power in Cambodia, and U.S aerial bombardment of Cambodia, creating more resentment in Cambodia of western influences. Khmer Rouge was able to use these happenings to gain power as a force to overthrow the pro-U.S regime. The student in the audience thus questioned whether U.S involvement in Syria might spark a similar resentment in Syria that might lead Syria down a similar fate as the fate that Cambodia faced. This is a very interesting comparison and its definitely worth thinking about. 

Professor Andrew Mertha, a specialist on Chinese-Cambodian politics and a passionate raconteur, introduced us this evening to the relationship between China and Cambodia and the difficulties he encountered during his research regarding the Chinese involvement during Khmer Rouge coup, providing us with a riveting talk on history and an engaging discussion on scholarship. When the Prime Minister of Cambodia whose political views very much aligned with those of the U.S. overthrew Sihanouk, a leftist and intensely nationalist monarch treated as god-king who China adored for his neutral position, the radical underground movement of the Khmer Rouge emerged; during 1963, the U.S. dropped more bombs on Cambodia than all of World War II. Professor Mertha discovered that the Chinese used the Khmer Rouge to build an airport in Cambodia, which he uses as a point of reference to study Chinese bureaucracy and its ineffectiveness. Here is my take away: the effectiveness of Chinese foreign policy is only as good as bureaucracies that maintain those relationships.

Tonight at the Rose Café, Professor Mertha from the government department talked about his research on Cambodia and its relationship with China. He began with a brief history of Cambodia which was useful for me as I’m not very familiar with the history of the Southeast Asia region. He described Cambodia as being in a continuing cycle of violence throughout the 20^th century, beginning with the U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War in which more bombs were dropped on Cambodia than were dropped during all of WWII. After this violence, Cambodia was thrown into civil war and then subjected to systematic genocide under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Professor Mertha’s research has focused on exploring the ways in which China interacted with this regime. He explained that the argument of his book Brothers in Arms is that the Chinese bureaucracy was too disorganized and fragmented to have a substantial impact on Cambodia at that time.

I was especially interested in the part of Professor Mertha’s talk in which he described the difficulties he faced while trying to conduct research for his book. While working in the Cambodia National Archives, he discovered a collection of Chinese documents from the Khmer regime labeled top secret, however he was unable to decipher what they meant. Eventually he had to rely on his senior honors thesis advisee’s grandmother who had worked for the Chinese government and put him in contact with people in China who would agree to explain the documents. As I prepare for final papers, I will keep this story in mind as a reminder that my research is not nearly as complicated as it could be!

Today, Dr. Widyono spoke on Cambodian history as well as its relations with the United States and China. He started off by explaining Cambodian’s geographic location, just in case anyone in the audience was unaware. Cambodia is located in Southeastern Asia, neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. “Originally”, Cambodia was a French protectorate, until France installed a Cambodian figurehead. Sihanouk was apparently a well-versed leader, but he was eventually overthrown by his prime minister Long Nol in 1970. Immediately, the United States took action. It invaded Cambodia for 90 days trying to shut down the operation of some Southern Vietnamese working in Cambodia at the time. All this did was cause a Cambodian civil war, and the U.S. dropped an unnecessary amount of bombs on the country of Cambodia. Khmer rouge started working about this time, and it managed to orchestrate the deaths of over millions of people. Many people were forced to give confessions of crimes they never committed, and then executed immediately after their “confessions”. That was Dr. Widyono’s concise history of the recent conflict in Cambodia; he still managed to discuss China’s influence and his travels.

He argues that the conspiracy that China will take over the world is completely false. Widyono believes that a country has to have a good foundation within itself for it to succeed in its relationships with other countries. China, he believes does not have the completely well-functioning government to start making huge moves in the world, at least not now. For example, China tried to gain a foothold on Cambodia, however, Cambodia had a well-coordinated, military bureaucracy so China was not able to make an influence there.

Dr. Widyono was able to visit Cambodia to see the depth of the relationship between Cambodia and China. He was able to go through national archives, and he eventually came across a text of blueprints for war materials. The subject was too dense in Mandarin for him to decipher it, so he took it to some Chinese friends, then Chinese engineering friends, and finally one of his students. The student’s grandmother was able to put Widyono in contact with some people in China who would be able to decode the riddle. His trip was a success because he found people who lived and worked on projects in Cambodia during the time period who were able to translate the text.

Professor Andrew Mertha wasn’t the planned speaker for the night, but he definitely gave an admirable lecture for someone had received news that he was speaking on short notice. I don’t really have any background on China or government, and even though I didn’t grasp some of the topics he was discussing, Dr. Mertha’s interests for the subjects was clear. The takeaways I received from the talk were not necessarily the specific details of the history lessons, but rather the paths that perseverance can take you.

Professor Mertha discussed the obstacles he encountered and the hoops he had to jump through in order to succeed in his research, and he told us about the struggles he ran into while trying to uncover the secrets in his Khmer Rouge primary source documents. By luck, by perseverance, and by the help of his senior honors student, Professor Mertha managed to track down people who lived through these key points in history and piece together the stories behind the words on paper. Had he not put every ounce of his focus into solving the puzzle, he would not have been able to finish his book.

The passion he displayed for his research motivated me to continue my own search for a subject that will pique my interest as strongly as the Khmer Rouge era did his.

Though I came to this week’s Rose Cafe expecting to hear a talk on China and the US economy, I was pleasantly surprised to be hearing from Professor Andrew Mertha instead. Professor Mertha spoke about Cambodia. More specifically, he talked about a brief history of Cambodia, focusing specifically on Khmer Rouge.

Khmer Rouge is a group that controlled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Under Khmer Rouge, over 1/7th of the population of Cambodia died. This was due to forced labor and inhumane conditions.

The most interesting part of Professor Mertha’s talk was the trouble he encountered during his research. While researching, Professor Mertha had to work around being denied access to sources. He eventually found the sources he needed, but couldn’t find anyone to translate them accurately. Through a stroke of luck, he had a student who had a grandmother in China that had first hand experience with the topic. Professor Mertha then travelled to China to spend weeks talking to people who could accurately translate these materials.

Hearing the trouble that he had with research made me feel reassured. As a student, its easy to assume that professors are different. They almost don’t seem like regular people. Professor Mertha made me realize that professors struggle just as much as I do.