You are cordially invited to a special seminar on Thai History and Culture.

This time we will have two historians from Thailand. The details are as
follows.

Date and Time: 15:00-17:00, December 24 (Thursday), 2015
Place: Tonan-tei (Room No. 201), Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, Kyoto University

First Speaker: Dr.Nipaporn Ratchatapattanakul, Department of History,
Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University

Title: Living under the State and Storms: The History of Blood Cockle
Aquaculture in Bandon Bay, Thailand

Abstract:
Historical statistics of yields and cultivation areas of blood cockle in Bandon Bay in Surat Thani Province of Thailand from 1980 to 2010 show a sharp fluctuation in production. This research examines
three factors–government policies, environmental changes, and farmer adaptations–that lay behind this fluctuation to understand the interrelationships between the three factors.

Aquaculture areas of the Bay share common patterns of development, including state policies that incentivized in-migration and the establishment of “cooperative communities.” Due to significant
destruction from natural disasters in the late 1980s, large-scale government-sponsored rehabilitation projects and the associated influx of capital significantly further developed aquaculture in a “great leap forward.” Environmental changes and government policies triggered adaptations by farmers that led to an expansion of cultivation into new–€”and illegal–areas, and a transformation of cultivation from small-scale to the large-scale farmers.

The expansion of the aquaculture areas brought about conflicts over the use of coastal resources between those who practiced aquaculture and the coastal fishermen. Yet the communities that had emerged as a result of agricultural settlement in the early 1980s had no traditional means of
negotiation and bargaining to resolve the conflicts and therefore have relied on deep connections to the bureaucratic systems rather than relations with each other. From this case it is clear that the
historical background of these newly constructed locales is critical to understanding the specific characteristics of social organization of southern Thailand.

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Second Speaker: Dr. Villa Vilaithong, Assistant professor of history,
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Title: Walking with the Fashion and Beauty World€ : Women’s Clothing,
Body Shape and Social Shows in Thailand, 1957-1973

Abstract:
Fashion business and culture in Thailand started maturing during the late 1950s and early 1970s within the context of the expansion of global beauty capitalism. They were driven by the development of textile and entertainment industries, new careers for women, and the boom of social events in the country. Fashion institutions included the official ones such as dress-making schools and the unofficial ones such as women’s and entertainment magazines. Their fashion professionals competently
followed international fashion trends of the 1950s and 1960s. Modern fashion in Thai society became a space where “sakon” (international) styles met the Thai style, which gave rise to Thai “prayuk”€ fashion.
Thai women continued to make their own clothing or used the services of a dressmaker. The ready-made industry did not yet replace custom-designed clothing. Some dress experts advised middle-class women
on how to dress according to certain factors—occasion, season, age, body shape, and career, with a strict emphasis on feminine ideal, appropriateness, and politeness. At the same time, a number of women were actively involved in the ideas of self-realization and improvement through fashion. Fashion shows were performed as social shows, enabling different groups of women to explore themselves in the social arenas, be part of society, and build their social networks among women and with men.

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About the speakers:
Nipaporn Ratchatapattanakul is a lecturer at the Department of History, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Thailand. She has studied Japanese-Thai cultural relations during 1932-1945 in Thammasat University. She undertook doctoral research on history of Bangkok sanitation at ASAFAS, Kyoto University. This presentation is derived from her research entitled “History of Economy and Environment of Bandon Bay: Case Study of the Coastal Aquaculture during 1940s-2000s.†This research was supported by Thailand Research Fund and Thammasat University during April 2012-May 2015.

Villa Vilaithong is assistant professor of history, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. She is a visiting research scholar at Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Her recent publications include “Marketing Business Knowledge and Consumer Culture before the Boom: The Case of Khoo Khaeng Magazine†in A Sarong for Clio: Essays on the Intellectual and Cultural History of Thailand—Inspired by Craig Reynolds (2015) and“Thantakanâ khong Jit Phumisak lae nak thot kan mueang (Prison Time: Jit Phumisak and Other Political Detainees) (2013). She is currently researching the history of beauty institutions in Thailand from the late 1950s to early 1970s.

Moderator: Junko Koizumi, CSEAS