Peter A. Jackson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888083046
- eISBN:
- 9789882207325
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083046.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The Thai capital Bangkok is the unrivalled centre of the country's gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. These communities are among the largest in Southeast Asia, and indeed in the world, and ...
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The Thai capital Bangkok is the unrivalled centre of the country's gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. These communities are among the largest in Southeast Asia, and indeed in the world, and have a diversity, social presence, and historical depth that set them apart from the queer cultures of many neighbouring societies. The first years of the twenty-firsy century have marked a significant transition moment for all of Thailand's LGBT cultures, with a multidimensional expansion in the geographical extent, media presence, economic importance, political impact, social standing, and cultural relevance of Thai queer communities. This book analyzes the roles of the market and media—especially cinema and the Internet—in these transformations, and considers the ambiguous consequences that the growing commodification and mediatization of queer lives have had for LGBT rights in Thailand. A key finding is that in the early twenty-first century, processes of global queering are leading to a growing Asianization of Bangkok's queer cultures. The book traces Bangkok's emergence as a central focus of an expanding regional network linking gay, lesbian, and transgender communities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other rapidly developing East and Southeast Asian societies.Less
The Thai capital Bangkok is the unrivalled centre of the country's gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. These communities are among the largest in Southeast Asia, and indeed in the world, and have a diversity, social presence, and historical depth that set them apart from the queer cultures of many neighbouring societies. The first years of the twenty-firsy century have marked a significant transition moment for all of Thailand's LGBT cultures, with a multidimensional expansion in the geographical extent, media presence, economic importance, political impact, social standing, and cultural relevance of Thai queer communities. This book analyzes the roles of the market and media—especially cinema and the Internet—in these transformations, and considers the ambiguous consequences that the growing commodification and mediatization of queer lives have had for LGBT rights in Thailand. A key finding is that in the early twenty-first century, processes of global queering are leading to a growing Asianization of Bangkok's queer cultures. The book traces Bangkok's emergence as a central focus of an expanding regional network linking gay, lesbian, and transgender communities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other rapidly developing East and Southeast Asian societies.
Simone AbdouMaliq
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195369212
- eISBN:
- 9780199871179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369212.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Islam
This chapter concerns specific practices of urban youth culture undertaken by youth who are Muslim to construct a particular horizon of youth—a temporal framework that resituates the position of ...
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This chapter concerns specific practices of urban youth culture undertaken by youth who are Muslim to construct a particular horizon of youth—a temporal framework that resituates the position of being youth away from the cultural conventions of development. In other words, a means of envisioning a future that enables youth to become something other than youth, but without relying upon the customary means for resolving this transformation, particularly as the transformation into adulthood is something increasingly problematic. The chapter quickly passes through a few different settings, Cameroon, Bangkok, and Marseilles, in the urban South. This tour is undertaken more for its allegorical possibilities than for any pretense of critical comparison, because cities—with their disparate histories, positions, economies, and styles—are comparable only in broad strokes. Similarly, the designation Muslim youth is hardly a coherent category. Accordingly, the divergent sites and popular quarters are assembled here as a means of pointing to realms of possibilities and constraints, perhaps not capable of generalization across settings, but indicative of both fading and emerging parameters of action.Less
This chapter concerns specific practices of urban youth culture undertaken by youth who are Muslim to construct a particular horizon of youth—a temporal framework that resituates the position of being youth away from the cultural conventions of development. In other words, a means of envisioning a future that enables youth to become something other than youth, but without relying upon the customary means for resolving this transformation, particularly as the transformation into adulthood is something increasingly problematic. The chapter quickly passes through a few different settings, Cameroon, Bangkok, and Marseilles, in the urban South. This tour is undertaken more for its allegorical possibilities than for any pretense of critical comparison, because cities—with their disparate histories, positions, economies, and styles—are comparable only in broad strokes. Similarly, the designation Muslim youth is hardly a coherent category. Accordingly, the divergent sites and popular quarters are assembled here as a means of pointing to realms of possibilities and constraints, perhaps not capable of generalization across settings, but indicative of both fading and emerging parameters of action.
Mary J. Ainslie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462340
- eISBN:
- 9781626746787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462340.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter conducts a critical analysis of the 2010 Thai superhero film Insee Daeng (The Red Eagle), the remake and re-launch of a series of 1960s Thai films built around this character, who fights ...
