Showing 1 - 10 of 20
Dough therapy
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 21/04/2025
» Oranong Chanasit, an activist, took a bakery course to learn how to knead dough in the hope of teaching hilltribe children, but encountered a life-changing experience.
Teaching gender diversity
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 10/03/2025
» "I am bisexual like a papaya flower," said Jirajade Wisetdonwail.
Memes of dissent
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 14/08/2023
» It is not as whimsical as it seems. After the onset of the largest pro-democracy movement since the military coup in 2014, university and high school students cuddled hamster dolls and ran around in circles. "Delicious tax!", hundreds of them sang, from a cartoon jingle at Democracy Monument in late July 2020. Crowdsourced from a social media platform, Hamtaro, a shorthand for caged mice demanding freedom, spawned many internet memes, including a greedy caricature of junta leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The power of boycotts
Thana Boonlert, Published on 24/07/2023
» Soon after Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat failed to gather enough support for the premiership, some voters launched retaliatory campaigns with the hashtag #senatorbusiness to boycott business networks of handpicked junta senators who rejected him or abstained. Senators then took legal action against those who they believe harass them and their families. Voters are not only cutting off social relations but also punishing senators for committing crimes against democracy.
Songs for life as it's no longer lived
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 17/04/2023
» Ad Carabao's new song Prachathipatung revives the myth of vote-buying and ignorance in rural society. The title is a coinage blending prachathipatai (democracy) and tung (money). On the track, parents ask children to return to their home village to vote for local politicians who give them money. It puts into song from the political discourse of an urban middle class that expresses disdain for villagers along with antipathy for one type of money politics as well as full-fledged democracy.
Challenging the norm
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 07/11/2022
» Yaoi or Boys' Love (BL) has grown from an underground to mainstream fictional genre. It emerged from women's manga comics in Japan in the 1980s, which portrayed the relationship between young boys based on the seme (active) and uke (receptive) dichotomy. Through an informal fan network, the transnational phenomenon came to Thailand in the early 1990s and a subculture was formed online.
On the road to equality
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 13/09/2022
» Joyce Teng remembers the day when Taiwan's parliament passed the same-sex marriage bill in 2019, making it the first country in Asia to recognise such a union. Thousands of supporters erupted in joy outside the parliament building in the capital.
Thailand's Big Brother is upping the ante
Oped, Thana Boonlert, Published on 06/08/2022
» In the late 18th century, British philosopher Jeremy Bentham visited his younger brother, Samuel, in Russia, who arranged unskilled factory workers in a circle so that he could supervise them. Inspired by this principle, Bentham developed "the panopticon", an inspection tower surrounded by cells. Its uniqueness was that it enabled a watchman to monitor prisoners without them knowing they were being watched.
When marriage equality is an issue of freedom
Oped, Thana Boonlert, Published on 01/04/2022
» The cabinet early this week finally shot down a draft of the marriage equality bill that was proposed by the Move Forward Party (MFP). The doomed destiny of this progressive pro-gender equality draft bill is not surprising under the current ultra-conservative government.
Move Forward Party warns court ruling may trigger social unrest
Thana Boonlert, Published on 11/11/2021
» The Move Forward Party (MFP) has warned the Constitutional Court’s ruling against young protesters on Wednesday may trigger a social explosion, and asked those in power not to view the young generation as enemies.