The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies

472 Pages·2014·13.11 MB·English

The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies

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The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies

ICLLCS 2013

1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and
Cultural Studies
August 22-24, 2013

Organized by:
Department of Western Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Burapha University, THAILAND

ISBN : 978-974-384-496-6
Get Good Creation, Co.,LTD
Copyright@2013 by Department of Western Languages, Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences, Burapha University

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The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies

The scientific committee
The scientific committee is in charge of the reviewing process for the papers that have
been accepted to be published on the conference proceedings. It is composed of scholars
having an expertise in the diverse and complementary areas pertaining to the conference
theme.
1. Assoc. Prof. Supannee Pinmanee, Faculty of Humanities, Chiangmai University
2. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Budsaba Kanoksilapatham, Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University
3. Asst. Prof. Dr. Saiwaroon Chumpavan, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot
University
4. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tipa Thep-Ackrapong, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot
University
5. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kitima Indrambarya, Faculty of Applied Linguistics, Kasetsart
University
6. Dr. Nataporn Srichamnong, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Thai Chamber of
Commerce
7. Dr. Laura Bailey, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent
8. Dr Alex Ho-Cheong Leung, Department of Humanities, Northumbria University
9. Dr. Jean Odnor Starobinsky Jomskey, Department of Philosophy, Université Paris 8
10. Dr. Nasser Al-Horais, Arabic Department, Qassim university
11. Asst. Prof. Dr. Somboon Chetchumlong, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
12. Asst. Prof. Dr. Ubon Dhanesschaiyakupta, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
13. Assoc. Professor Thanu Tewrattanakul, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
14. Asst. Prof. Dr. Preedee Pitpoomwittee, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
15. Asst. Prof. Dr. Pakpoom Jaimeearee, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
16. Dr. On-Usa Phimsawat, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Burapha University
17. Dr. Somphob Yaisomanang, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Burapha
University
18. Dr.Wanwisa Kunpattaranirun, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Burapha
University
19. Assist.professor Dr.Nanchaya Mahakhan, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
20. Assist.professor Dr. Wilai Limthawaranun, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
21. Dr. Phoommarin Phiromlertamorn, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Burapha University
22. Assoc. Prof. Dr.Sujaritlak Deepadung, Mahidol University
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The 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies

CONTENTS
Alexander Klemm 4
Writing the City into Being: Cold War Bangkok in The Ninth Directive (1966)

Anusorn Saechan &Sugunya Ruangjaroon 14
WH-Arguments versus WH-Adjuncts Asymmetry in the Acquisition of English
WH-Questions by Thai Learners

Pudsadee Kaewchawee 25
The Effectiveness of Multimedia-Based Instruction in Developing the Sixth Grade
Students’ English Ability

Akkarapon Nuemaihom 34
An Analysis of Thai-English Translation Strategies in the Short Story Level 8 Abbot

Budsaba Kanoksilapatham 44
University Students’ Attitudes towards English Pronunciation Models

Chitra Phunkitchar & Supaporn Yimwilai 54
Environmental Awareness in Children Picture Book: The Secret Garden

Aram Iamlaor 63
An Analysis of Translating Figurative Language by English-Major Students in Thailand

Farhad Mazlum & Fatemeh Poorebrahim 69
English Language Teaching in Iran: A Meta-analytic and Triangulated View of Persistent
Challenges

Hataya Anansuchatkul 81
Effortlessly Yours: A Discursive Construction of Spa Service in Chiang Mai

Jaime Moreno 100
Between Christianity and Modernity: Spain in the History of Boredom-as-Laziness

Jose G. Tan, Jr. 110
English Instructional Materials: Imperative Learning Aid for the High School Bound
Summer Program of the MSU-Science High School

Khaing Khaing Oo & Kantatip Sinhaneti 122
An Investigation of Myanmar Migrant Workers’ Job-related English Language Problems
and Needs at D.E.A.R Burma School

Meechai Wongdaeng & Rangsiya Chaengchenkit 135
Interlanguage of English Question Use among Thai EFL Learners: An Investigation into
Acquisition Patterns and a Testing of Implicational Universals

Khanita Limhan 148
English-Thai Time Expressions Used by Thai EFL Learners

Nani Indrajani Tjitrakusuma 158
The Metaphors of Verbal and Pictorial Verbal Advertisement Texts in Online Magazines
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Nanik Mariani Effendie 168
The Student Wheels Strategy in Teaching Speaking Skills to Cultivate Politeness at Junior
High School