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This chapter conducts a critical analysis of the 2010 Thai superhero film Insee Daeng (The Red Eagle), the remake and re-launch of a series of 1960s Thai films built around this character, who fights corrupt government officials and their shadowy underworld in 2013 Bangkok. Through close textual analysis of the film itself, plus an overview of the wider context in which it was produced and released, this chapter indicates that, while the film and the reincarnation of its central figure appears very much in keeping with the conservative ideological agenda of New Thai cinema, the “extreme” nature of its central figure and its depiction of Bangkok can be considered quite progressive in attitudes and approaches during a very divided period of political turmoil. The film’s close relationship to recent political events as well as its unusual status as an adaptation of an older superhero figure indicates how diverse social developments can affect the incarnation of the superhero figure.Less
This chapter conducts a critical analysis of the 2010 Thai superhero film Insee Daeng (The Red Eagle), the remake and re-launch of a series of 1960s Thai films built around this character, who fights corrupt government officials and their shadowy underworld in 2013 Bangkok. Through close textual analysis of the film itself, plus an overview of the wider context in which it was produced and released, this chapter indicates that, while the film and the reincarnation of its central figure appears very much in keeping with the conservative ideological agenda of New Thai cinema, the “extreme” nature of its central figure and its depiction of Bangkok can be considered quite progressive in attitudes and approaches during a very divided period of political turmoil. The film’s close relationship to recent political events as well as its unusual status as an adaptation of an older superhero figure indicates how diverse social developments can affect the incarnation of the superhero figure.
Solly Angel
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195158687
- eISBN:
- 9780199849826
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158687.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
One day in 1986, the author had a mini-vision that the portable personal scale, more commonly known as the bathroom scale, could be reinvented so that it would be no more than a quarter inch in ...
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One day in 1986, the author had a mini-vision that the portable personal scale, more commonly known as the bathroom scale, could be reinvented so that it would be no more than a quarter inch in thickness and weigh no more than one pound. Then, it would be truly portable and one could even carry it around in one's bag on one's travels, like just another accessory. As a result, this chapter discusses The Tale of the Scale, which is the story of how this plan was conducted. Before elaborating on this mini-vision, it first explains what the author was doing in Bangkok of all places in the 1986 rainy season.Less
One day in 1986, the author had a mini-vision that the portable personal scale, more commonly known as the bathroom scale, could be reinvented so that it would be no more than a quarter inch in thickness and weigh no more than one pound. Then, it would be truly portable and one could even carry it around in one's bag on one's travels, like just another accessory. As a result, this chapter discusses The Tale of the Scale, which is the story of how this plan was conducted. Before elaborating on this mini-vision, it first explains what the author was doing in Bangkok of all places in the 1986 rainy season.
Barbara Owen, James Wells, and Joycelyn Pollock
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288713
- eISBN:
- 9780520963566
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288713.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and ...
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Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage, reflecting their pathways to prison. Women in prison share common characteristics, many mediated by structural, historical, and cumulative disadvantage. T pathways approach is expanded to include women’s experience within these structural clusters of intersectional inequalities. In their search for safety, women must negotiate these inequities through developing forms of prison capital. The history and philosophies underpinning women’s imprisonment, the gendered impact of prison and drug policy, and the variations in rates of imprisonment for differentially-situated women are also used to contextualizes the imprisonment of women. Prison conditions, aggravated by crowding, inadequate medical and mental health care and the lack of gender-informed operational practice, contribute to the gendered harm of imprisonment. A women’s search for safety is described through the lens of prison capital, forms of human, social and cultural capital women leverage to combat the gendered harm of imprisonment. Forms of capital combine with the intersectional inequality of imprisonment to condition the context for trouble and harm among women and with staff. The harm of women’s imprisonment can be located in human rights violations inside. The way forward is found in implementing international human rights standards in U. S. prisons, focusing on the promise of the Bangkok Rules.Less
Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage, reflecting their pathways to prison. Women in prison share common characteristics, many mediated by structural, historical, and cumulative disadvantage. T pathways approach is expanded to include women’s experience within these structural clusters of intersectional inequalities. In their search for safety, women must negotiate these inequities through developing forms of prison capital. The history and philosophies underpinning women’s imprisonment, the gendered impact of prison and drug policy, and the variations in rates of imprisonment for differentially-situated women are also used to contextualizes the imprisonment of women. Prison conditions, aggravated by crowding, inadequate medical and mental health care and the lack of gender-informed operational practice, contribute to the gendered harm of imprisonment. A women’s search for safety is described through the lens of prison capital, forms of human, social and cultural capital women leverage to combat the gendered harm of imprisonment. Forms of capital combine with the intersectional inequality of imprisonment to condition the context for trouble and harm among women and with staff. The harm of women’s imprisonment can be located in human rights violations inside. The way forward is found in implementing international human rights standards in U. S. prisons, focusing on the promise of the Bangkok Rules.
