This article examines associations formed by Tai Yai youth in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, with a particular focus on the Tai Association, in order to explore their social and cultural functions and the meanings they hold in the experiences and relationships of participating youth. While previous studies have primarily focused on the reproduction of ethnic culture through non-everyday and highly symbolic practices such as rituals and festivals, this study sheds light on everyday activities—such as learning and leisure—to capture the dynamic processes of relationship-building and self-understanding among Tai Yai youth living in an urban context.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the analysis reveals that the Tai Association functions not as a site of one-directional cultural transmission, but as a practical arena in which youth with diverse migration backgrounds and life experiences interact, reflect, and continually reconfigure their values and understandings. In particular, for 1.5- and second-generation migrants, participation in the association provides opportunities to re-examine fragmented cultural memories and previously unarticulated historical and ethnic perspectives through dialogue with peers. This article argues that youth associations in migrant societies should be understood as processes of mutual learning and the ongoing formation of self-understanding, rather than merely as mechanisms of cultural preservation.

This study examines the functions of schools as a “protected zone” for stateless students in Thailand, focusing on a public vocational college in Mae Sot, Tak. Approximately 170,000 school-aged stateless children and youth live in Thailand. While Thailand’s 2005 policy guarantees 15 years of free education regardless of nationality, schools also function as state ideological apparatuses. Based on interviews with 27 stateless students and observation of morning assemblies, the findings reveal two primary characteristics of the “protected zone.” First, the school shields stateless students from legal deprivation by providing essential resources that allow students to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers. Second, this “protected zone” is conditional and operates within the state’s moral economy. In morning assemblies as a site of national ideology, teachers frame education as state-granted benevolence rather than a fundamental right, demanding discipline and loyalty in exchange. Stateless students actively accept these obligations, regarding their submissiveness as a necessary strategy to secure their place within the school and Thai society.

Previous studies suggest that the kings of Siam sent “tributary” missions to the Ming and Qing dynasties primarily for economic profit, and that Chinese imperial officials, or translators of overseas Chinese rendered Thai royal letters where the king of Siam and the Chinese emperor were equals—into Chinese with a hierarchical framing to align with the imperial order of China. However, this interpretation, first proposed by King Mongkut in the 1860s, only took root among Thai elites in the early twentieth century. It needs reexamination based on contemporary sources.

As a first step of this reexamination, this paper analyzes two Chinese translations of three documents sent by Taksin to the Qing dynasty in 1768, preserved in the Palace Museum in Taipei. The originals, probably written in Thai, no longer survive. They were translated under Li Siyao, the viceroy of Liangguang. One, from Zhao Pi Ya Gan En Chi 昭丕雅甘恩勅 (Taksin) to the Minister of the Board of Rites, was treated as a cheng 呈-style document. The other two, from the minister of finance and Siamese chiefs to the Viceroy and Grand Coordinator of Guangdong, were treated as bin 禀-style documents. Since these letters were identical, only one Chinese translation was likely produced. At present, these are the only known Chinese translations from Thai produced under the Qing.

In the translation, the passages describing the destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese, Taksin’s expulsion of them, popular support for him, and competing regional powers appear relatively accurate. However, the originals unlikely did not contain the terms equivalent to tianchao (celestial dynasty) or huangdi (emperor).

In the cheng letter, Taksin is made to “seek imperial investiture as king,” stating that “investiture” was necessary to become king and that without it, the ritual could not be performed. Yet the last Siamese ruler to “request investiture” was in 1482. Thereafter, exception of King Narai, no king of Ayutthaya king was “invested” by the Ming or Qing. By the late eighteenth century, “investiture” was not a prerequisite for becoming king, and no such ritual existed. It is questionable whether this portion corresponds to the original Thai document. The translation nonetheless shaped the Qing court’s perception that it was Taksin who desired the investiture.

Li Siyao submitted a memorial with the translations to the Qianlong Emperor, recommending that the original letters should be rejected on the grounds Taksin, though a subject of King of Siam, “requested investiture.” The Emperor approved. As the only known examples, these translations did not necessarily facilitate smooth relations. To admonish Taksin, the Emperor also ordered the Grand Councilors to draft a xiyu 檄諭-styled reply from Li Siyao to Taksin. Although formally rejected, the documents’ contents were submitted to the Emperor, and Li’s reply also reflected the imperial will. Subsequent correspondence must be examined in this procedural context.

This research note presents a preliminary anthropological analysis of the relationship between kathoey (กะเทย)—a locally specific gender category often associated with transgender women—and the practice of temporary ordination in Theravāda Buddhism in Thailand. Although ordination is a gender-restricted institution reserved for men and commonly understood as a rite of passage through which boys become socially recognized adult males, some kathoey undertake temporary ordination by suspending their feminine gender expression and ordaining as men.

While previous studies have examined kathoey and Buddhism through doctrinal, media, and ethnographic approaches, little attention has been paid to how individuals themselves interpret the meaning of ordination within the constraints of gender norms and familial expectations. This paper first identifies the limitations of a human rights framework that frames such practices primarily in terms of coercion and constraint. It then turns to selected cases to explore how kathoey actively engages with the institution of temporary ordination.

Focusing on cases in which ordination is undertaken with the expectation of returning to a feminine mode of life after disrobing, the paper argues that temporary ordination can be reinterpreted as a strategic practice. By fulfilling filial obligations as “sons” and generating religious merit for their parents, kathoey seek to elicit recognition, acceptance, or material resources that support their future lives. In this sense, ordination operates within a structure of reciprocity, not only between monks and laypeople but also within kinship relations.

The paper suggests that kathoey reconfigure the meaning of a male rite of passage by mobilizing its reciprocal dimensions, thereby transforming it into a means of negotiating gendered futures. This process can be understood as a form of “recasting ritual,” through which normative temporalities of masculine maturation are reorganized in ways that enable kathoey to pursue alternative life trajectories while remaining embedded in familial and social frameworks.