HOME ARTICLES

ARTICLES

Thai Monks who Drink and Their Lay Supporters

Thomas Borchert

Recent media reporting about a Thai monk caught drunk and indecently exposed follows a long line of attention-grabbing headlines about monastic misbehaviour. Even so, Thai attitudes about such rule-breaking are more nuanced than these reports would suggest.

The ‘People’s Court’ Supports and Celebrates Marriage Equality in Thailand

Alexandra Dalferro

Amidst greater popular awareness of the struggles faced by LGBTQIA+ individuals in Thailand, activists are challenging Thai laws restricting marriage to heterosexual couples as being unconstitutional. While significant progress on human rights is unlikely to occur under the current government, Thai citizens are using their voices to call for change.

In Denial Against Democracy: Thailand’s Royalists see Putin as a ‘Decoloniser’

Janjira Sombatpoonsiri

Thai royalists’ online narratives echo the line that Russia’s war in Ukraine is succeeding. There are indications that this rhetoric is driven by anti-western anti-democratic sentiment, especially against the United States. The royalists are using the debate over the war as a proxy fight with opposition movements, whom they see as being supported by western pro-democracy forces.

New Chinese Migrants in Chiang Mai: Parallel Paths for Social Interaction and Cultural Adjustment

Aranya Siriphon|Fanzura Banu|Pagon Gatchalee

While descendants of older Chinese migrants in Thailand consider themselves Thai, new Chinese migrants tend to struggle with assimilating, due partly to negative stereotypes about foreign Chinese. This Long Read explores the parallel communities these new Chinese migrants have forged to address their needs for social integration.