SOAS Research Online

Abstract

First televised in 2018, Buppesannivas (Love Destiny) was among the most popular and influential dramas in Thailand that represented images of Thainess (khwam-pen-Thai). Based on a novel by Rompaeng, it tells the story of a twenty-first-century woman who travels back to Ayutthaya, during the political turmoil of King Narai’s reign (r.1656–1688). Her journey not only depicts the ‘golden age’ but also highlights the theme of political conflict between nationalist and foreign bureaucrats, culminating in a victory for the ‘good’ nationalists. As the novel was first published in 2010, this theme can be linked to the post-2006 coup context. This article argues that the novel Buppesannivas (2010) brings the mainstream royalist-nationalist narrative into dialogue with the question of national crisis that followed the coup. It thus reflects the anxiety of political polarization and the discourse of the ‘good person’ (khon di). Moreover, the article focuses analytically on the bodily representation of Thainess through its key characters. Arguably, while ‘good’ individuals operate within female bodies and minds by retaining a link to traditional Thainess as well as adapting to modernity, the farang body and mind constitute the meaning of a ‘bad person’, and hence encapsulate a threat to Thainess.