Claudio Sopranzetti
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520288492
- eISBN:
- 9780520963399
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288492.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
On May 19, 2010, the Royal Thai Army deployed tanks, snipers, and other weapons of war to disperse thousands of protesters who had taken over the commercial center of Bangkok. For the two months, ...
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On May 19, 2010, the Royal Thai Army deployed tanks, snipers, and other weapons of war to disperse thousands of protesters who had taken over the commercial center of Bangkok. For the two months, these protesters, known as the Red Shirts, had frozen traffic at the Ratchaprasong intersection, the center of elite consumption as well as economic and physical mobility in the city. The protesters demanded democratic elections and an end to political and economic inequality. Motorcycle taxi drivers were key to this protest; they slowed, filtered, and severed the movement of people, commodities, and information. In so doing, they claimed a prominent role in national politics and control over Bangkok, and they challenged the hegemony of state forces. Four years later, the general who had directed the Red Shirts’ dispersal staged a military coup. This erased all the progress that had been made by the protest and plunged the country into an era of dictatorship and repression. This time, the taxi drivers were silenced and restrained. How could state power be so fragile and open to challenges in 2010 and yet so sturdy four years later? How could motorcycle taxi drivers who fearlessly resisted military violence in 2010 remain silent?Owners of the Map attempts to answer these questions—central to contemporary political mobilizations around the globe—through an ethnographic study of some of the two hundred thousand motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok. Exploring the entanglements between their everyday mobility and political mobilization, the author reveals the unresolved tensions in the drivers’ everyday lives, desires, and political demands amid the restructuring of Thai capitalism following the 1997 economic crisis. In so doing, this book explores mobility not just as a strength of contemporary capitalism but also as one of its fragile spots, always prone to disruption by the people who sustain its channels but are excluded from its benefits. In doing so, this book advances an analysis of power that does not focus on the sturdiness of hegemony or the ubiquity of everyday resistance but reveals its potential fragility, as well as the work needed for its maintenance.Less
On May 19, 2010, the Royal Thai Army deployed tanks, snipers, and other weapons of war to disperse thousands of protesters who had taken over the commercial center of Bangkok. For the two months, these protesters, known as the Red Shirts, had frozen traffic at the Ratchaprasong intersection, the center of elite consumption as well as economic and physical mobility in the city. The protesters demanded democratic elections and an end to political and economic inequality. Motorcycle taxi drivers were key to this protest; they slowed, filtered, and severed the movement of people, commodities, and information. In so doing, they claimed a prominent role in national politics and control over Bangkok, and they challenged the hegemony of state forces. Four years later, the general who had directed the Red Shirts’ dispersal staged a military coup. This erased all the progress that had been made by the protest and plunged the country into an era of dictatorship and repression. This time, the taxi drivers were silenced and restrained. How could state power be so fragile and open to challenges in 2010 and yet so sturdy four years later? How could motorcycle taxi drivers who fearlessly resisted military violence in 2010 remain silent?Owners of the Map attempts to answer these questions—central to contemporary political mobilizations around the globe—through an ethnographic study of some of the two hundred thousand motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok. Exploring the entanglements between their everyday mobility and political mobilization, the author reveals the unresolved tensions in the drivers’ everyday lives, desires, and political demands amid the restructuring of Thai capitalism following the 1997 economic crisis. In so doing, this book explores mobility not just as a strength of contemporary capitalism but also as one of its fragile spots, always prone to disruption by the people who sustain its channels but are excluded from its benefits. In doing so, this book advances an analysis of power that does not focus on the sturdiness of hegemony or the ubiquity of everyday resistance but reveals its potential fragility, as well as the work needed for its maintenance.
Tamara Loos
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622091214
- eISBN:
- 9789882207493
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622091214.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines how Siam's modernity developed in relation to areas on the Malay Peninsula, focusing on the role played by King Chulalongkorn and his closest advisors. The catalyst for ...
