Transnational Traditionalism, Modernity, and Tourism: Womanhood in Postcolonial Burma and Thailand, 1950–79

Colonial culture in Southeast Asia was an invasive species; likewise, postcolonial culture in this region ignored borders and was a transnational phenomena. Thailand, unlike Burma was never a colony of a European state; but in both societies concepts of colonial ideology became embedded in everyday life through sartorial means. In postcolonial, post -WWII Burma and Thailand, clothing and fashion in the visual medium continued to be powerful ways in which these new states attempted to shape national identity. Women and womanhood were specific targets for these states.Using visual analysis of propaganda, advertisements, and state published magazines, this research presents a comparative view of postcolonial womanhood in Burma and Thailand in the mid-twentieth century. It shows how womanhood and national identity were mobilized through fashion and how the delivery of this visual culture occurred via tourism and transnational commercial connections with the world beyond Southeast Asia. In doing so, Burma and Thailand created national images of themselves to the world.