On July 3rd 2023, I was invited to join a World University Network roundtable discussion on “Southeast Asian Tourism after COVID-19: Pathways towards Resilience and Sustainability”. The roundtable is part of a longer 2-day event consisting of policy roundtable and workshops. Researchers from various universities presented their collaborative project on Tourism sectors in Southeast Asia and the impact of COVID-19. The PI of the project funded by MFAT (New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) is Prof. Andreas Neef, University of Auckland. The project CIs come from various universities in Souhteast Asia including Mahidol's International College staff who work on tourism studies. 

My contribution to the roundtable is a reflection on how tourism sector has cross-over with screen industries in Thailand. This is particularly through the government's interest in promoting destination marketing for location shooting and the pre-COVID-19 interest in film tourism that followed. I reflected on the forgotten sides of these sectors including the screen workers whose income rely on foreign film productions. All of these crew were out of work for up to one year during the pandemic without any financial support. The short-term interest on film-induced tourism also left out key stakeholder(s) in this phenomenon including long-term fans and local business owners who play key roles in sustaining the interest in this practice and add cultural value to this kind of spcio-screen culture. 

Through this event, I also learned more about the WUN network and research grants, which seems like a great source of support for collaborative research with parter universities. 

Photos from: https://mahidol.ac.th/th/2023/mahidol-mfatproject/

On the month of May, I hosted a film screening and presentation of the recent resarch project on screen labour during the COVID-19. This event was co-organized by the MA programme in Cultural Studies. 

The film is a collaborative research output with Natthanun Tiammek which captures stories of below-the-line workers at the time in which filmmaking was suspended. The project is funded by Thai Humanities Forum grant as part of the National Research Council of Thailand. We were kindly joined by Khun Ginawadee (Geena) Chaimusik, a film producer who also took part in our project and Dr. Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn, film producer, critic, and lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University. The post-screening discussion covers different topics including the process of doing a creative output out of an academic research project, a possible way to explore the use of sound in the film, a possibility of doing a another cut for film festival or public screening, as well as additional reflection on labour conditions within the Thai film industry.  

Other outputs from the project include a book chapter (in Thai), which will be published along with other chapters on COVID-19 from the lens of humanities and social sciences research in Thailand, and a journal article in English. 

With the generosity and flexibility of the funding, we were also able to create a self-reflexive photo essay based on a rephotography trip, which sought to capture the transformation of sites related to film memories in Bangkok during COVID-19. This essay in Thai is available on the top left menu of this website. 

Through this project further collaborative research on global screen workers with the Newton Fund partner at the University of Sheffield is also being discussed. The subject of screen culture and workers will also be extended to cover links between Asia with other regions including the Middle East.

I had a chance to get to know the work of UNESCO Thailand after joining their consultation workshop in January 2020 (which I wrote about in an earlier post). Since then the UNESCO Thailand and its partners organized two other events under the project “Mobilizing film professionals for regional cooperation in Asia – Thailand component” which I joined as a participant. 

One of which is an event in December 2020 at the Thai Film Archive with various participants to discuss the aspect of film policy and legacity in relation to cinema. The team, led by film professionals and scholars (my contacts are Cattleya Paosrijaroen, Kissada Kamyoung and Vorakorn Ruetaivanichkul) also gathered reflections on film culture and industry development through the means of a recorded interview in October 2020. The output is a series of interviews which can be found in the project YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@yoongco.

All of these activities are part of the larger project which runs across Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia called 'Mobilizing film professionals for regional cooperation in Asia' with the support of the government of Japan. On 14 March 2023, UNESCO Vietnam organized a regional-scale event, which I had an opportunity to attend virtually. Professionals, scholars and policy makers from these countries (as well as representatives from Denmark and the UK) shared their views on policy directions and their own experiences working and trying to support the growth of their respective local film industries. Lots of food for thoughts and more collaborations to be built base on this network in the future!