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This chapter examines how Siam's modernity developed in relation to areas on the Malay Peninsula, focusing on the role played by King Chulalongkorn and his closest advisors. The catalyst for Bangkok's centralization of control over territory was nineteenth-century European imperialism. Siam's leaders felt that the country's autonomy was under siege by imperial Britain and France, so they centralized and strengthened its provincial administration. The chapter argues that the decision by Siam's rulers to incorporate certain territories on the Malay Peninsula but not others, and the particular reforms pursued, were imbued with motives that went far beyond the original concern for Siam's independence, let alone survival. It entailed the direct administration of autonomously ruled Malay Muslim states and involved several other measures that appear characteristically imperial.Less
This chapter examines how Siam's modernity developed in relation to areas on the Malay Peninsula, focusing on the role played by King Chulalongkorn and his closest advisors. The catalyst for Bangkok's centralization of control over territory was nineteenth-century European imperialism. Siam's leaders felt that the country's autonomy was under siege by imperial Britain and France, so they centralized and strengthened its provincial administration. The chapter argues that the decision by Siam's rulers to incorporate certain territories on the Malay Peninsula but not others, and the particular reforms pursued, were imbued with motives that went far beyond the original concern for Siam's independence, let alone survival. It entailed the direct administration of autonomously ruled Malay Muslim states and involved several other measures that appear characteristically imperial.
Peter A. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888083046
- eISBN:
- 9789882207325
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083046.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Queer Bangkok has been much more influenced by, and become a source of influences for, gay Asia than the gay West. This chapter argues that at the same time that capitalism provides avenues of ...
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Queer Bangkok has been much more influenced by, and become a source of influences for, gay Asia than the gay West. This chapter argues that at the same time that capitalism provides avenues of opportunity for some Thai gay men, it also erects barriers of exclusion for others. As a highly commodified identity with a middle-class caché, Thai gay identity comes literally with a price tag, often excluding men with lower incomes from participating fully in this market-based zone of sexual autonomy. The chapter analyzes possibilities for queer autonomy and rights under capitalism. It also examines market-based aspects of autonomy gained by queer purchasing power and considers the extent to which market-based societies provide opportunities for institutionalizing queer rights in law.Less
Queer Bangkok has been much more influenced by, and become a source of influences for, gay Asia than the gay West. This chapter argues that at the same time that capitalism provides avenues of opportunity for some Thai gay men, it also erects barriers of exclusion for others. As a highly commodified identity with a middle-class caché, Thai gay identity comes literally with a price tag, often excluding men with lower incomes from participating fully in this market-based zone of sexual autonomy. The chapter analyzes possibilities for queer autonomy and rights under capitalism. It also examines market-based aspects of autonomy gained by queer purchasing power and considers the extent to which market-based societies provide opportunities for institutionalizing queer rights in law.
Peter A. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888083046
- eISBN:
- 9789882207325
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083046.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This book examines the roles of the market and the media, notably cinema and the Internet, in the recent transformations of Bangkok's queer communities. It considers the ambiguous consequences that ...
More
This book examines the roles of the market and the media, notably cinema and the Internet, in the recent transformations of Bangkok's queer communities. It considers the ambiguous consequences that the growing commodification and mediatization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual (LGBT) lives have had for queer rights in Thailand. The chapter also considers Bangkok queer cultures until mid-2008, just before the onset of the global financial crisis in the second half of that year and before the intensification of political conflicts between supporters and opponents of the September 2006 military coup that toppled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.Less
This book examines the roles of the market and the media, notably cinema and the Internet, in the recent transformations of Bangkok's queer communities. It considers the ambiguous consequences that the growing commodification and mediatization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual (LGBT) lives have had for queer rights in Thailand. The chapter also considers Bangkok queer cultures until mid-2008, just before the onset of the global financial crisis in the second half of that year and before the intensification of political conflicts between supporters and opponents of the September 2006 military coup that toppled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Nikos Dacanay
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888083046
- eISBN:
- 9789882207325
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083046.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter considers the relationship between the structures of power inherent in the movements in gay places and spaces in the Bangkok metropolis and the performances of gay identity. It focuses ...
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This chapter considers the relationship between the structures of power inherent in the movements in gay places and spaces in the Bangkok metropolis and the performances of gay identity. It focuses on the constituted images and reputations of two gay saunas, The Babylon and Farose. The chapter also examines the dynamic process in performing notions of gay identities as gay men in Bangkok move within and among contested fields of urban gay places and spaces.Less
This chapter considers the relationship between the structures of power inherent in the movements in gay places and spaces in the Bangkok metropolis and the performances of gay identity. It focuses on the constituted images and reputations of two gay saunas, The Babylon and Farose. The chapter also examines the dynamic process in performing notions of gay identities as gay men in Bangkok move within and among contested fields of urban gay places and spaces.
Gary L. Atkins
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083237
- eISBN:
- 9789882209305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083237.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
As a child in the 1950s world of Bangkok, Toc wanted to be a painter or a concert pianist, but in a post-war country on the cusp of economic change, business more than aesthetics becomes the focus of ...
