During the early decades of the twentieth century, Thailand's capital, Bangkok, took on an increasingly cosmopolitan character-a development fueled both by global economic forces and a local revolution in communications. The 1920s were a particularly dynamic period of social and cultural transformation that had a profound impact on the development of Thai modernity. This book examines the growth of a polyphonous and often vociferous Thai public, a public that used a range of new media outlets to express themselves and clamor for a more just and equitable social order. Scot Barmé mines a rich lode of previously ignored cultural ephemera found in popular newspapers, magazines, novels, short stories, film booklets, and cartoons to create a vibrant cultural history of early modern Thailand that moves beyond conventional, elite-based historical studies of the period. By focusing on such controversies and conflicts as the status of women, relations between the sexes, class antagonisms, and the growth of a commercial mass culture, this book offers a new interpretation of the key decade of the 1920s and its significance for contemporary Thailand.
Scot Barmé is visiting fellow in the Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, at The Australian National University.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Proto-feminist Discourses in Early Twentieth Century Siam Chapter 3 Cinema, Film and the Growth of National Culture Under Absolutism Chapter 4 In and around the Cinema: Romance and Sex in the City Chapter 5 Visually Challenged: Graphic Critiques of the Royal-Noble Elite Chapter 6 Evocations of Equality: Female Education and Employment Chapter 7 A Question of Polygamy Chapter 8 Bourgeois Love and Morality: Gender Relations Redefined Chapter 9 Romance and Desire in Film and Fiction Chapter 10 Gender, Class, and Popular Culture in Post-absolutist Siam: 1932-1940 Chapter 11 Conclusion