Paul Ashford 180
Improving English language skills through extensive reading: A literature review

Reza Abdi & Salim Zalgholizadeh 190
An Analysis of the Use of Collocation by Iranian EFL College Students

Rungaroon Injai 211
An Analysis of Paraphrasing Strategies Use in Expository Writing by 3rd Year Students at
Burapha University

Hossein Siahpoosh 221
Pronunciation Performance in EFL Learners at Different Age Groups: Extraversion vs.
Introversion

Thitinan B. Common 228
Music and the Echo of Cultural Identity: The Case Study of Lanna Contemporary Music

Wayne George Deakin 238
Thailand, Occidentalism and Cultural Commodity Fetishism

Wimonwan Aungsuwan 247
The Similarities and Differences between Imagination and Reality in Harry Potter

Pipittaporn Inpanich & Atipat Boonmoh 259
The Effects of Peer and Teacher Feedback through an Electronic Medium (Facebook) on
Students’ Writing at Different Points of Their Writing

Apichai Rungruang 270
The Relationship between the Perception and Production of English Onset Clusters by
EFL Thai Learners

Chadchavan Sritong 280
Comparative Analysis of Usages of the Preposition "de" in Spanish and Thai Language

Elisa Cristina Díaz 290
Spanish and Thais surnames: Similarities and differences.

Intira Charuchinda 299
“Beautiful” or “Pretty” as Conceptualized in Katherine Mansfield’s A Cup of Tea: Feminist
Ironies

Irana Astutiningsih 310
Women’s Breaking Taboos in Cyberculture: Tearing up Patriarchal Net through Slash
Fiction?

Kay Liu (劉采婕) & Jason Mattausch (馬傑生) 319
Tone Perception Errors in Mandarin Chinese

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Krongtham Nuanngam 327
Politeness in English of Thailand’s Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET)

María de las Mercedes Fuentes Hurtado 338
How can Thai students learn Spanish literature? A practical approach.

Marilou L. Villas 348
An Investigation of Students’ Types and Frequency of Errors in Paragraph Writing

Moh’d Tawfiq Bataineh 356
Language Ideology and the Development of Arabic

Parin Tanawong & Somsak Kaewnuch 378
The Relationship between Cohesion and Coherence in Writing: The Case of Thai
EFL Students

Raksi Kiattibutra 390
The effectiveness of teaching foreign language to a non-background group: A case study
of teaching Elementary French for social sciences students at the University of Phayao

Sorapong Nongsaeng & Supaporn Yimwilai 397
The Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy in Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins

Wannaprapha Suksawas 407
Exploratory Talk in EFL Classroom from a Systemic Functional Linguistics’ View

Yaowarut Mengkow 418
Derek Walcott and the Pastoral

Yoga Prihatin 429
Conversational Implicature Analysis in a Classroom Interaction at English Department
of Tegal Pancasakti University

Yulia Makhonko 439
Listening to learn in an L2: Noticing and Restructuring Listening Activities
versus Traditional Way of Teaching

Fuangket Tongwanchai 449
Grammatical Use of Politeness Strategies in Requests by Thai Learners of Spanish

Hendar & Chairiawaty 458
Improving the students’ Business English Communication and Intercultural Competence
through Role Playing and Simulation

Ida Zuraida Supri 465
A Dialogue Journal: A Tool to Improve Classroom Interaction

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Writing the City into Being:
Cold War Bangkok in The Ninth Directive (1966)

Alexander Klemm
Assumption University of Thailand
Graduate School of English
[email protected]

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the novel The Ninth Directive (1966) by British author Elleston
Trevor (a.k.a. Adam Hall) by focusing on its historical and literary contexts and on the construction
of Bangkok as an urban stage of Cold War clashes between British, U.S. American and Chinese
interests. The paper seeks to determine exactly how Bangkok is portrayed in the novel and to what
ends. The theoretical framework is based on various recent publications that deal with the
representation of Bangkok and Thailand in western fiction and non-fiction texts. The results show
that The Ninth Directive fits some characteristics of the city novel genre, yet it does not fully develop
Bangkok into a character of its own right because the primary purpose is to present Bangkok as a
strategic center from where the western and Thai forces succeed at stopping the spread of Chinese
Communism. This representation is solely based on the observations of the British agent Quiller, the
protagonist. At first, the city is portrayed as an idyllic paradise before it is turned into a city under
siege. Moreover, the author’s imagined Cold War confrontation reveals his underlying Orientalist,
colonial and imperial attitudes, which are most apparent in the portrayal of the antagonist. Named
‘Kuo the Mongolian’, the Chinese-Communist assassin Kuo embodies western fears of a rising China
and the spread of Communism.

