The Performative State: Semi-coloniality and the Tyranny of Images in Modern Thailand

Previous accounts of the Thai regime of images have been largely ahistorical, presenting the phenomenon as something of a cultural given. This study traces the history of this regime of power/knowledge and power/prestige and shows that rather than being "traditional" it took its present form as part of Siam's responses to the encroachment of the Western powers in the nineteenth century. As a modern form of power, the regime of images came into being as a product of the distinctive character of Siam's semi-colonial relations with the West, Noncolonized Siam did not need to wage a war of independence to expel foreign colonizers. Nevertheless, to preserve national autonomy a new form of local power was called into being, and the regime of images emerges from this strategic mobilization of local power in the service of preserving Siamese independence.