Very Thai Everyday Popular Culture /anglais - Tapa dura

This pioneering insight into contemporary Thai folk culture delves beyond the traditional Thai icons to reveal the casual, everyday expressions of Thainess that sodelight and puzzle. From floral truck bolts and taxi altars to buffalo cart furniture and drinks in a bags, the same exquisite care, craft and improvisation resounds through home and street, bar and wardrobe. Never colonised, Thai culture retains nuanced ancient meaning in the most mundane things. The days are colour coded, lucky numbers dictate prices, window grilles become guardian angels, tattoos entrance the wearer. Philip scoured each region to show how indigenous wisdom both adapts to the present and customises imports, applying Roman architecture to shophouses, morphing rock into festive farm music, turning the Japanese motor-rickshaw into the tuk-tuk. Colour-saturated illustrations help you navigate various social traits, whether white-faced hi-so matrons or Red Bullswilling workers wearing coins in their ear. This is Thai culture as it has never been shown before.

Philip Cornwel-Smith is a freelance writer and editor specialising in culture and travel. He has written and edited numerous articles about Thailand, including the Time Out Bangkok Guide and Thailand: A Traveller's Guide (updated). John Goss is an American artist living in Bangkok. His video works and photography have been widely exhibited around the world and appeared in numerous magazines and journals.