Yike Opera
Master Khi Mom is an opera singer specializing in Cambodia's traditional yike opera. She learned opera as a teenager from her father, and performed for the Ministry of Culture before the Khmer Rouge years. She lost her husband and four children during Pol Pot's reign.
Cambodian operas have not recovered since 1980, and yike is not widely known to many of the country's youth. Master Khi Mom taught at the University of Fine Arts in the 1980s, but upon retirement, she earned her living scavenging trash for re-sellable items. Since 2002, she has been a CLA Master in Phnom Penh.