Daniel Ziv and Guy
Sharett, the authors of Bangkok Inside Out,
a travel guide published this year by Equinox
Publishing, have reacted with grave concern to the
de facto banning of their book by Thai
authorities. Their statement follows below. See
Asia Times Online's review of the book,Deconstructing the 'Land of
Smiles', March 24.
We
are surprised and deeply saddened by the sudden
focus in the Thai press and by the Thai Ministry
of Culture on our book, Bangkok Inside Out.
For the past 10 months it has sat
prominently on the shelves of
bookshops across Thailand and overseas, has sold
briskly and has earned rave reviews from numerous
respected publications such as the Asian Wall
Street Journal and Thailand's The Nation and
Bangkok Post newspapers.
On November 22,
Thailand's prominent daily newspaper, Kom Chad
Luek, ran a front page story quoting a senior Thai
official, Ms Ladda Tangsuphachai, director of
cultural monitoring at the Ministry of Culture,
alleging that Bangkok Inside Out taints the
image of Thailand and its people. The article
states that our book "discusses negative subjects
such as fake goods, gambling, gay performances,
touts and scams, and places such as Patpong, Nana,
and Khaosan Road", and singles out a photograph
that shows a bar girl on a farang's (foreigner's)
lap.
Ladda is quoted as saying: "According
to the constitution, the press has freedom to
publish. So, all we can do is to take the
problematic books off the shelf." She submitted
our book to the Royal Thai Police for further
investigation and has asked them to consider
whether there is a case for legal action against
us.
Kom Chad Luek has continued running
follow-up stories on our book and on "critical
foreigners" in general.
Meanwhile,
Bangkok Inside Out has de facto been banned
in Thailand, yet we have not received any notice
from the authorities to this effect. Asia Books
and Bookazine, the two largest English-language
book chains in Thailand, have removed our books
from their shelves after being informed that
anyone caught selling our book was subject to a
fine and/or imprisonment.
Bangkok
Inside Out has clearly been misunderstood. It
oozes enthusiasm for Bangkok and Thailand, and
repeatedly encourages readers to visit and explore
the city. It depicts Bangkok as a hip, trendy
place that has shed much of its seedier side and
become far more attractive and cosmopolitan than
most other travel books suggest.
What
mystifies us is that bookshops in Thailand are
packed with publications devoted in their entirety
to bar girls and prostitution. Our book - for all
its humor and playful banter - is consistently
respectful and thoughtful toward the Thai people
and their culture, and written out of almost
unconditional admiration.
Our book
actually criticizes and mocks foreigners who
glamorize Thailand's sex industry, and repeatedly
makes the point that there is far more to Thailand
than the negative stereotypes so often used by
others. The book also includes many sections on
traditional topics such as alms-giving,
fortunetelling, amulets, traditional markets,
dining, Lumpini Park, the Sky Train and shopping.
As journalists who take their trade and
their subject - Bangkok - seriously, we saw fit
also to address everyday urban phenomena such as
pollution, street dogs, gambling and piracy. All
of these topics, for better or for worse, are
realistic parts of Bangkok's landscape, and do not
reflect in any negative way on the Thai people or
on Thai culture.
Despite the criticism
directed at our book, we, as writers and as
individuals, are quite the opposite of culturally
insensitive foreigners. We both hold Master's
degrees in Southeast Asian Studies and Languages
from one of the top universities in this field,
are fluent in Thai and Indonesian and have devoted
much of our careers so far to understanding and
documenting life in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
We've often felt, through our work, like
unofficial cultural ambassadors for Thailand, and
have always harbored a deep respect for Thailand
and its people.
We regret that Bangkok
Inside Out has been misunderstood and
misinterpreted, and we sincerely apologize for any
offense inadvertently caused to anyone in Thailand
due to different interpretations of the book's
contents. Nevertheless, we stand by the concept,
editorial style and content of Bangkok Inside
Out, and consider it to be a fair and very
enthusiastic tribute to Thailand's wonderful
capital city.
We kindly ask the Thai
Ministry of Culture to formally advise us about
specific sections of our book that they consider
direct insults to Thai culture or the Thai people,
so that we can understand their concerns and
consider revising such sections for subsequent
editions.
Meanwhile, we respectfully
request the Thai government to allow the sale of
our book in Thailand, and to ensure that bookshops
in Thailand cease to be discouraged, officially or
otherwise, from carrying Bangkok Inside
Out. We'd also like to take this opportunity
to publicly thank our many Thai friends -
journalists, businessmen, academics, students and
neighbors - who have expressed their strong
support for us and for
our book.
