Walsh, Neil M.

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Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings
Volume 2019 Article 16
2019
Eudemonia and Economy in Queer Life:
Expressions of the Khmer Gay Male in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia
Neil M. Walsh
Hotelschool The Hague, The Netherlands
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Recommended Citation
Walsh, Neil M. (2019) "Eudemonia and Economy in Queer Life: Expressions of the Khmer Gay Male in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,"
Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings: Vol. 2019 , Article 16.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cts-proceedings/vol2019/iss1/16
CTS 2019 
W 
Title: Eudemonia and Economy in Queer Life: Expressions of the Khmer Gay Male in Phnom 
Penh, Cambodia 
 
Author:  
 
Neil M. Walsh 
Hotelschool The Hague, The Netherlands 
 
Abstract: 
Resulting from a series of conversations with individuals within a Khmer (Cambodian) 
gay male community in Phnom Penh, a number of oft repeated role models surface as dominant 
expressions of gay male Khmer identity in contemporary Cambodian life. [1] The artist/the 
dancer; [2] the money-boy (as self-identified specific type of sex-worker) [3]; the barang-buddy 
(the ‘foreigner’ friend/the socialite); [4] the entertainer; [5] the educated – Cambodia’s resurgent 
intelligentsia; [6] the Khmerican (or other foreign born Khmer largely post-Khmer Rouge 
diaspora and returned); [7] the service-oriented gay Khmer (tourism & hospitality related 
worker). 
Their identities are expressed, explored and conveyed via the perspective of the 
community, of which they form and are part of. The research is presented as a montage of bite-
size videos, recorded and stylized by the community members themselves. While the community 
narrate, express and visualize their identities, the researcher acts as translator and draws some 
signification and meaning from the video-content. Eudemonia (spiritual wellbeing) and economy 
(monetary need and gain) act as key drivers or pathways that inform queer identities in Phnom 
Penh, and are taken variously as divergent and convergent in creating the identities herein 
expressed. 
  
1
Walsh: Eudemonia and Economy in Queer Life: Expressions of the Khmer Gay
Published by Digital Commons @ TRU Library, 2019


Eudemonia and Economy in Queer Life: Expressions of the Khmer Gay Male in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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Eudemonia and Economy in Queer Life: Expressions of the Khmer Gay Male in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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