More on this project see: https://en.unesco.org/creativity/activities/mobilizing-film-professionals-regional-cooperation-asia

After the completion of the film fan tourism project last year, I had an opportunity to co-organize a workshop for the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia on tourism culture with Dr. Sirijit Sunanta. The workshop's aim is to invite scholars in our network to collaborate on a special issue journal for Journal of Languages and Cultures. The event started with a bit of technical issue as we had problem with our Zoom account and had to migrate to Web-ex. All went fine in the end. It was a real pleasure to get a chance to meet virtually two scholars whom I have read and cited their works, Mary Mostafanezhad, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Sangkyun Kim, Edith Cowan University, Australia. A wide range of papers were presented highlighting new directions of interdisciplinary tourism culture research. This includes work on visual and sonic ethnography that explores the impact of tourism to a local community, work on dark tourism and different (and often conflicting) forms memorialization of WWII memories in Thailand, ethnic tourism and its complicated dimensions, and the role of digital culture in local tourism promotion.

The papers presented at the workshop will be published around July 2023.

An extended partnership with ScreenWorlds.

Following our Newton Fund project which was wrapped before the pandemic, I had an opportunity to collaboreate with Prof. Kate Taylor-Jones again for the ScreenWorlds project which she collaboreated with Professor Lindiwe Dovey and team at SOAS University of London (from 2019 to 2024). The project titled: ‘African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies’ is a five-year, European Research Council-funded research project which resulted in expanded collaborations with many artists and partners. 

From the Thailand side, our partnerships are extended to Prof. Natthanai Prasannam (Research & Creation Unit; Department of Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University), The Jim Thompson Art Center and Bangkok CityCity Gallery.

We engaged in conversations on decolonizing screen culture through working with various partners and transmedia artist, Chulayarnnon Siriphol. The result is a live-streamed conversation, at the Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand where the filmmaker and artist, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, discusses his work in relation to memory, history and decolonization in Thailand and Asia. The talk features Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s latest work, ANG48, commissioned by The Jim Thompson Art Center, Thailand and Hong Gah Museum, Taiwan and Bangkok CityCity Gallery, Thailand.

The following of Siriphol's work were available to watch (free) via online screenings before the event:

3 films were shown from May 4th (72 hours ahead of the event until the end of the event)

Birth of Golden Snail(2019), Golden Spiral (2018), The Internationale (2018) and one film were shown on May 6th (24 hours before the event until the end of the event) ANG48 (2022), Indochina Time Zone

Conversation in Thai with live English translation can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX6zTUU72MA&t=1s&ab_channel=JimThompsonArtCenter_Channel

Read the synopsis of each work at: https://screenworlds.org/announcements/re-enacting-history-decolonizing-genteel-romance-in-thailand-asia-a-livestream-conversation-with-chulayarnnon-siriphol/

More works by the director: http://www.chulayarnnon.com/

More about screenworlds: https://screenworlds.org/about/#partners

After the completion of the film fan tourism project in Oct 2021 (with the acknowledgement of the completion by the funding National Research Council of Thailand on 22 Dec 2021), I had an opportunity to share the research output with students at the  College of Innovation, Thammasat University. The lecture was part of the MA programme in Management of Cultural Heritage and Creative Industries led by Dr. Veluree Metaveevinij. 

The theme of the lecture was on the relationships and gaps between film/screen industries and tourism industry in the context of Thailand.  This gap is reflected significantly in terms of the different interpretations of the notion of 'fan tourism' by governmental stakeholders, business owners, general tourists and the fans. This different interpretations led to the investment on the infastructure that did not support local business owners or film fans. While fans value the aspect of 'ritual', 'play', 'memories', 'identities' in relation to characters and their relationships with the locations, as well as the recognition of film histories, to date the public discourse and governmental interpretations of film fan tourism has been on associations with Hollywood, big-name stars with the aim of attracting 'more' tourists to this new form of attraction. Meanwhile, local business owners down play the aspect of film fan tourism as this has not led directly to revenues. While the locals are often excited to talk about film locations to promote local sites and tourism, this also subsited quickly unless the film has a long shelf-life. 