Keywords: Bangkok, Cold War, city, fiction, representation, Orientalism

Introduction

During my research about the numerous ways in which post-World War II English-language
novels have appropriated and represented Bangkok, I could not find any critical texts of note that
have engaged with this topic. This may be due to an apparent lack of ‘serious’ western novels set
in Bangkok, or an ostensibly more fruitful focus on colonial and post-colonial literature set in
other Southeast Asian cities. Nevertheless, a great number of noteworthy novels have given
unique portrayals of Bangkok by way of interpreting the city and the lives of Bangkokians. One
such novel is The Ninth Directive (1966), written by the British author Elleston Trevor and
published under the pseudonym Adam Hall.
The novel is set in Bangkok in the mid-1960s. The Bureau, a top-secret British spy agency,
directs agent Quiller to Bangkok where his mission is to protect a member of the British Royal
family who is referred to as ‘the Person’ (possibly based on Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh)
throughout the novel. The Person is going to visit Bangkok on a diplomatic mission to maintain
the strong ties between Great Britain and Thailand. The Bureau fears an attempt on the Person’s
life during the visit, possibly by an assassin hired by China, and that the Thai and British security
services would be unable to prevent such an attack. The threat becomes real when the Chinese-
Communist assassin ‘Kuo the Mongolian’, henceforth Quiller’s cunning enemy, and a group of
helpers cross from Laos into Thailand. Quiller finds Kuo in Bangkok and soon believes that his
plan is to hide on an oriel of a Buddhist stupa named ‘Phra Chula Chedi’ from where he would
shoot and most certainly kill the Person when he is passing in an open car. However, this plot has
been a cover to mislead the British agent. Kuo’s actual intention is to abduct the Person. This
abduction succeeds through an attack on the car and at the cost of the lives of several innocent
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Thais. Quiller, however, has no chance to stop Kuo and his men. Apparently, they were hired by
the Chinese Government with the goal to force the British Government to swop the Person for a
spy named Huang Hsiung Lee, who is in British custody. Lee has memorized plans for
revolutionary laser technology needed by the Chinese to build a super-weapon. After the
kidnapping Bangkok is in a state of shock and finds itself under siege by Thai, U.S. and British
special forces. Quiller’s revised directive is to find Kuo and to get the Person back alive. After
several setbacks he succeeds. By sparing Kuo’s life, he prevents Lee from running over to the
Chinese and secures the Person’s safe return.
This was a Cold War period when western concerns about the spread of Communism, the
nuclear standoff among the world’s superpowers, and an escalation of the ongoing Vietnam
conflict were very intense. The novel takes these tensions and lets them spill into Bangkok,
turning it into a city under domestic and foreign occupation. On the surface, Bangkok appears to
serve as a stage of a clash between British and Chinese interests, but there is much more to Hall’s
portrayal of Bangkok.
This paper engages critically with The Ninth Directive with regard to its role within the
western literary genre of city novels, and the actual Cold War context. The paper also analyzes the
novel’s complex portrayal of Bangkok as a city that is tested by an unwanted conflict. The
analyzes below are significant for readers to arrive at an understanding of how a city like
Bangkok is written into being, and how westerns portrayals of Bangkok are less indicative of the
Thai nation but more so of the ideological objectives and socio-cultural conditions of western
nations themselves.

