By Audrey Fong
The history and voices of Southeast Asian authors are often overlooked in favor of the history and literature of other Asian countries. Traditionally in K-12 education, countries with larger populations or with more entwined interactions with the West like China and Japan receive more attention. And when we do learn about Southeast Asia in class, it’s often through the eyes of white scholars, seen through the lens of colonization and war. Which is why I was especially drawn to Sunisa Manning’s debut novel, A Good True Thai, a finalist for the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.
Manning, born and raised in Bangkok by Thai and American parents, disrupts this pattern in her novel. She supplies and makes easily digestible the history of modern Thailand and takes control of who tells the story, by taking the microphone away from Western white writers and using her own. In this way, A Good True Thai is an admirable novel, part of a long journey to educate people on Southeast Asia, its history, and the voices of its people.
Manning’s novel follows the lives, educations, and adventures of three young adults – Det, the great-grandson of the 19th-century ruler of Thailand, King Chulalongkorn; Chang, a commoner and Det’s best friend; and Lek, Det’s Chinese girlfriend. The three of them fight for revolution together – Lek seeks to spread the writing of the activist Chit Phumisak and the three of them run off to the jungles to join the communists training there.
While A Good True Thai is structured as a bildungsroman, it slyly accomplishes much more by packing both historical lessons and political issues within its slim frame – corruption in the Thai government, the balance of power between the government and the royal family, Thailand’s efforts to fight off colonialism even if it means adapting to the West’s perception of what is civilized (“If Siam was seen as civilized, if the King was acknowledged as a monarch alongside other monarchs, then the West couldn’t conquer us in the name of civilizing the natives,” Det’s dad explains to him.), and the revolutionary fervor present in 1970s Thailand.
However, the most interesting parts in the novel are the ways the three friends’ allegiances and ideals waiver because of their relationship to each other. While Det is of royal blood, Chang and Lek are both commoners. Yet, the latter two still have a certain level of privilege since they are students at an elite college and since they receive financial support from Det. Chang and Lek both seek to unionize factory workers, to improve the living conditions of commoners across Thailand, to make education more easily available for those in rural areas, and to create a true democracy out of Thailand. Det follows along with these ideals because of his friendship with Chang and Lek yet he struggles with them, understanding that he benefits from the system in place and that he is representative of the elite.
Occasionally, Lek does come off as unlikeable because of her wavering ideals. While she states she wants to improve Thailand and consistently quotes Chit’s activist screeds to the point of Chang and Det’s exhaustion, she herself behaves in classist ways and benefits from the privileges that come with dating Det. For example, in one scene, Lek wants to share a few of Chit’s poems with a girl living with the communists but worries “the girl might not be able to read.” It turns out the girl is perfectly capable of reading, exposing that while Lek is angry towards the elites for looking down on commoners like herself, she still has classist ideas such as assuming someone in a rural area can’t read. In another scene, Lek gets into trouble for disrespecting King Chulalongkorn and if not for Det’s intervention, would go to jail. In this way, she enjoys safeties not afforded to other activists.
However, what makes Lek redeemable is that for the most part, she does come around and realize her hypocrisies and try to amend them. Over dinner with Det, she acknowledges her flaws, saying, “There’s a part of me that likes elites. The elite way of doing things. Elite living…A private room, a tranquil house. People to feed you and clean for you. It makes life easy. I know it doesn’t fit with my politics.” In this way, she is self-aware, which redeems her in my eyes. To go back and forth, to enjoy some parts of the elite lifestyle and detest others – all of that is part of growing up and finding yourself so this waffling feels like Manning’s way of reminding us of Lek’s young age and that she is still in the process of learning and finding herself.
Overall, A Good True Thai provides a look at 1970s Thailand and helps shift the way we understand Southeast Asia, placing the narrative into the hands of someone of Thai descent and of someone who has lived there. It educates the readers on a lot of Thai history – Chit’s assassination, student protests, political coups, and corruption, all of which are used to propel the story of the three friends forward. This novel is both a solid introductory lesson into the history of modern Thailand and an interesting read for fans of coming-of-age narratives.
A Good True Thai is available from Barnes and Noble and Epigram Bookshop.
Audrey Fong is a writer, interested in food, coming of age stories, and Asian American narratives. She earned her B.A. in English from UC Irvine and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in creative writing from Chapman University. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Soapberry Review.