Showing 1-10 of 44 results
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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.
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False Eden, real hell
Life, Published on 24/05/2023
» Sometimes Cannes pulls a poker face and smacks a big surprise down on its famous red carpet, all without a blink or a wink. This year, it comes in the form of a three-and-a-half-hour documentary about Chinese sweatshop workers, shot entirely in a crummy garment district on the mainland's eastern coast.
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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.
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Judging by the cover
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 02/09/2022
» We first published A History Of Thailand in 2005, 17 years ago. We have just prepared a fourth edition, adding a new chapter on the extraordinary events since 2005, and over 200 other changes based on new research, mostly by Thai historians. We needed a new cover to signal that this edition is really different.
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Remembering the history that some want forgotten
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 11/03/2022
» Royalist history paints 1932 as a coup by a self-interested clique which thwarted King Prajadhipok's wish to introduce a constitution and led Thailand to militarism and fascism. In 2017, the plaque commemorating 1932 was ripped out of the Royal Plaza -- symbolising the wish to cancel all memory of the event. Democratic history claims 1932 as a revolution which launched Thailand towards democracy and a modern society in which the majority can participate and benefit. In 2020 the youth activists reinstalled the plaque in cyberspace and called themselves the New People's Party. The event matters, one way or the other, down to today.
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Hashtags of hate
Life, Suwitcha Chaiyong, Published on 17/01/2022
» A week ago, the hashtags #BanSitala and #BanLuknang returned to social media again after K-pop girl group H1-Key dropped their debut music video Athletic Girl and performed in an online press conference. These hashtags appeared for the first time last December when South Korean entertainment agency Grandline Group (GLG) announced the debut of H1-Key, which included Thai singer Sitala Wongkrachang as the rapper. Sitala is the daughter of the famous late actor and political activist Saranyu Wongkrachang. When Thai anti-government supporters and K-pop fans discovered that Sitala had entered the industry, they were furious as her family had a role in the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) rallies, which led to the 2014 coup. They accused her of being a supporter of a dictatorship.
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Lessons learned from the October uprising
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 14/10/2021
» When the Oct 14, 1973, uprising culminated in the collapse of the military dictatorship, Sutham Sangprathum, the former deputy interior minister who joined the protests at the age of 19, felt that it was the great victory for people, but gradually learned that it had not challenged the status quo.
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Lessons of history
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 13/10/2021
» After decades of military authoritarianism, student demonstrators in Bangkok began to call for the restoration of constitutional rule and a return to democracy. In the face of the challenge, the entrenched generals refused to negotiate and arrested the protest leaders, claiming they were influenced by communism. It paved the way for the popular uprising of Oct 14, 1973.
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From prostration to prostration
Life, Chris Baker, Published on 05/03/2021
» After leading a coup in 2014, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha announced a code of "Twelve Thai Values", telling people how to think and behave. It is difficult to imagine Angela Merkel announcing "Twelve German Values", or even Narendra Modi announcing "Twelve Indian Values". Since the mid-19th century, there have been lots of Thai manuals about proper body language and oral language in social encounters. These books tell a story about power and hierarchy that Patrick Jory narrates in fascinating detail.
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Eyes wide open
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/05/2020
» The literature about modern Thai politics is not abundant, and by this I mean a narrative that grounds its characters in the double-whammy of coup d'etat and street protest that characterised the mid-2000s to mid-2010s. The period, plus a few years earlier when Thaksin Shinawatra rose to power, contains some of the most convulsive and era-defining moments that continue to shape the visible and invisible dimensions of Thai society in the present time, and it's astonishing that not more writers find it a rich wellspring of artistic expression (on the contrary, visual artists and theatre artists seem more responsive to the political currents of the same period).
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