Sites whereby the owners have personal interests in media and film culture, the memories of fan visits are kept alive through memory book, photograph displays as they add an additional layer of meaning to the site. Nevertheless, there is an underlying impression that this memory would expire (therefore the photos have to be taken down) and replace by new associations/memories. The long-term sustainablity of film fan tourism is difficult when the focus is on commercial return based solely on film memories. Nevertheless, sites with long-term tourtist visits (i.e. Pakchong in association with Bruce Lee's The Big Boss) highlight the important aspect of fans passing on their love to specfic films to other fans and decendants. Further sustainable development of the sites associated with film locations, therefore has to consider the ecology of the site (based on the self-life of the films, long-term fans and their affective relations with the sites, local stakeholers, as well as other layers of memories on that specific location).

The film fan tourism project has grown and evolved over the years. Since the Covid-19 Pandemic with travel restrictions, film fan tourism brings us to the subject of memory of past travels mediated through online platforms. Records of past journeys filmic and otherwise resurfaced on various Facebook pages and websites. One of the things that I have been exploring further is the revival of sites connected to colonial history in Thailand, which have also been used as film locations. Hua Hin is one such town which has long been known as a seaside get-away for Bangkokian. It has grown since the start of the Southern Railway line and the constuction of the Railway Hotel. The hotel was used to film The Killing Fields (1984) and has been mentioned in various literature. 

The notion of colonial nostalgia with the revival of the hotel now run by the Central Group is something I decided to explore in the recent paper presented at 'Decolonising Language, Literary, and Cultural Studies Symposium' hosted by Chiang Mai University Thailand (abstract below). The virtual conference went well with further contacts and follow-ups on possible collaboration with colleagues in Thailand interested in the similar kind of topic.

We started 2021 with the ease of Covid-19 spread in Thailand, things started to be normalized, although a lot of people were still wearing masks in public. (I even attended a friend wedding towards the end of March!) Hence, during Janurary-March, I started organizing this event to share the research project to the public (in Thailand, primarily BKK and nearby areas). I visited a charming former theatre (existed as a cinema since the era of King Rama V, at the height of Western colonization.) It was formerly a gambling den, which was deemed inappropriate by the authority. Hence, it was turned into a cinama (much more appropriate. ei ei). Now open as a heritage hotel/cafe, the decor tells its history showing films in the 1970s such as Rosemary's Baby (1968), Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975). Its cocktail bar seves drinks inspired by different films and it is affordable to rent the space for a public talk with a big cinema screen projection.  

With the support of a staff at Rilca, we got talking to the sales agent of the hotel. I also got in touch with a FB Page, known amongst film fans in Thailand for stories on film fan tourism to collaborate on a special collection postcards. We got the posters designed with the programme. It all looked very promising for a small intimate event, with a plan for a recording session to share the talk widely afterwards. I was to be joined with the project mentor who will be talking about 'memory films' i.e. The Railway Man, while I will be talking about film memories (which extend from the memory film genre).  It all turned topsy turvy as the 3rd wave of Covid started with a big cluster at a night club in Bangkok. ...

2020 gave us a challenging time for the world including for all involved with film and tourism. In Thailand, we had periods of no new cases of local infection for several months after the outbreak of the first wave, which allowed us to do three trips towards the end of the year. This final one included site visits related to one of the most notable Thai films of 2016 called Joking Jazz 4G which requires a trek up the hill in Lampang province, North of Thailand.  In the same area, we also visited the site related to the story of Anna and the King - the original Louis T. Leonowens's house who was the son of Anna Leonowen. Louis returned to Thailand to operate a teak wood company before the abolition of deforestation. 

Since the start of this project, the focus of the research has been on the sites which have been written about by fans. This is because the starting point of the research is after fan tourism/fan pilgrimage has become a 'maintream' activity associated with blockbuster films. The public discourses in the local media focuses on 'more destination marketing', 'more content that promote the tourism industry', and various forms of investments. The focus on indiviudal fans' connections with the film texts and the locations were left out to the conversations. Coming towards the end of this leg of the project, I intend to visit the site that the Thai government has invested significant sum of money into keeping the stories related to the film at the local site. 