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As a child in the 1950s world of Bangkok, Toc wanted to be a painter or a concert pianist, but in a post-war country on the cusp of economic change, business more than aesthetics becomes the focus of cultivation. This chapter examines economic development and gender turmoil in Thailand in the late 1950s and 1960s, focusing in particular on questions about manhood and sexual desire that arose during the extensive media coverage of a high profile murder in 1965—that of the homosexual war correspondent and Bangkok World editor Darrell Berrigan. Berrigan, who had helped Thailand in its relations with the United States, was murdered during what appeared to be a homosexual encounter gone awry. The murder led to re-evaluations in the Thai press about the cross-dressing and transsexual men who after World War II had become known as kathoeys.Less
As a child in the 1950s world of Bangkok, Toc wanted to be a painter or a concert pianist, but in a post-war country on the cusp of economic change, business more than aesthetics becomes the focus of cultivation. This chapter examines economic development and gender turmoil in Thailand in the late 1950s and 1960s, focusing in particular on questions about manhood and sexual desire that arose during the extensive media coverage of a high profile murder in 1965—that of the homosexual war correspondent and Bangkok World editor Darrell Berrigan. Berrigan, who had helped Thailand in its relations with the United States, was murdered during what appeared to be a homosexual encounter gone awry. The murder led to re-evaluations in the Thai press about the cross-dressing and transsexual men who after World War II had become known as kathoeys.
Gary L. Atkins
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083237
- eISBN:
- 9789882209305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083237.003.0014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The architectural experiences met at Babylon through Khun Toc's design derive from sound, light, and rhythm, creating for men senses of arrival, meeting, identity, and common agreement. Among the ...
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The architectural experiences met at Babylon through Khun Toc's design derive from sound, light, and rhythm, creating for men senses of arrival, meeting, identity, and common agreement. Among the most important features of the space is its emphasis not simply on sex, but on men feasting, a manhood built upon pleasure rather than power. The chapter closes with a description of one such feast in 2005, when an emissary from Stuart Koe arrived, seeking help because of troubles in Singapore.Less
The architectural experiences met at Babylon through Khun Toc's design derive from sound, light, and rhythm, creating for men senses of arrival, meeting, identity, and common agreement. Among the most important features of the space is its emphasis not simply on sex, but on men feasting, a manhood built upon pleasure rather than power. The chapter closes with a description of one such feast in 2005, when an emissary from Stuart Koe arrived, seeking help because of troubles in Singapore.
Gary L. Atkins
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083237
- eISBN:
- 9789882209305
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083237.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
If international gay travel guides had proclaimed Bangkok a mecca for marginalized gay men by the end of the 1970s, the guides had a reverse opinion of Singapore. This chapter explores Singapore's ...
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If international gay travel guides had proclaimed Bangkok a mecca for marginalized gay men by the end of the 1970s, the guides had a reverse opinion of Singapore. This chapter explores Singapore's colonial inheritance of laws that banned sodomy and male “gross indecency”—an attempt to spread Victorian ideals of male behavior. A subaltern sexual expression developed astride the city's famed Bugis Street, itself named after a Sulawesian group that reflected the region's pre-colonial understandings of gender and sexual expression. Bugis Street's legacy eventually impacted Singapore's development of sexual reassignment surgery, its language naming prostitutes and gay men, and what became a technique for opening small public spaces on the island for dances that subverted gender and sexual expectations of manhood. Within this national context of Victorian colonial values versus subversive gender and sexual expressions, the author here moves toward his own gender and sexual understanding in high school in the 1980s.Less
If international gay travel guides had proclaimed Bangkok a mecca for marginalized gay men by the end of the 1970s, the guides had a reverse opinion of Singapore. This chapter explores Singapore's colonial inheritance of laws that banned sodomy and male “gross indecency”—an attempt to spread Victorian ideals of male behavior. A subaltern sexual expression developed astride the city's famed Bugis Street, itself named after a Sulawesian group that reflected the region's pre-colonial understandings of gender and sexual expression. Bugis Street's legacy eventually impacted Singapore's development of sexual reassignment surgery, its language naming prostitutes and gay men, and what became a technique for opening small public spaces on the island for dances that subverted gender and sexual expectations of manhood. Within this national context of Victorian colonial values versus subversive gender and sexual expressions, the author here moves toward his own gender and sexual understanding in high school in the 1980s.
Andy Kirkpatrick
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028795
- eISBN:
- 9789882206922
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028795.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter provides a brief summary of the context in which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration in August 1967 by the five ...