Historical context: The Cold War

The Cold War began in 1947 with the Truman Doctrine, i.e. the president’s pledge that the
U.S. would support Greece and Turkey economically and militarily so as to prevent the USSR from
gaining a foothold there, and with the simultaneous beginning of the U.S.’s containment policy to
oppose the USSR’s expansionistic ambitions in other parts of the world. After decades of intense
international conflicts, global repositioning of the superpowers, proxy wars, and fears about a
nuclear catastrophe, the Cold War officially ended in 1991 with the collapse of the USSR.
There were several major Cold War events prior to the publication of The Ninth Directive
that led to its conflict-charged mood. For example, in 1953 the CIA overthrew the Iranian
Government, 1955 marked the year of the Warsaw Pact, and 1956 saw protests in Poland and an
uprising in Hungary. In 1961 the crisis culminated in Berlin with a faceoff between U.S. and Soviet
tanks at Checkpoint Charlie and with the construction of the Berlin Wall. Yet another critical high
point was reached in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Cold War also affected Southeast Asian nations. The First Indochina War (1946-1954)
between French and Vietnamese forces ended with the exit of the French troops from Vietnam.
The French withdrawal marked the beginning of CIA activity in the region that lasted until 1975
and was most intense during the Vietnam War (a.k.a. Second Indochina War, 1955-1975). The U.S.
was concerned about a possible ‘domino effect’ in Indochina, i.e. the unstoppable spread of
Communism from China to Vietnam, Laos, and further into Southeast Asia. The U.S.’s containment
strategy included the prevention of a communist takeover of South Vietnam and thus the stop of
the spread of Communism.
Thailand could not evade the ongoing international conflicts as it was pressured to side
with one of the superpowers. It decided to cooperate with NATO, and closely with the U.S. The
Ninth Directive takes place in the mid-1960s, which was a period when the infrastructure in
Bangkok and in other areas in Thailand developed rapidly not least due to U.S. financial and
logistic support. Thus, the strategic alliance between the U.S. and Thailand was mutually
beneficial. During the Vietnam War, particularly since 1964, Thailand permitted the U.S. Army Air
Force to use the country’s military bases. As a result, more U.S. military personnel arrived every
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year to support the war effort. Chris Burslem (2012) considers the period from 1945 to 1964 as
significant for Bangkok because it underwent transitions affecting all spheres of urban life. He
writes:
The end of World War II ushered in a political dark age of dictatorial rule, not unrelated to
the rise of the US as Thailand’s new patron. When American GIs arrived in the 1960s they found a
city with a well-established and lively nightlife. Their presence, however ensured it gained a
worldwide notoriety.
While the bars, Western restaurants, rock ‘n’ roll and youth culture were the most obvious
trappings of an increased exposure to America, US influence ran much deeper. Through its
investments in Thailand’s infrastructure, institutions and markets, as well as its policy input and
economic “guidance”, it put Thailand on the road to becoming an Asian tiger. The great drive to
development since the 1960s marked the end of Old Bangkok (p. 9).
While the global developments of the 1960s led to the end of an era in Bangkok’s history, it
also meant that a new era of the city had begun, which western novelists would exploit
accordingly.
The tense Cold War mood gave a push to the literary genre of the spy novel. There are at
least four English-language spy thrillers appropriating Bangkok as a Cold War city: Secret Mission
to Bangkok (Mason, 1960), The Spy in Bangkok (Ballinger, 1965), The Ninth Directive (Hall, 1966)
and Assignment Bangkok (Aarons 1972). By using the global tensions of the 1960s and letting
them culminate in Bangkok, the four Cold War novels stand out for writing Bangkok into being
like none before them because of their anti-Communist dogma and historical context. However,
they are not sold in Thailand, although with the exception of The Spy in Bangkok they have been
reprinted several times. This unavailability may be due to some comments in the novels and their
distortions of historical facts that can be construed as insensitive to the Thai nation.

