The Performative State: Semi-coloniality and the Tyranny of Images in Modern Thailand*

TLDR: In this article, the authors trace the history of this regime of power/knowledge and power/prestige and show that rather than being traditional, it took its present form as part of Siam's responses to the encroachment of the Western powers in the nineteenth century.

Abstract: Previous accounts of the Thai regime of images have been largely ahistorical, presenting the phenomenon as something of a cultural given. This study traces the history of this regime of power/knowledge and power/prestige and shows that rather than being "traditional" it took its present form as part of Siam's responses to the encroachment of the Western powers in the nineteenth century. As a modern form of power, the regime of images came Into being as a product of the distinctive character of Siam's semi-colonial relations with the West, Noncolonized Siam did not need to wage a war of independence to expel foreign colonizers. Nevertheless, to preserve national autonomy a new form of local power was called into being, and the regime of images emerges from this strategic mobilization of local power In the service of preserving Siamese independence. The contemporary Thai political system remains authoritarian. To a considerable extent this is a legacy ofthe country's semi-colonial history when, as a strategic response to the challenges that nineteenth century colonialism presented to national autonomy, the absolute monarchy mobilized a new form ofpower to construct a public field of images of a "civilized" Siam. While this "regime of images" was called into being to placate Western demands for "civilized" behaviour, it simultaneously realized the potential of the indigenous absolutist state, especially in the sphere ofpublic appearances. In contrast, in the private sphere of everyday life significant disjunctures with public performances of Western-style civilization were often tolerated and