![]() Recently, a photo of women in boats filled with produce was circulated with the phrase "Thais help Thais." The slogan itself was widely employed in a government effort encouraging Thais to buy domestic goods and to rally together following the 1997 economic crisis that began in Bangkok and spread across the Asian region. Cultivated first for the foreign gaze, the image of the floating market has also come to symbolize Thailand and Thainess in materials oriented to Thais. The familiar boat loaded with produce even appears on an English-language government pamphlet about venereal disease (see figure 1). Images of the floating market pervade the tourist archive, providing a standard graphic for postcards, coffee-table books, T-shirts, and posters. The distinctive picture of the vendors in their small boats, loaded with baskets of produce, offers a recognizable symbol of Thai traditions. Organized tours take tourists a few hours outside Bangkok proper to visit "one of the most authentic left in Thailand," where they can purchase items and take photographs of "this millennium old tradition verge of extinction." 1 On the banks of the canal, warehouse-sized stores are piled high with souvenirs. By evoking colorful markets from Thailand's past, these attractions point to the cultural, even intimate, properties of the economy.įloating markets feature women in indigo clothes and straw hats selling fruits, vegetables, snacks, and also T-shirts, silk garments, and knickknacks. ![]() The second is the commercial zone of "Chinatown," specifically Sampeng Lane, a dense street of wholesale shophouses. The first attraction is the photogenic "floating market," the early-morning market in canals where women sell produce and goods from small canoes. ![]() Two of Bangkok's well-known tourist attractions offer clues for understanding the powerful effects of the global economy unfolding in Thailand today. ![]()
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