Southeast Asia Collection Blog

Chang Noi. Jungle book : Thailand’s politics, moral panic, and plunder, 1996-2008. Chiang Mai, Thailand : Silkworm Books, 2009.

Chang Noi (a pseudonym, meaning ‘Little Elephant’) is at once one of the most respected and controversial newspaper columnists in Thailand today. Readers revere him for his trenchant insights, uncompromising integrity, and sardonic wit. At the same time, some of Thailand’s wealthiest and most powerful public figures, who are often the target of his most scathing critiques, regard him as a thorn in their side. The present volume includes 64 of Chang Noi’s most widely read editorials over the course of the past decade or so. The editorials cover a wide range of important social and political issues. It is a lucid and rip-roaring commentary on contemporary Thai society.