Khmer Writers Association observes 111th anniversary of author Rim Kin. KWA
The Khmer Writers Association (KWA) is preparing to publish the book Rim Kin, Biography and Works to commemorate the 111th anniversary of the birth of Kin, a giant of Khmer literature.
Lek Chumnor, KWA vice-president, said the biography would honour Kin, the first president of the KDA.
“A research, review and publishing committee is working on biographies of all of the former presidents of the association, starting with Kin. We also intend to re-publish their lost works, and have received all of Kin’s manuscripts from his daughter,” he added.
The initiative aims to republish the very first Khmer novels, to regenerate interest in them.
The research and re-publishing work will be led by Chumnor, who is chairman of the committee.
Rim Kin was one of the most famous writers of Khmer literature in the 20th century.
He was born on November 8, 1911 in Phnom Penh. His father, Kim, and his mother, Rosa, were from a simple family. His father worked as a supervisor in the public sector, and was responsible for overseeing road workers from several districts.
Because his father’s work meant his family lived in many different districts and villages, as a child, the author Kin encountered the lives of many farmers in many different places.
As a child, he learned the Khmer alphabet from a monk named Achar Saing – who was his maternal cousin – at Svay Dangkum pagoda, III commune, Phnom Penh.
After graduating high school and pursuing pedagogy, he worked as a teacher, with the government assigning him to Battambang province. It was there that he first fell in love, the inspiration for many of his stories.
A year later, in 1935, he returned to Phnom Penh to work as a custodian at Preah Sisowath Junior High School. At the same time, he married Srin Sin, the daughter of judge Yit Srin.
In 1939, he worked as a teacher at Chak Angre Primary School (later renamed Chao Ponhea Hok Primary School) and later at the Annexe Normale, where he later passed the exam to become a high school teacher. The government placed him at the École Normale High School from 1947 as professor of national languages, until the school became the Institute of National Pedagogy.
In addition to teaching in public schools, Kin took the time to teach in private schools, to help improve the national language skills of Cambodian students. In his spare time, he wrote stories, poems and books for students and translated some foreign works into Khmer.
In 1955, when the Khmer Writers Association was formed, Kin was so well trusted by his contemporaries that he was elected president of the association for two years. Unfortunately, in October 1958, he was diagnosed with a neuralgia. Despite the best efforts of his doctors and his family, he did not recover.
On January 27, 1959, he passed away, leaving his family stricken with grief. His colleagues and the general public mourned his loss alongside them.
His cremation ceremony was held at Ounalom crematorium under the auspices of the Ministry of National Education and the KWA. At that time, he was posthumously honoured as a secretary of state at the education ministry by a representative of His Majesty the King.
Today, Kin’s daughter, Kin Somaly, lives in France.
All of his works in the Khmer language have been handed over by his family to the KWA’s research committee for preservation.
The collection includes many kinds of work, including novels, poems, essays, plays, short stories and fairy tales. Many of them have never before been published.
