Showing 1 - 10 of 30
Accepting all forms of family
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 26/06/2023
» Her family is made up of two mothers and a daughter. Matcha Phorn-In believes that homophobia fuelled a villager to set a fire near her home in San Kamphaeng in 2016. It occurred several times and although she reported these incidents to the police, they did not take any action because damage did not result in loss of life or property. Hence, they decided to move out and live downtown for safety.
Tales of queer migration
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 19/06/2023
» There is a border that defines the contour of his identity. Only by crossing it can Jaokhun Promchana be the man he wants to be. After moving to the US, he studied a new language and toiled in the kitchen. Holding a dream close to his heart, he went the extra mile to join the US Navy and police. Currently, he is running a restaurant with his wife. From the outside, he looks no different from other men, but in his expired documents, a name and its title are a reminder of the former self that he already shed.
The right to clean air
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 05/06/2023
» In 2009, Smog In The City envisioned a not-too-distant future for Chiang Mai. Set in 2019, Fah returns home to find her family and villagers suffering from air pollution. Following a critical level of toxic haze, the government orders a state of emergency and immediate evacuation. After her mother dies of smog-induced acute coronary syndrome, she rushes to take her family to an airport like other evacuees. While her father and brother deteriorate, a couple approaches her car for drinking water.
A bitter farewell
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 15/05/2023
» The Robot Building on Sathon Road is a childhood superhero that comes to life. Standing on staggered floors, the chunky android is studded with nuts and bolts. Its head boasts metallic-lidded eyes and two communication antennae and its frontal body is outfitted with black glass and blue stripes like armour. It is ready to fight a monster in the urban jungle.
Equality still a dream
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 09/01/2023
» In the lead-up to its second reading, the civil partnership draft bill marks a decade since its inception, dating back to a gay couple who were denied legal recognition in 2012 because the law limits marriage to a man and a woman. Given the conservatism of earlier decades, civil partnership was "the first brick" at a time when marriage equality was almost inconceivable. However, history is often ignored. Despite its long journey in conjunction with the new bill, the uphill push for marriage rights will remain an unfinished business under the current government.
Italians in Siam
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 03/01/2023
» When Mariannina Zuccaro arrived in Bangkok for her marriage with Mario Tamagno, an Italian architect who worked in Siam from 1900-1925, she encountered a stark contrast between her fiance's self-effacing character and monumental creations. According to Italians At The Court Of Siam, she referred to a photograph of the inauguration of a railway, on the back of which Tamagno listed everybody around King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), except himself.
When art gets stifled
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 21/11/2022
» 'Art is short, a case is long," read a banner. Students apparently hijacked the well-known motto "art is long, life is short" by Prof Silpa Bhirasri, the father of Thai modern art, in protest of Chiang Mai University's legal action against its own lecturers and a student who "trespassed" on the art centre to exhibit works, some of which might challenge those in power, last year. It is a case in point for stifling democracy in Thai art.
Opposition MFP doubles down on prohibition
News, Thana Boonlert, Published on 11/11/2022
» The Move Forward Party (MFP) petitioned the Ombudsman on Thursday to seek an injunction from the Administrative Court to suspend a ministerial announcement removing cannabis from the list of narcotic drugs, pending a more thorough law on cannabis control.
The tough road to democratisation
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 03/10/2022
» Taiwan has been hailed as a textbook example of a successful transition to democracy. At the end of the civil war in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), lost to Mao Zedong's communist forces and fled to the island. After almost four decades of martial law until 1987, Taiwan eventually held its first presidential election in 1996.
In a king's footsteps
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 26/09/2022
» The sea breeze blew in as a group of visitors arrived at Mrigadayavan Palace, the former summer retreat of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) in Cha-am district of Phetchaburi. After more than two years since the beginning of the pandemic, the heritage site remains closed for a restoration project that unveils traces of its early days.