10. You document your inspiration for the elephant game. How about Dr. Supatra’s ghost porn? [11]

A fan at a reading on a book tour of the U.S. asked me to include more ghosts in my next book. He was Southeast Asian, from Malaysia, where there are even more ghosts than in Thailand. When I thought about it I realized he was right – ghosts form an extremely important part of local culture and it is literally very difficult to find a Thai woman who has not seen at least one in her life. Men are slightly more reticent but will come clean under questioning: ghosts are everywhere. My problem, though, was that I had not – and still have not – come across any myself. So I made them up and saw no reason why my ghosts should not have a hi tech dimension.

11. Chanya makes the surprising suggestion that structural change of some sort is needed in Thailand [158]. Is she alone in this?

There was a revolution here last year, and nothing but debate about structural change ever since. Yes, there are many reasons why Thailand is in a state of transition, one of them being a stronger independence amongst women. This is not generally feminism – Asian women tend voluntarily to adhere to a “feminine” identity and eshew what they see as “mannishness” – so much as a sense that the old structures are not working and cannot be made to apply to a modern state when they are almost exclusively the product of an agricultural society. A woman might be happy leading a tough life as a country housewife, because of the relaxed rhythms, social intercourse with other women, extended family, organic sense of belonging that country life brings. She may be much less tolerant when she is cooped up in Bangkok in a small flat with young children while her husband is permanently stressed, and therefore irritable, because the economy has forced him into a slave-like position. In addition, it is my own take that Thailand is having quite a problem reconciling its very honorable Buddist principles with capitalist democracy as practised in the West and elsewhere in Asia.

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