The floating market of Amphava in Samut Songkhram province not far from Bangkok saw the boom in the early 2000s after it won the Unesco Asia–Pacific Heritage Awards in 2008. Once a local community with wooden houses and a quiet market area, the town was flooded with visitors from different parts of Thailand. The charm has been the 'home-stay' experience of staying at the same house as the owner, geting pick up to see the fireflies along the canal (if one wishes to participate) and the morning ritual of giving alms to the monks who are passing along by boats. Flash forward years later, Amphava has since been featured in travel documentaries, Chinese TV series leading to the interest by overseas tourists. 

I was invited to give a talk as part of the annual Thai Film Archive academic conference. This year one of the panels is different dimensions related to the Thai legendary film star in the 1960s Mitr Chaibancha. With his tragic death of falling down from a helicoptor during the shooting of the film he directed and starred, along with over hundreds of films he acted in the post-war 16mm period, he is possibly the most known historical Thai film star along with the co-actress Petchara Chaowarat.

I do love teaching this topic to tourism students at Kasetsart University in Bangkok. It's a 12 hr. session divided into 3 weeks, covering areas from 

• representation, travel and socio-cultural reflections, which explores the way in which travel reflects changing society from the aspect of class, social mobility and cross-cultural understanding

• the tourist gaze and the process of 'othering' vs. the self-reflective aesthetics in alternative travel films

• layers of memories and history in digital creative practices such as screen framing, performative fan pilgrimage  

Each year, when asked, the students were/are fascinated with the questions that socio-cultural and film/media studies viewpoints can bring up, which is something extra from what they explored so far in tourism studies as a first year undergrad. 

This year we had our first class at the university, during that week there was already news that many classes begin to switch online. The following two weeks the whole city was going toward a lock down. I managed to quickly buy a microphone at the shop just before everything is closed up and switched to online. The conversation in the following year may have to include the subject of  travelling without the actual travel. 

One of the most frequently visited film locations by fans this project has explored is the venues related to The Big Boss (1971) with Bruce Lee as the star. Shot at locations in Pakchong, Nakhon Ratchasima not far from Bangkok, a number of fans have reviewed on social media sites how to find specific locations inlcluding the ice factory [still running as a factory called Dumrong Thai], a monastery not far from the ice factory which was used as the Big Boss's house in the final sequence of the film, and the river bank near the hotel called New Wanchai whose owner is still around and kindly provided information about the film and fan visits. I was particulalry grateful as the auntie of the New Wanchai took me on a motobike across a small concrete bridge into the housing estate to find the exact spot where  Bruce Lee saved a lady from the villain. 

On 30th Jan, the PI attended the 2nd Asia Destination Film Forum in central Bangkok. The event was largely attended by various tourism and film-related industry people, invited cultural organizations and companies working on certain projects related to destination marketing in Southeast Asia. The main sponsor for the event this year is the Mongolian Tourism agency, which had its booth promoting destination for filmmaking. I met a Thai blogger who also works in the filmmaking industry and we discussed amongst us that it would be nice to open this up to more Thais working in related fields, event students! The mood and tone is of an expat industry event with business owers sharing success case studies and on-going projects. The sessions I managed to attend and found interesting include...

In early January 2020, the PI came across a call for participation in a 'Consultation workshop on challenges and priorities of film sector in Thailand' shared by a friend on Facebook. After submitting the expression of interest and attended the session, I joined the two-part event at the Unesco Bangkok office in town. The highlight of the morning session is the Unesco team presenting their initial findings from data gathered from the industry.  The afternoon roundtable was productive and well-curated. 

Together with colleagues at RILCA who are interested in the subject of colonial/postcolonial in Thailand and Southeast Asia, we have formed a research cluster with the support of our institute called 'Aesthetics and Cultural Sociology Research Cluster'. Our first event in 2020 is a film screening and talk focusing on aesthetics of everyday life and landscape through the train. We draw on Michel De Certeau's reading as a theread to discuss a wonderful Thai documentary called Railway Sleeprs (2016). Described as 'A contemplative study of Thailand's rail system', the movie takes us through the history of Thai railway from the colonail period on to today's life on the train and how we remember histories. The total of 20 guests attended the talk including filmmakers, students and academics from various universites in Bangkok.

