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Cambodian singer Ma Chanpanha was in China to show off the Kingdom's new generation of original musical talent.

Chanpanha, 23, was the sole representative selected by the Cambodian government to perform in Beijing at the 2015 China ASEAN Friendship Concert last week.

In previous years, Cambodian performers sent to perform overseas would generally do traditional songs. However, Chanpanha is singing his own compositions.

“Being a song composer and singer I’ve faced a lot of challenges because it’s a different way of doing things to most musical artists in Cambodia. Originality isn’t really valued here, even by my own family”, said Chanpanha.

“I am so excited that they recruited me as a youth to represent my country”, he said. “I didn’t expect that it is only me who represent the country.”

Chanpanha was one of a growing number of young original songwriters that the government was keen to encourage, said Ministry of Culture and Fine Art undersecretary of state Ouk Socheat.

Socheat said Cambodian music had for years suffered from a lack of originality with most songs just recycled or copied from overseas, but that is beginning to change.

"I'm happy to encourage young people to show their artistic talent", he said.

On Sunday here in Cambodia, even more original talent will be on show at the Mic Original Song Contest being held at the Cambodian Institute of Technology.

“It is a big event compared to previous events in the country and we will run two programs in the event: original song contest to find the three best songs and original song from senior singers,” said organiser Seng Pyseth.

the source