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This chapter provides a brief summary of the context in which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration in August 1967 by the five founding member countries, and examines the role of the English language. It discusses the role of English language and other languages within the organization. The chapter also compares the main principles of the original 1967 Bangkok Declaration with those of the recently signed charter of the ASEAN.Less
This chapter provides a brief summary of the context in which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration in August 1967 by the five founding member countries, and examines the role of the English language. It discusses the role of English language and other languages within the organization. The chapter also compares the main principles of the original 1967 Bangkok Declaration with those of the recently signed charter of the ASEAN.
Trais Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740152
- eISBN:
- 9781501740176
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740152.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
By the 1890s, Siam (Thailand) was the last holdout against European imperialism in Southeast Asia. But the kingdom's exceptional status came with a substantial caveat: Bangkok, its bustling capital, ...
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By the 1890s, Siam (Thailand) was the last holdout against European imperialism in Southeast Asia. But the kingdom's exceptional status came with a substantial caveat: Bangkok, its bustling capital, was a port city that was subject to many of the same legal and fiscal constraints as other colonial treaty ports. This book offers new insight into turn-of-the-century Thai history by disinterring the forgotten stories of those who died “unnatural deaths” during this period and the work of the Siamese state to assert their rights in a pluralistic legal arena. The book documents the piecemeal introduction of new forms of legal and medical concern for the dead. It reveals that the investigation of unnatural death demanded testimony from diverse strata of society: from the unlettered masses to the king himself. These cases raised questions about how to handle the dead—were they spirits to be placated or legal subjects whose deaths demanded compensation?—as well as questions about jurisdiction, rights, and liability. Exhuming the history of imperial politics, transnational commerce, technology, and expertise, the book demonstrates how the state's response to global flows transformed the nature of legal subjectivity and politics in lasting ways. A compelling exploration of the troubling lives of the dead in a cosmopolitan treaty port, the book is a notable contribution to the growing corpus of studies in science, law, and society in the non-Western world.Less
By the 1890s, Siam (Thailand) was the last holdout against European imperialism in Southeast Asia. But the kingdom's exceptional status came with a substantial caveat: Bangkok, its bustling capital, was a port city that was subject to many of the same legal and fiscal constraints as other colonial treaty ports. This book offers new insight into turn-of-the-century Thai history by disinterring the forgotten stories of those who died “unnatural deaths” during this period and the work of the Siamese state to assert their rights in a pluralistic legal arena. The book documents the piecemeal introduction of new forms of legal and medical concern for the dead. It reveals that the investigation of unnatural death demanded testimony from diverse strata of society: from the unlettered masses to the king himself. These cases raised questions about how to handle the dead—were they spirits to be placated or legal subjects whose deaths demanded compensation?—as well as questions about jurisdiction, rights, and liability. Exhuming the history of imperial politics, transnational commerce, technology, and expertise, the book demonstrates how the state's response to global flows transformed the nature of legal subjectivity and politics in lasting ways. A compelling exploration of the troubling lives of the dead in a cosmopolitan treaty port, the book is a notable contribution to the growing corpus of studies in science, law, and society in the non-Western world.
Gay Hawkins, Emily Potter, and Kane Race
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029414
- eISBN:
- 9780262329521
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029414.003.0004
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter investigates provisional drinking water arrangements in Bangkok households. When the quality of tap water is not trusted, the process of arranging drinking water entails a certain amount ...
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This chapter investigates provisional drinking water arrangements in Bangkok households. When the quality of tap water is not trusted, the process of arranging drinking water entails a certain amount of practical labour. This involves collaboration with a range of human and nonhuman others in the household and beyond. Various objects, technologies and commodities have emerged to service this need, marketing themselves as convenient solutions to the problem. We consider how bottled water is imbued with value in this context and how this interferes with other water ontologies. Conceiving the household as it is practiced enables new ontological realities for drinking water to be created. ‘Convenience’ is a relational achievement.Less
This chapter investigates provisional drinking water arrangements in Bangkok households. When the quality of tap water is not trusted, the process of arranging drinking water entails a certain amount of practical labour. This involves collaboration with a range of human and nonhuman others in the household and beyond. Various objects, technologies and commodities have emerged to service this need, marketing themselves as convenient solutions to the problem. We consider how bottled water is imbued with value in this context and how this interferes with other water ontologies. Conceiving the household as it is practiced enables new ontological realities for drinking water to be created. ‘Convenience’ is a relational achievement.
Mike Douglass, Orathai Ard-Am, and Ik Ki Kim
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520230248
- eISBN:
- 9780520935976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520230248.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter contrasts the strategies used to improve environmental conditions in two low-income communities in two different urban contexts: the Wolgoksa-dong squatter community in Seoul, Korea, and ...