Photos from 1936 to 1983 and 2019 The Railway Hotel was buit and run by the state railway in the colonial era (now leased to the Centara Group). As the train line connecting Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore was completed, the seaside holiday town attracting elite tourists was formed starting with the beachfront hotel designed by an Italian architect and a road straight to the station. Quite a few bygone memorabilia are now displayed at the Museum Tea room, which is the site of the original hotel lobby also acted as Hotel le Phnom in the Killing Fields (1984).

On 26 Dec 2019, the PI visited Rabieng Rimnam restaurant in Petchaburi province. The site has been an important place for fans of First Love/Sing lek lek thi riak wa... rak (2010). Since the film was released the venue has attracted a series of tourists. The first waves were visitors from Bangkok and Chiang Mai. In the last 6 years, there have been continuous visitors/fans from mainland China, Taiwan, the Phillipines and Indonesia. The pan Asian visitors help boost the income for the family run restaurant which faced the downturn of Western tourists to the town. 

The PI met the writer/director and owner of De Warrenne Pictures, Tom Waller earlier in the year at the talk on films shot in Thailand and questions on exotic representations at the Thai Film Archive. The director later kindly invited us to the premiere of his much talked about film The Cave (2019) which tells the story of the collaborative efforts across different countries and cave diver experts to rescure young footballers and his coach who were trapped in the cave in the North of Thailand due to flash flood. 

During the trip to Malaysia, I also had a chance to visit Pawagam Colisum Cinema, which is a heritage cinema in KL. Built in 1920 and still running until today as a cinema, largely screening Indian films, the site offers a case study on the survival of local cinema despites trends of gentrification and demolition of standalone theatres in Southeast Asia. I don't know much about the site before the trip and have read around what I found online that the building also has a hotel and the famed Coliseum Café which was 'a favourite haunt of William Somerset Maugham during his stay in British Malaya'. It was built by the Chua family led by Chua Cheng Bok. It would be interesting it know more about the development of the site over the years and different kinds of programming of the films, until it found the niche of audiences of Bollywood movies. 

Sadly, two years after my trip, I read that the café was closed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 'after 100 years in business'. The cinema is presumably still running, which is unlike the heritage site of Scala cinema in Bangkok. 

As part of my expansion of research into areas of archival research, thanks to the Newton Mobilities Funding,  I've visted several archives in the UK and have expanded the relationship with the Thai Film Archive. In November 2019, I've also visited the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), which is the central government agency for the film industry of Malaysia. The staff so warmly and kindly showed us their archive vaults and their works in digitizing and preserving local films. The location of FINAS is a short trip from central KL via a taxi, the venue has a nice library with resources for further research on Malaysian film history. I was particularly drawn to the exhibition at the entrace on Malaysian film stars and a collection of props and equipments used for local productions and exhibitions. It would be great to foster future collaborations to explore transnational film cultures between Thailand and Malaysia. We are so close geographically, yet not many stories on the way films and cultures have crossed between the two countries over the years. Until next time! Terima kasih.

With the Thailand Research Fund part of the project, the PI continues to explore and analyse user-generated content on film fan tourism in relation to sites in Thailand, along with interviewing business owners whose locations were featured in the films. So far we have covered the interviews in the North (Chiang Mai) and the East (Chanthaburi) of Thailand. Most recently we have visited sites in the South (Phuket), Bangkok and the West (Ratchaburi) with the list below...

Following a series of talks/seminars at Mahidol University in June and August, the film fan tourism project joined the Thai Film Archive for the special film programme 'Exotic Thailand?' and a roundtable discussion on films shot in Thailand, following the screening of Soi Cowboy (2008) - award-winning Thai film directed by British director Thomas Clay and produced by Tom Waller, De Warrenne Pictures Ltd. who also joined the discussion. Chairing the session is Kong Rithdee, renowned Thai film critic and deputy director of the Thai Film Archive...

