Showing 1 - 10 of 64
When students rise
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 28/10/2025
» Back in the mid-19th century, female education increased literacy and access to jobs and they began to fight for participation in public life. The public sphere promised them a new horizon. From the 1890s onwards, print media began to allow women to express their voice and authors vaunted personal talent and equality, including gender relations. Following the Siamese Revolution in 1932, women were enfranchised for the first time.
Written in blood
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 21/07/2025
» In 2015, Joe Freeman and Aung Naing Soe noticed the prominent status of poetry in Myanmar politics. At the time, both journalists heard that Maung Saungkha, a 23-year-old poet, posted a poem about having a tattoo of an unnamed president on his penis on Facebook. Saungkha, however, was charged for defaming former president Thein Sein under telecommunication law, serving a six-month jail term.
The price of progress
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 23/06/2025
» Ongoing construction at the former site of Scala is opposite a major predecessor. Opening in 1985 at the corner of Pathumwan Intersection, MBK Center is located on a plot of land leased to Mah Boon Krong Drying and Silo Co Ltd. It features a 20-storey office building and an eight-storey shopping mall.
Agents of change
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/05/2025
» Awash with saturated colour and steeped in Brazil's history of authoritarianism, Kleber Mendoça Filho's The Secret Agent has emerged as a serious contender for the Palme d'Or. A former film critic, programmer and now a leading voice in Brazilian cinema, Mendoça Filho's fourth feature -- and his third in Cannes Competition -- is a political thriller, a tribute to disappeared dissidents, and a deft ode to the way memory is passed through time and technology.
A Useful Ghost fills a vacuum at Cannes
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/05/2025
» What begins as comedy sometimes ends as horror. Or maybe: What begins as comedy sometimes ends as tragicomedy. Last Saturday, writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke presented Pee Chai Dai Kha (A Useful Ghost) at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, the sole Thai title in the festival.
Fractured bonds
Life, Thana Boonlert, Published on 28/04/2025
» Neo Sora's debut feature film Happyend envisions a dystopian near-future Tokyo under threat of an earthquake, which forms the backdrop of youth rebellion against authoritarianism. As it is followed by aftershocks that fracture personal relationships, Happyend is an ode to friends drifting apart at the mercy of larger forces, but still in the same universe.
Historical horrors
Life, Suwitcha Chaiyong, Published on 18/06/2024
» The Oct 6, 1976, massacre was one of Thailand's most tragic incidents -- a violent crackdown by the Royal Thai Police and right-wing paramilitaries against student protesters at Thammasat University and areas around Sanam Luang.
Getting soft power right
Life, Prof Apinan Poshyananda, Published on 08/01/2024
» After three months in office, the Srettha Thavisin government has raved on about populist policies in the guise of digital wallets and soft power projects that will create income to boost our declining economy. With optimism, we learned that Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Pheu Thai party leader and head of the National Soft Power Strategy Committee (NSPSC), has drafted a budget of 5.1 billion baht to boost festivals and creative industries. It is welcoming news to hear this government is priortising art, music, literature, design, fashion, film, food, games, sports and festivals as essential sources for the creative economy. Where this enormous chunk of budget will come from, like digital wallets, remains to be seen.
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.