December 30, 2022
PHNOM PENH – Many people feel pressure to adhere to the standards seemingly demanded by modern society.
This might include maintaining a certain standard of fashion or wearing perfect make up, chasing a successful corporate career or other modern trends. Attempting to adhere to impossible standards is the reality of life for many of today’s young people.
Chhom Srey Pach has eschewed such standards, and shares her daily life with more than a million social media users.
She produces video content which focuses on the cuisine which is unique to her home province, Banteay Meanchey. In her videos, she rarely bothers to wear makeup. Nor does she seem concerned about whether her clothes will impress her viewers.
She does not dress or act like most so-called “influencers”, who appear to be striving to give the impression of being at the cutting edge of the latest trends, but gives the impression that she is being true to herself and that the viewer is witnessing her true self.
It’s been almost 5 months since she started producing video content. In that time, she has accumulated more than 1.2 million followers on her Facebook account, a staggering amount when compared to most local content creators.
She graduated from business school this year, but still speaks with the distinctive accent of a Banteay Meanchey native. Her audiences seem to accept this as one more indicator of how genuine she is.
As the daughter of a farmer, she brings a unique aspect to living and eating – one which is intriguing to those who grew up in cities and towns. In fact, most of the food she shares in her videos comes from her father’s farm.
Some of her videos see her cooking in the mountains or in the fields. Some feature picnicking on rafts in a drainage pond, catching fish or even digging up potatoes. The unusual content seems to attract people, and she has amassed many fans who are pleased to see reminders of what they see as a simpler time.
It is not easy to produce two full videos a day, and she and her twin brother work the equivalent of a full-time job to keep the content coming.
Things have improved. Her huge viewership figures have attracted the interest of several sponsors – usually people with businesses that want her to mention them or use their products.
Even though she is showered with praise by her online fans, Srey Pach shows no sign of forgetting what makes her unique – being herself.
She still maintains the same unpretentious appearance and relaxed demeanour as she did in her first video, and appears to be living the same simple life. It is these things which have attracted her fans.
She revealed that she has plans for a new video series in the near future.
“I am working on my next idea, but I am keeping it secret for now. I want to surprise my viewers and give them something to watch that they have not seen before,” she told The Post.