Coste de suministros alternativos de gas natural

The meanings and place of lakhon in the everyday life of Thai people was the subject of

Sara Van Fleet’s 1998 ethnography of working class and lower-middle class television viewers in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Van Fleet connects the emergence and growing popularity of lakhon in the daily lives of the poorer classes to their experiences of social fragmentation instigated by the rapid and often uneven economic and social development of Thailand over the past 30 years. This analysis fits with earlier discussions on samai kau (old times) and samai mai (new times) interpretations of Isan identity formation. She refers to viewers enjoying lakhon set in more traditional agrarian times in Thailand when life was less complex and less demanding: “…a (an imagined) past or

“tradition” when what was “good” and what was “bad” was more clearly mapped out.”294

Van Fleet argues that lakhon creates an alternate universe where people, even poor people, may have the opportunity to fulfil their desires, dreams and fantasies. Against all

294 _{Van Fleet, S. (1998). Everyday dramas: Television and Modern Thai Women. Unpublished doctoral} dissertation, University of Washington, United States.

odds – pain, suffering and longing will ultimately be resolved in true love and/or unexpected economic and social success. For those Thai citizens, especially women, who

tolerate unenviable hard working lives, lakhon offers an accessible and palatable escape

from the rigours of their everyday life. It does not matter if the basic plot lines and

themes remain unchanged and wholly predictable through series after series of lakhon, as

long as the drama fulfils the desired fantasy of a happy ending. The repetitiveness of

lakhon is often described as lakhon nam nao (rotten water) in Thai popular culture discourse, an expression with origins in the 1970s student resistance movement, whose members used it to refer to the rigid and corrupt military government they were fighting to change. Van Fleet points out that while the term nam nao appears superficially derogatory; it is actually used by people with ironic affection for the very typical nature of the lakhon genre, a predictability that is at the very heart of the genre.295

Participants in my research were well aware that the fairytale nature of lakhon is what makes this kind of television attractive. They were savvy enough to recognise that producers of Thai television drama are specifically targeting lakhon at a mainstream

audience of mostly working class Thais. One student made this comment about Suer Si

Foon: “Real construction work is hard; they don’t sing and dance like in this drama. On

TV, they (the producers) want real construction workers to watch and enjoy”.296

This awareness by producers of the desire for escapism by the less privileged masses has led to the steady emergence of both modern and historical lakhon series either set in the Isan region or that deal with the lives of Khon Isan outside their home region, particularly in the sprawling metropolis of Bangkok. There are more Khon Isan in Thailand than any other ethnic group and they are largely poor. Therefore it is not surprising that in the last decade Thai television producers and promoters have identified them as a significant target group, in much the same way that the promoters of mainstream Thai music recording labels have identified the Isan lukthung music genre as a potentially lucrative market in the Thai commercial landscape. Likewise, non-Isan viewers also appear to take interest and/or amusement, pejorative or not, in the lives of their Isan neighbours.

295 _{Van Fleet (1998), pp.228-231.}

In the minds of my research participants, the advent of popular Isan lakhon was the 2001

broadcasting of Nai Hoy Tamin (Lieutenant Cruelty) about the life of rural Isan people in

historical times. This long-running series of 13 episodes was greeted by the Isan television watching community with great anticipation because it was one of the first

occasions that the main actors would attempt to speak in pasar Isan (Lao). The two lead

actors, Saranyu Wongkrajarng (Tua) as Nai Hoy and Namfon Komolthiti as Kum Kaew, were not Khon Isan but of central Thai origin. Many people, my research participants included, were disappointed with the result:

Student 1: They don’t speak like Khon Isan.

S 2: I watched it and felt unsatisfied.

S 3: They did not speak as well as we expected, but the

characters were like Khon Isan in real life. And the actors were admired, so many were not bothered much with the language and were able to share their stories of the past with their children by watching this drama. Ajarn Wirat: So the only part you didn’t like was the language?

S 3: Yes. It's ok with the feeling though because the actors

are the ones we like .Children always ask the oldies if the past was same as in the drama.

S 4: The genuine Isan actors played only small parts, not

main characters.

S 2: They were token Khon Isan.297

Popular Isan singer Jintara Poonlarp was one of these token Isan acting in her first television role. Given that pasar Isan is actually the Lao language, it was perhaps rather ambitious to expect that these young popular Thai actors could become fluent enough in a second language to appear as native Khon Isan in the series. This is one of the key issues

Thai producers working on Isan lakhon are obviously grappling with and will be

discussed further in the following sections.