On Aug 2nd and 3rd 2019, the Newton Fund project in collaboration with Rilca's research cluster on aesthetics and sociology of culture and Thailand Research Fund organized two training sessions, which were also opened to students, staff and the public audience who are interested in the subject of reading and representing landscapes. The talks connect film fan tourism with discussions on the different ways landscapes have been represented, ranging from cinema and the idea of modernity and romantic city to volatile townscapes connected to colonial and nationalism...

With the support of the funding, the Thai PI was able to explore possible future work with various archives. The visit to the UK not only gave the opportunity to work with the CI on the academic paper, attended a conference focusing on film location and visited several film sites but also to visit several archives and gained on-site training on working with archival materials.

The SCMS or the Society for Cinema and Media Studies is known for being one of the biggest conferences for scholars in film and media studies. In July 2019, the society ran its theme-specific conference outside the US for the first time focusing on cinema and city with the emphasis on London and the UK. It was a perfect occasion to explore works being done on film location and related areas. One of the highlights of the conference was the walking tour of early film screenings and distribution sites, led by Ian Christie (Birkbeck, University of London)...

We wrapped up a busy month of June with a trip to attend and present papers at the Asian Cinema Society Conference at La Salle University, Singapore. The idea of the panel is to gather academics who are working on the subject of film location and fan activities in Southeast Asia together to share ideas and also generate interests and build connections withothers working on related subjects. Several academics we spoke to are working on related areas and we are looking forward to follow their works. Apart from the conference, we also manage to visit the Newton Food Centre used for the film Crazy Rich Asian (2018) as part of our group dinner!

On 19th-22nd June 2019, the project team visited Siem Reap in Cambodia to explore the film trails and fan engagement from the actual site. Places we visited include the location used for the shooting of Tomb Raider (2001) and In the Mood for Love (2000) which are part of the UNESCO Angkor Wat heritage site. En-route to Singapore, our next stop to present a panel on film fan tourism in Southeast Asia, we also found a travel magazine fearing the story of film location to promote tourism. The layers of texts, agencies, historical and popular memories are something which we are exploring in the our upcoming co-written journal paper!

Bringing academics and industry people together, Rilca hosted a vibrant talk and roundtable session to discuss the subject of film location in Southeast Asia and fan tourism. The event begins with the introduction to the British Academy and OHEC funded project and two talks by the project's PI and CI. These are:

• Southeast Asian film trail(s), colonial history and nostalgia by Professor Kate Taylor-Jones, School of East Asian Studies, Sheffield University
  
• Fan tourism: Digital platforms, affective space and cinephile pilgrimage stories by Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong, Rilca Mahidol University
  

The two talks are followed by the sharing session on film locations in Thailand and Southeast Asia by Thai film crew. We were joined by Samavee Pummoung and Kittipat Boonvanno (with experience working with Indochina Productions, Ta Productions and Netflix)

Summer 2019 has been a busy time for us, engaging with many collaborators and exploring diverse dimensions of film fan tourism in Southeast Asia. We kicked off June with Prof. Kate Taylor-Jones's second visit to Rilca at the beginning of the month. During the visit we met with many people working in the film industries particularly film location company and crew, as well as artists, researchers, curators who are exploring the landscape of Southeast Asia in various ways.

A lecture series on visual cultures, film tourism and fan practices

At the end of March and early April, Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong gave lectures at Kasetsart University and Chulalongkorn University on different aspects of fan practices and film tourism.

Call for Participant - Creative Spaces, Affective Responses and Visual Methods: New Approaches to Film Fan Tourism 

University of Sheffield
July 12th 2019

As part of a module called Transnational Film Cultures in Asian Contexts at Mahidol University, Rilca welcomes Dr. Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn - a Thai film critic, curator and academic whose research focuses on the landscape of forest in world cinema - for a workshop on textual analysis with MA students. 

Giving that the workshop received very positive feedback from those who attended, we discussed a possibility of running a similar kind of workshop focusing on landscape, travel and spaces on films shot in Thailand and Southeast Asia during Dr. Kate Taylor-Jones's visit to Thailand in June 2019.

