The Ambiguous Allure of the West: Traces of the Colonial in Thailand (review)

Thai studies often emphasize Siam's lack of formal colonization and push the exceptionalism of Thailand and of "Thainess" to mythical levels. But scholars of Thailand are well aware of the provisions and adaptations made by Siamese rulers to Western colonial powers as well as the ambivalent role that the West plays in Thailand today. Yet Thailand is often treated as a place fundamentally different from its neighbours because of the lack of direct European colonization, and therefore it is often seen to be impervious to theoretical insights drawn from other countries.

This overemphasis on the uniqueness of Thailand has led to the downplaying of comparative theoretical research concerning Thailand. The Ambiguous Allure of the West seeks to remedy this lacuna by looking at Thailand's relationship with Western powers and the figure of the Westerner (farang) in the Thai cultural imagination through examples drawn from history, cultural studies, and anthropology. The edited volume provides a compelling case for new research on the (post)coloniality of Thailand as well as some opening steps in this direction by leading scholars in Thai studies today, including Thongchai Winichakul, Pattana Kitiarsa, Tamara Loos, and Michael Herzfeld. However, The Ambiguous Allure of the West is more challenge than conclusion: despite some attempts to tie the chapters together, the real success of the book is in offering a springboard for new research. The authors successfully show that thinking about Thailand's relationship with the West through ideas about hybridity taken from postcolonial studies (especially the writings of Homi Bhabha) can both yield new and exciting analyses of the country as well as provide new twists on theory — although these works provide only a beginning step. Additionally, as Peter Jackson suggests in his afterword, England (and later America) is not the only country which held or holds an "ambiguous allure" for Thailand.

Studies on Thai hybridity with other hegemonic powers in the area — India and China, for instance, especially before the middle of the nineteenth century, or perhaps China and Japan at present — are also suggested and advocated in The Ambiguous Allure of the West, although the authors argue that it is the figure of the farang which holds the centre stage from the middle of the nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth.

Ultimately, the authors suggest an engagement with postcolonial theory not simply to push the limits of Thai studies, but also to push the limits of theory. As Dipesh Chakrabarty notes in his foreword to the book, in order to create something new, we must first address the limits of categories derived from (generally European) theory while at the same time searching for common comparative ground (thereby avoiding the trap of exceptionalism). This is the point of doing original research: to test and to find the weak points of prior theories and assumptions and to develop new ways of thinking about a subject. In this light, the contributors largely succeed in making the case that such work needs to be done, although there is an occasional mismatch between the specificity of some chapters and the extremely broad reach of others.

The chapters can be roughly grouped into broad historical and theoretical analyses or targeted and specific ones. Amongst the more general works, Pattana and Thongchai trace the historical dimensions of Siam's interaction with and attitudes towards farang, noting how current descriptions of and depictions of Thainess incorporate both a desire for similarity with Western powers (while occasionally vociferously denouncing them) as well as adapting "Western" symbols to Thai contexts. Similarly, Herzfeld and Loos show how outwardly Western forms are often embedded within extremely local systems of signification (systems which the authors are careful to note are not essentialized "authentic" cultures, but are hybrid forms in themselves). Herzfeld's formulation of "crypto-colonial" processes makes the important point that Thailand is not in isolation in its status vis-à-vis dominant powers — Greece...