Every few weeks the steps outside Phnom Penh’s Soyra Mall get inundated with dozens of young Cambodians, dressed American gangster-style in baggy jeans and chains.  The music of popular Khmer hip-hop artist Preap Sovath is turned up to full volume and boys and girls as young as four begin to break dance, each taking turns to spin on their heads while a crowd of curious onlookers gathers around them.
The scene captures much of the tension, irony and determination faced by young Cambodians who are trying to build their own cultural identity in a country that has been dominated by three decades of genocide and civil unrest. The dancers are from a local Phnom Penh break dancing group who call themselves The Tiny Toones.  Founded two years ago by a young Cambodian-American named KK, the group aims to encourage young, disadvantaged Cambodians to concentrate on their frenetic footwork rather than drugs and alcohol.
       While most of these break dancers were born after the communist Khmer Rouge massacres of the mid 1970s, they face the legacy of those times--fear, poverty and suspicion. In a city where more than half the population is under the age of 18, it is young people like KK who have taken control of resurrecting Cambodia’s cultural and arts scene.
    Like many of their Asian counterparts the young people of Phnom Penh have taken many aspects of Western youth culture and added a distinctively Asian twist. And there’s no better way to experience this mixing of East and West than a trip to one of Phnom Penh’s local movie theatres.
        Like most good things in Cambodia, a trip to the movies always begins with Karaoke.  The music videos of local pop stars are shown while the almost exclusively young audiences sing along to the subtitles that are displayed underneath.
        While Khmer movies don’t have English subtitles, you won’t have trouble following the plot.  Popular Khmer movies are a pastiche of Western, horror and comedy films with a bit of Khmer singing and dancing thrown in.  It’s a bit like Bollywood done Khmer-style.
       Although there are numerous movie theatres all over the town centre, the best movie-going experiences can be found in the outer-suburbs of Phnom Penh where outdoor cinemas are frequently held.  Basically, this involves young entrepreneurs hanging sheets between trees in a local park and projecting bootleg films onto them.  You can find their locations by asking around at local cafés and hotels. 
       While movies and dancing are certainly the most popular past times for the young in Phnom Penh, there is also a vibrant and growing arts scene.  At the Popil Photo Gallery, the New Gallery and Equinox Bar, exhibitions by young Cambodian photographers, mix-media artists and painters are frequently held.
        When I was in Phnom Penh I had the privilege of seeing an exhibition at the Popil Photo Gallery by a young student named Vandy Ratana.  Ratana’s exhibit, entitled “In my Office”, looked at the intimate interiors of the offices, factories and buildings where many young Cambodians work.
        What the exhibit reminded me of is the fact that young South East Asians don’t just consume Western culture; they literally produce it.  Many of Ratana’s photographs focused on young people manufacturing the Adidas tracksuits and Gap jeans that are just as popular in Phnom Penh as they are in Australia.
        Like many spaces in Cambodia, a lot of the modern art galleries serve multiple functions.  Many of them also serve as restaurants, live music venues, discos and venues for cultural talks and activism.  At Equinox Bar customers can wander through an impressive collection of mixed-media art by young Cambodians, while sipping on Western-style cocktails and eating traditional Cambodian spring rolls.  On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights the bar turns into a live music venue where young musicians play a unique style of music that often mixes reggae or jazz with traditional Cambodian instruments. Travellers with instruments are welcome and encouraged to participate.
       One of the most interesting of these multi-use spaces is The Salt Lounge Bar.  This ultra-modern bar has great local DJs and a relaxed environment that’s popular with locals and tourists alike.  But it’s not just the extensive cocktail menu that makes this place significant.  As Cambodia’s only gay bar, The Salt Lounge has served a powerful role in the lives of young gay Cambodians in a city that had no openly ‘queer’ culture before its existence. The bar has run Phnom Penh’s Gay Pride Parade for the past three years and is one of the few places where locals and travellers can get information on gay activism and health issues. 
       One of the oldest institutions among young Cambodians looking for a good time is The Heart of Darkness Bar. It hosts an interesting crowd of mostly Cambodian university students and NGO workers. It’s a great place to talk to young people who live and work in the local community.
       There are many urban legends about drug dealers and shootings at ‘The Heart’, as the locals call it.  On the evening that I was there, however, it reminded me much more of a high school dance than a place for gang warfare.  Groups of young women danced on one side of the dance floor while the young men danced on the other, each group giving the other shy glances when they thought no-one was looking.
         The emerging popularity of blogging among young Cambodians allows you to get a glimpse of youth culture and events long before you actually rock up in the capital.  A site called Global Voices and another called Youth Vision both host a number of young Cambodians who blog in English.
        As I checked out these blogs in preparation for writing this article the words of one young Cambodian blogger named Vireak really struck me as poignant:
 “(When I read the) international media reports on young people in Cambodia, there is hardly any single report not mentioning Khmer Rouge, wars, land mines and poverty. There’s so much else going on here.”
        For the young of Phnom Penh the significance of break dancing and blogging isn’t just in the fun of it all; it’s about transmitting ideas and attitudes. It’s about new beginnings.