A journey through Southeast Asia’s most visited nation—exploring its cultural, political, and its complex contemporary reality.
“These books are so rich and engrossing that it is rewarding to read them even when one is stuck at home.” The Times Literary Supplement
With this volume, The Passenger makes its first stop in Southeast Asia—Thailand, one of the world's most popular tourist destinations, yet one whose complexities are often overlooked by those passing through.
In this issue:
• Pitchaya Sudbanthad on Buddhism, the state, and geopolitical power plays
• Emma Larkin on Thailand as the "country of spirits"
• Claudio Sopranzetti on the monarchy under pressure
• Plus: soft power and the working class, the rural heart of Isaan, separatist movements in the south, the palm oil scandal, the Boy Love phenomenon, and more
Recent Thai history reads like a political thriller—marked by street protests, royal intrigue, military coups, popular uprisings, and uneasy returns to democratic rule. The country’s so-called “impossible democracy” pits working-class progressives, students, and urban reformers against an entrenched elite of conservative aristocrats and business magnates.
Thailand is often seen as open and permissive, yet a more prudish core persists beneath the surface. Strikingly, one of its most successful cultural exports is Boy Love—romantic dramas featuring male protagonists, now at the forefront of a soft-power boom driving international interest and investment in Thai media.
Beyond the neon allure of Bangkok—crowned the most visited city in the world in 2023—lie vast, less-traveled regions like Isaan in the Northeast, home to a third of the country’s population. Ethnically and linguistically distinct, these areas embody the country's kaleidoscopic identity, often at odds with top-down efforts to impose a singular cultural narrative.
Thailand’s true strength may lie in its enduring syncretism—religious, cultural, and ethnic—as seen in the story of Chinese immigrants who, over generations, have become indistinguishably woven into Thai society.
The Passenger: Thailand offers a richly layered portrait of a nation at the crossroads—torn between tradition and transformation, and alive with contradictions.
Physical Info: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches | 192 Pages | Paperback