
This painted Cambodian sign, advertising a ‘Welder of Metal’, is certainly one of the most curious I have come across so far. I first heard about it when it was advertised for sale, here on Khmer 440 Cambodian Forums. It…
This painted Cambodian sign, advertising a ‘Welder of Metal’, is certainly one of the most curious I have come across so far. I first heard about it when it was advertised for sale, here on Khmer 440 Cambodian Forums. It…
Gordon sent me this picture that I never saw while researching the book, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie. It is from Roka Kandal, just South of Kratie town, and reads ‘Repair Television, Tape Player, VCD’ (VCDs are Video CDs). Like Gordon…
Joel Montague has recently made a brilliant addition to the published material on Cambodia’s hand-painted signs. ‘Cambodian Shop Signs: Free-Market Signage in a Post-Marxist Society‘ is a detailed account of the form, featuring over 80 colour images. It is the…
I love these public information/social campaigns captured by Alex Diment during his time working on landmine issues in North-West Cambodia. First up is a sexual health campaign from Kampong Thom province suggesting that using condoms can be as fun as…
Soon after publishing Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie I took a tour to the West bank of the Mekong river. After living for two years on the East bank, where Kratie Town is situated, it was odd that I’d never been…
My recent viewing of the excellent Horn Please movie reminded me of this discovery in Battambang which I made just before leaving Cambodia. While the trucks of India, Bangladesh and Brazil (to name a few) are consistently decorated in vibrantly…
The popularity of hand-painted signs in Cambodia seems to be increasing on a daily basis. During last week’s ‘road show’ to launch the book in Phnom Penh I learned of a new shop that, among many other things, is selling…
After last month’s publication to the rest of the world, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie is now coming to Cambodia. To celebrate its publication here there will be a number of events in Phnom Penh. Throughout this time, and beyond, the…
We’ve currently got guests over from the UK and my wife has taken them to Koh Kong in the South West of the country from where she has sent this despatch of signs, all painted on blue in the traditional…
If you haven’t done so already then I’d highly recommend browsing the Flickr group, Hand Painted Signs of Cambodia. It is a real treasure trove of content, mixing the beautiful, bizarre and bemusing in one nifty package. A number of…
White rabbits make an unusually frequent appearance on hand-painted signs in Cambodia. The one above is from the Yeak Loam lake in Ban Lung, Ratanakiri. It turns out that the white rabbit is a symbol of good luck in Cambodia,…
I’m not the only one with an interest in hand-painted signs in Cambodia. Joel Montague worked in the country in the 1990s and took it upon himself to collect many of the originals that he found there. The video above…