Future collaboration to be expanded!

Exciting seminar and networking event as part of the Newton Fund’s research project.

​

Pictures from the event. We had over 40 people attended in total. Thanks all of you who joined us on the day!

After attending an outdoor screening of The Overture (2004) organized by the Thai Film Archive as part of the winter festival “Love and Warmth at Winter’s End” on , Dr. Kate Taylor Jones and Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong visited the Thai Film Archive office in Salaya, Thailand. Established in 1984 by Dome Sukwong under the Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture, it was reorganized into a public organization in 2009. The Archive organizes...

Prof. Kate Taylor-Jones, Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong and Georgia Thomas-Parr (PhD student from Sheffield University) visited sites connected to the Japanese colonial history in Kanchanaburi, Thailand including the Bridge on the River Kwai and the Hellfire Pass. The aim of this trip is to explore different ways to engage with space, colonial history and film-related sites through photography and video works.

As part of a research exchange trip to Thailand Prof. Kate Taylor-Jones visited sites related to colonial history in Thailand, one of which is now used as a location to exhibit art works as part of the Bangkok Art Biennale, the East Asiatic Building Bangkok.

​

“Back to 1884, it was the glorious period of the international marine trade. Besides the growth of trade and commerce, countries in Southeast Asia were totally seeking to avoid European’s colonisation. Because of such trading benefit and political reason, King Rama V tactfully decided to develop

Prof. Kate Taylor-Jones, Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong and Georgia Thomas-Parr (PhD student from Sheffield University) joined the opening of the exhibition ‘Beyond the Final Frontier’ at S.A.C. Subhashok The Arts Centre, Bangkok. The event was well-attended by film and art academics, critics and artists amongst other audiences. The multimedia exhibition explores histories and memories related to Thailand socio-political landscapes using the idea of outer space.

​

“Through sound, scent and vision, this exhibition creates a

The Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University welcomes Professor Kate Taylor-Jones and fan tourism project partners for research exchange activities. During Prof. Taylor-Jones’s visit, she will join a language training course in Thai and Burmese along with engaging in various networking sessions, a public seminar and research exchanges and fieldworks with Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong.

Since the start of the Fan Tourism/Cinephile Pilgrimage project on 2nd May 2018 funded by Thailand Research Fund, the principal investigator, Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong has visited various fan tour locations to interview business owners on their views towards film fan tourism.

Sites visit in November-December 2018 include:

​

• Khao Mai Lanna, Chiang Mai

• The River Market, Chiang Mai

• Technic Colour Lab, Chantaburi

Explore other locations which have been part of the fan tour phenomenon visit our map section!

We launched the first ever online resource on Fan Tourism & Cinephile Pilgrimage: Thailand and South East Asia at film-locations-thailand.org/. Now expanded with the British Academy's Newton's fund support to filmfantourism.org 

​

We thank our funding sponsors including Thailand Research Fund for making this project possible. We also thank the British Academy and Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC) Thailand for the sponsorship of the interactive map.

Dr. Wikanda Promkhuntong presents an early observations on the Fan Tourism in Thailand project at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo China as part of  “Playful Encounters: Interdisciplinary engagements with play, creativity, entertainment, and fun.” https://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/internationalcommunications/playful-encounters.aspx

We are thrilled to share you the news that the Thailand’s Research Fund project on Fan Tourism in Thailand will be expanded to explore the Southeast Asian film trails through a partnership with the University of Sheffield with the funding support of the British Academy’s Newton Mobility Grants.

​

“Newton Mobility Grants provide support for international researchers based in a country covered by the Newton Fund to establish and develop collaboration with UK researchers around a specific research project. The aim of these one-year awards is to strengthen the research capacity of, and contribute, to promoting economic development and social welfare in the partner country, while supporting excellent research. The awards will also initiate the development of longer-term links between the overseas and UK researchers.”

​

The Newton fund part of the project will also be incorporated on to this website. Thank you Newton Fund!

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british-academy-awards-newton-mobility-grants-24-international-researchers