Queer Bangkok: 21st Century Markets, Media, and Rights (Queer Asia) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 988808304X ISBN 13: 9789888083046

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press, 2011

Synopsis

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-first 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 analyses 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. This 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.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter A. Jackson is professor of Thai cultural studies in the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific. He has written extensively on modern Thai cultural history with special interests in religion and sexuality. He is editor-in-chief of the Asian Studies Review and founder of the Thai Rainbow Archives Project, which is collecting and digitizing Thai gay, lesbian, and transgender magazines and community organization newsletters (see http//thairainbowarchive.anu.edu.au/index.html).

Review:

“The myriad faces of Thai gender/sexuality culture have been an attraction for both pleasure-seekers and researchers/scholars/activists. Exploring the rapidly changing LGBT cultures and Thai queer identities, the essays collected here provide insightful a

“In the global imagination Bangkok is identified with sex, much as were Paris or Shanghai in previous eras. Peter Jackson has done a first-rate job of bringing together interactions with the full range of sexual others in the expanding worlds of Bangkok,

“An impressive collection bringing together important and innovative research. This volume will be essential reading to those with scholarly and activist interests in South-East Asian studies, as well as sexuality and gender studies. It will also be usefu

About this edition

• Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 988808304X
• ISBN 13: 9789888083046
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Jackson Peter A.