he year 1962: a year of extraordinary firsts. The first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, The Beatles’ first single, the first Black man to enrol at the previously all-white University of Mississippi. And the year a new dance move – the Twist – gyrated its way from West to East, and onto the dancefloors of Cambodian cities. Igniting the sexual revolution and shaking the post-colonial establishment. Chubby Checker’s dance move was brought to the Southeast Asian country by nightclub singer, Chum. The old guard wrote outraged letters to the national rag, La Dépêche du Cambodge about the “vulgarity” of Kem, his followers and their hips, swinging to the rhythm of liberation. Rock’n’roll in Cambodia was born.
