Follower Fridays is a series of profiles highlighting members of Gaysian Third Space to showcase the diversity of gaysians in the Community. This week’s featured member is @khmaoshiroi.

Who are you?

I am James. My Cambodian name is Kheang. My Chinese name is Jun Giang. And I am a lover of hot chips.

Where are you from?

I am from Melbourne.

What do you do?

I am currently living in Osaka, Japan as an English conversational school teacher. I am fortunate enough to teach from as young as two years to a 71 year old. Living here in Japan has allowed me to pursue my dreams of dance, learning a different language and ultimately fulfilling my obsession with wanderlust. However I am looking at moving to Tokyo next year and looking forward to some even bigger changes.

What are you passionate about?

I consider myself a polarizing person. I’m very upfront about my views in regards to minority groups within western spheres but also in regards to issues in Asia. I have a background in Asian studies through my bachelor’s degree. I consider myself to have a number of passions. Maybe it’s because I just have a split personality because I am a Gemini that I need a multitude of passions to keep me focused. Seeing my parents as a child working so hard for little reward was a humongous factor in my vocalism. The pain that you could see from their eyes engulfed by their time in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era was something that I didn’t want to silence. I grew up being very angry towards my parents and it took me a long time to realise where they were coming from and the steps I needed to take to find an inner peace and dialogue with them made me realise the importance for myself to be vocal about effects of war and the subsequent realities minorities face. At the same time I am a beginner dancer who is striving to catch up on time because I am 26 years old now, and hopefully soon enough I can make a career out of dance. While I started out late with dance, I always knew I wanted to pursue it but lacked the courage and found an excuse to not do it. When I first started dance just shy of two years ago, it was pretty immediate it was something I absolutely adored. It’s part of the reason why I moved to Japan, where the dance scene is international here in comparison to our small community in Melbourne. I used to do over seven classes a week which was a heavy expense but worth it. It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel like me. On top of that I am an avid learner of languages and a wannabe polyglot. Currently I speak conversational Khmer, basic Teochew, conversational Japanese, basic Thai, French and I am beginning on Korean.



What is your dream job (real or fantasy)?

Maybe it’s my multitude of personalities but for me, my ultimate dream job is to be an international dancer. What does that encompass? Well, it encompasses being a music video choreographer, a dance teacher who teaches internationally and even a musician of some sorts. On top of that being a university professor on Asian history would be pretty cool too. Documentary host would be swell. Being a Youtuber also sounds quite tantalizing. I think there’s real no way to combine all of my passions in the one job so having multiple dreams job over a course of time is the best fit for me.

If you could change the world with one idea, what would it be?

I think that would for everyone to have empathy. I think that would elicit a change through other aspects of human life. If we were all able to empathize more acutely, we would be able to understand minority or less privileged groups. Such as LGBTQIAs, women, POCs, ethnic minorities and so forth. I think people would be able to understand the pain others go through and battle almost everyday. It would push for further changes. Ultimately a lot of issues we have in this modern society stem from a lack of understanding and being sheltered from other points of views so being able to connect on those grounds would lead an inspirational change for human society. It’s a nice thought to wave a magic wand and achieve this. I do think it’s possible to come to such an actualization. Whether it will happen in my lifetime, I sincerely doubt it. But I hope that through coming together as a diverse community, this empathy can be reached and promote a more strengthened and united humanity.