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This chapter contrasts the strategies used to improve environmental conditions in two low-income communities in two different urban contexts: the Wolgoksa-dong squatter community in Seoul, Korea, and the Wat Chonglom slum community in Bangkok, Thailand. In each case, the analysis moves from the level of the household and gender relations, through the level of community organization and leadership, to the linkages and conflicts that each community has to translocal organizations and the state. The comparisons suggest that the Wat Chonglom community was much better positioned than Wolgoksa-dong — and the vast majority of other slum communities in Bangkok — to expand its social capital and use it in the pursuit of livability. Both communities have shown, over the past decades, an admirable vitality and resilience in the face of highly adverse political and economic forces.Less
This chapter contrasts the strategies used to improve environmental conditions in two low-income communities in two different urban contexts: the Wolgoksa-dong squatter community in Seoul, Korea, and the Wat Chonglom slum community in Bangkok, Thailand. In each case, the analysis moves from the level of the household and gender relations, through the level of community organization and leadership, to the linkages and conflicts that each community has to translocal organizations and the state. The comparisons suggest that the Wat Chonglom community was much better positioned than Wolgoksa-dong — and the vast majority of other slum communities in Bangkok — to expand its social capital and use it in the pursuit of livability. Both communities have shown, over the past decades, an admirable vitality and resilience in the face of highly adverse political and economic forces.
Trais Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501740152
- eISBN:
- 9781501740176
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501740152.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter considers the kinds of legal and medicolegal disputes that arose when foreign residents sustained injuries on the tracks of the Bangkok Tramway Company. It looks at the kinds of ...
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This chapter considers the kinds of legal and medicolegal disputes that arose when foreign residents sustained injuries on the tracks of the Bangkok Tramway Company. It looks at the kinds of expertise and institutions responsible for adjudicating claims for compensation and considers the rights of the Bangkok Tramway Company, its employees, managers, and shareholders. In answering these questions, the chapter analyzes “jurisdictional politics,” “conflicts over the preservation, creation, nature, and extent of different legal forums and authorities,” in the plural legal arena of treaty port Bangkok. It deconstructs historical metanarratives about the “Westernization” or “modernization” of Thai law by revealing the fractious nature of Western law, including evidence of internecine squabbles between the representatives of legal and medical expertise—barristers and physicians—but also among the laypeople who advocated for particular brands of European legal tradition. It therefore complicates celebratory narratives of legal liberalism by demonstrating how nationalist sentiments and professional self-interest were the true impetus for legal change, not any grand imperial ambitions for bestowing law as a civilizing force.Less
This chapter considers the kinds of legal and medicolegal disputes that arose when foreign residents sustained injuries on the tracks of the Bangkok Tramway Company. It looks at the kinds of expertise and institutions responsible for adjudicating claims for compensation and considers the rights of the Bangkok Tramway Company, its employees, managers, and shareholders. In answering these questions, the chapter analyzes “jurisdictional politics,” “conflicts over the preservation, creation, nature, and extent of different legal forums and authorities,” in the plural legal arena of treaty port Bangkok. It deconstructs historical metanarratives about the “Westernization” or “modernization” of Thai law by revealing the fractious nature of Western law, including evidence of internecine squabbles between the representatives of legal and medical expertise—barristers and physicians—but also among the laypeople who advocated for particular brands of European legal tradition. It therefore complicates celebratory narratives of legal liberalism by demonstrating how nationalist sentiments and professional self-interest were the true impetus for legal change, not any grand imperial ambitions for bestowing law as a civilizing force.
Koompong Noobanjong
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888208333
- eISBN:
- 9789888313471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208333.003.0005
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Created in 1782, the Royal Field—or Sanam Luang—is a large open space located at the heart of Bangkok, occupying a prominent space both in the urban fabric of the city and in the collective psyche of ...