Literary context: Bangkok as a novel setting

In Reading Bangkok, Ross King (2011) observes: “There are difficulties in understanding -
reading - Bangkok. It is, at least to the Western eye, a city of chaos, a landscape of incoherent
collisions and blurring overlays” (p. 1). Based on the premise that Bangkok resembles a chaos,
King develops three connected concepts of politics, culture and history to understand Bangkok.
First, the pillars of ‘Nation, Religion, King’ are omnipresent in Bangkok’s spaces, expressed
through landmarks, monuments, governmental institutions, buildings, streets, names, temples,
and shrines. They intersect in many ways and are thus inter-dependent (p. xxvii). Second, the
apparent chaos is, on the visual level, “mostly a consequence of juxtapositions of the dissimilar
and even the incompatible” (p. 12). There are also “superimpositions”, where new activities and
images partially cover old ones, which creates visual disharmony. Moreover, Bangkokians
maneuver through the urban chaos with flexibility, endurance and skill. Hence, confusion is a
necessary aspect of the city’s vibrant energy (p. 12). Third, understanding Bangkok in relation to
colonization is crucial. King claims that Thailand was colonized over the last centuries in various
ways: “The three circles of the Western appropriation of Siam - economic infiltration, territorial
intrusion and discursive Orientalism - were always in action, though there were significant waves:
the mid-19th-century treaty era, the early 20th-century territorial expansion of Malaya, the
Japanese disruption (certainly more Western than Asian), America and the Vietnam War, the
cultural neo-colonisation of the present” (p. 45). These forms of quasi-colonization have affected
the economic center of Thailand permanently. Moreover, King’s main concepts to read and make
sense of Bangkok are relevant to the literary strategies by which The Ninth Directive envisions
Bangkok.
Many novels use a city merely as a broad background, whereby the city itself plays only a
minor role and is treated superficially by a story that could easily take place elsewhere. It then
serves to give a certain atmosphere to the story, to name and describe the places occupied by the
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characters, or to justify events that are typically set in an urban rather than a environment.
Alternatively, an author may deeply engage with the urban setting by describing it in detail,
relating it to the characters, and making a city and urban life the main foci. In such a ‘city novel’,
city and citizens enter into a fluid relationship, and the city is explored by a flâneur, i.e. someone
who wanders through city-spaces simply to experience them and who gives order to the story.
The literary city may then be read as a text in itself, or its labyrinthine quality may mirror the
narrative complexity or the psychological condition of the principle character.
In the city, politics, laws, order, justice, identities, cultures, and co-existence are constantly
renegotiated. Cities and societies define each other, and true city novels manage to show this.
Around the turn of the 20th century, city novels reflected the state of mind of urban societies that
had to come to grips with industrialization and modernization processes and the transformation
of cities into metropolises. New York, London, Paris, Berlin, and many other cities brought forth
countless novels that engaged with the challenges of changing urban life. Contemporary city
novels, on the other hand, often see the city as the place where the effects of globalization are
most intense and where the identity of the global citizen is shaped.
Whether a city serves as a superficial backdrop or is developed into a full-fledged character
in a novel, it affects the characters just as any actual city influences its residents and reflects the
spirit of the time. This is especially true in the case of Bangkok as seen in western novels. It is a
city of fascinating contradictions. In recent decades, Bangkok has endured a number of serious
crises with many coups d’état, deadly street clashes between demonstrators and the military, an
occupied airport, and devastating floods. Yet it is also the host of many international events in
economics, culture and science. Inspired by an urban cosmos made up of a rich history, natural
beauty and human conflict, western novelists chose to set stories in Bangkok, either using it as an
atmospheric background or endeavoring to grapple with the Asian city experience.
Hall uses conventions of the city novel genre without making The Ninth Directive a city
novel per se. While Quiller describes specific locations and comments on them, the reader has
never the impression that the city portrayal is imperative to the plot advancement, but that the
conflicts taking place in the urban environment are the driving forces. On occasion, Quiller walks
and drives around Bangkok almost like a flâneur, mapping and describing the city. He passes
through numerous real and invented places. A reader unfamiliar with Bangkok - then and today -
is left to accept the false place names simply as foreign and exotic-sounding. This combining of
authenticity and fiction is typical for the author’s appropriation of Bangkok as a city of the
western imagination. Only a reader familiar with Bangkok understands that the city, even in the
mid-1960s, was already quite large. In essence, Hall’s fictional geography of Bangkok is
deceivingly authentic. Thus, one gets the false impression that these locations are in close
proximity to one another, which makes the city seem small and orderly. This simplified version of
Bangkok as a comprehensive space goes against the common notion of it as chaotic.
It is striking just how many contemporary fiction novels include the word ‘Bangkok’ in the
title. This marketing practice indicates the belief that ‘Bangkok’ evokes certain reader
expectations to which the author writes. Nevertheless, most of these self-proclaimed ‘Bangkok
novels’ are not city novels per se because they use Bangkok merely as a gloomy background.
Osborne (2009) translates Bangkok’s full name as “The city of angels, the great city, the eternal
jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine
precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the
heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnu” (p.
34). In short, Bangkok is the ‘City of Angels’, a city of divine origin – which makes it an Asian
counterpoint to the U.S. city of Los Angeles. In the 19th century admired for its picturesque canals,
it was also named ‘Venice of the East’, reminiscent of Italy’s romantic city. Such quasi-branding
shows how Bangkok has been a city appropriated by East and West alike.
Throughout the evolving tradition of western novels set in Bangkok, the city has been
conceived and portrayed so as to serve western ideals and ideologies, to explore East-West
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