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Acknowledgments This volume represents part of the outcomes of a collaborative research project by the co-editors that was generously funded over a four-year period by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This international project could not have been undertaken without the Council’s support, both financial and in terms of research leave provision. Between 2002 and 2006, we undertook research visits to Thailand; presented our conclusions at conferences; sought the opinions and formal input of others in the field; exchanged ideas over numerous cappuccinos in various parts of the world; explored disciplinary differences; enthusiastically reached consensus; and occasionally diverged in our interpretations and perspectives. The resulting jointly edited volume, The Ambiguous Allure of the West: Traces of the Colonial in Thailand, has come to fruition in the spaces between Canberra and London, with Bangkok and Ithaca, New York, as two key nexus points. We are especially grateful to Thak Chaloemtiarana, Tamara Loos, Deborah Homsher, Nancy Loncto and Wendy Treat for the financial contributions and administrative support provided through Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program in hosting an international workshop in November 2004 to address the research concerns from which this volume has subsequently evolved. We much appreciate the further financial support of conference travel expenses from the South East Asia Committee of the British Academy. We also thank everyone who attended that workshop and contributed to the evolution of our lines of enquiry through the stimulating observations they provided, in particular, Thanet Apornsuvan, Thak Chaloemtiarana, Thanom Chaphakdee, Sud Chonchirdsin, Thanapol Limapichart, Maurizio Peleggi, Craig Reynolds and Penny Van Esterik. Throughout the gestation of this volume, many others have provided intellectual encouragement and moral support, not least the contributors included here and those whose work comprises the November 2009 Special Issue of South East Asia Research— Siamese Modernities and the Colonial West. Our thanks to those who have generously helped read through drafts of the Introduction, in its various reincarnations: Tamara Loos, Thongchai Winichakul, Michael Herzfeld, Colin Harrison, Isolde Standish, Chusak Pattarakulvanit and the anonymous reviewers of both Hong Kong University Press and Cornell University’s Southeast Asia xx Acknowledgments Press. Chusak’s insights into aspects of literary theory and Thai cultural studies have been integral to the development of many ideas expressed in the Introduction. The concerns of The Ambiguous Allure of the West and the relevance of postcolonial thought to the Thai context were discussed on several occasions with Chusak, Charturee Tingsabadh and the late Nopphorn Prachakul, who sadly passed away in November 2007. More formally, the AHRC funding for the project furnished us with research assistance. For three years we were aided by the rigorous and methodical research assistance of Sud Chonchirdsin based in London, and from the data assiduously attained for us in Thailand by Farung Srikhaw. Their findings were supplemented by the further support of Janit Feangfu in the latter stages of the project. Samanluk Bunrak’s detailed local knowledge of the Thai bureaucracy, banking system, Bangkok traffic and quality cuisine, both Thai and Western, was invaluable in helping us negotiate the logistical intricacies of in-country research. The poster for the Cornell workshop was designed by Jonah Foran, who carried his precision and flair over into the book project, producing the jacket design of the current volume. A big thanks to him for reading several of the chapters and giving careful thought to how their themes might be represented graphically. Rachel Harrison and Peter Jackson London and Canberra January 2009 ...

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