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Created in 1782, the Royal Field—or Sanam Luang—is a large open space located at the heart of Bangkok, occupying a prominent space both in the urban fabric of the city and in the collective psyche of Thai people. Apart from serving the monarchy and existing power holders, this polysemic landscape has functioned as a site where major contestants to power and authority in modern Thailand had collided in making their marks, claims, demands, and representations. Via the concept of urban palimpsest, this chapter first examines the Royal Field in terms of a symbolic device for ruling authority to manifest, legitimize, and maintain power. The scholarly focus then shifts to the topic of a contested space, where different groups of contenders had re-appropriated Sanam Luang to perform their social and political activities as well as to create their modern identities. The analytical and critical inquiries on the Royal Field essentially argue that it is in fact a dynamic urban palimpsest, whose meanings have: 1) coexisted, converged, contradicted, and contested with one another; 2) been subjected to further appropriations and contentions; and 3) resulted in slippage of public memories, thus generating even more complex and vibrant interpretations.Less
Created in 1782, the Royal Field—or Sanam Luang—is a large open space located at the heart of Bangkok, occupying a prominent space both in the urban fabric of the city and in the collective psyche of Thai people. Apart from serving the monarchy and existing power holders, this polysemic landscape has functioned as a site where major contestants to power and authority in modern Thailand had collided in making their marks, claims, demands, and representations. Via the concept of urban palimpsest, this chapter first examines the Royal Field in terms of a symbolic device for ruling authority to manifest, legitimize, and maintain power. The scholarly focus then shifts to the topic of a contested space, where different groups of contenders had re-appropriated Sanam Luang to perform their social and political activities as well as to create their modern identities. The analytical and critical inquiries on the Royal Field essentially argue that it is in fact a dynamic urban palimpsest, whose meanings have: 1) coexisted, converged, contradicted, and contested with one another; 2) been subjected to further appropriations and contentions; and 3) resulted in slippage of public memories, thus generating even more complex and vibrant interpretations.
Thomas S. Bianchi
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199764174
- eISBN:
- 9780197563083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199764174.003.0010
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Oceanography and Hydrology
As I briefly mentioned in Chapter 3, the global mean sea level, as deduced from the accumulation of paleo-sea level, tide gauge, and satellite-altimeter data, rose by ...
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As I briefly mentioned in Chapter 3, the global mean sea level, as deduced from the accumulation of paleo-sea level, tide gauge, and satellite-altimeter data, rose by 0.19 m (range, 0.17–0.21 m) between 1901 and 2010 (see Figure 3.3). Global mean sea level represents the longer-term global changes in sea level, without the short-term variability, and is also commonly called eustatic sea-level change. On an annual basis, global mean sea-level change translates to around 1.5 to 2 mm. During the last century, global sea level rose by 10 to 25 cm. Projections of sea-level rise for the period from 2000 to 2081 indicate that global mean sea-level rise will likely be as high as 0.52 to 0.98 m, or 8 to 16 mm/ yr, depending on the greenhouse gas emission scenarios used in the models. Mean sea-level rise is primarily controlled by ocean thermal expansion. But there is also transfer of water from land to ocean via melting of land ice, primarily in Greenland and Antarctica. Model predictions indicate that thermal expansion will increase with global warming because the contribution from glaciers will decrease as their volume is lost over time. (Take a look at Figure 5.1 if you have doubts about glaciers melting.) And remember our discussion in Chapter 2 about the role of the oceans in absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and the resultant ocean acidification in recent years. The global ocean also absorbs about 90% of all the net energy increase from global warming as well, which is why the ocean temperature is increasing, which in turn results in thermal expansion and sea-level rise. To make things even more complicated, the expansion of water will vary with latitude because expansion of seawater is greater with increasing temperature. In any event, sea level is expected to rise by 1 to 3 m per degree of warming over the next few millennia.
Less
As I briefly mentioned in Chapter 3, the global mean sea level, as deduced from the accumulation of paleo-sea level, tide gauge, and satellite-altimeter data, rose by 0.19 m (range, 0.17–0.21 m) between 1901 and 2010 (see Figure 3.3). Global mean sea level represents the longer-term global changes in sea level, without the short-term variability, and is also commonly called eustatic sea-level change. On an annual basis, global mean sea-level change translates to around 1.5 to 2 mm. During the last century, global sea level rose by 10 to 25 cm. Projections of sea-level rise for the period from 2000 to 2081 indicate that global mean sea-level rise will likely be as high as 0.52 to 0.98 m, or 8 to 16 mm/ yr, depending on the greenhouse gas emission scenarios used in the models. Mean sea-level rise is primarily controlled by ocean thermal expansion. But there is also transfer of water from land to ocean via melting of land ice, primarily in Greenland and Antarctica. Model predictions indicate that thermal expansion will increase with global warming because the contribution from glaciers will decrease as their volume is lost over time. (Take a look at Figure 5.1 if you have doubts about glaciers melting.) And remember our discussion in Chapter 2 about the role of the oceans in absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and the resultant ocean acidification in recent years. The global ocean also absorbs about 90% of all the net energy increase from global warming as well, which is why the ocean temperature is increasing, which in turn results in thermal expansion and sea-level rise. To make things even more complicated, the expansion of water will vary with latitude because expansion of seawater is greater with increasing temperature. In any event, sea level is expected to rise by 1 to 3 m per degree of warming over the next few millennia.
