Siam Society Raquez Talk on Youtube
If you missed my talk for the Siam Society on Alfred Raquez’s visit to Bangkok for King Chulalongkorn’s jubilee in 1903, you can catch the recording on the Society’s Youtube page here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mMYoKkpvPM
In 1903, French journalist and explorer Alfred Raquez visited Bangkok to cover the jubilee of King Chulalongkorn for the Hanoi-based newspaper L’Avenir du Tonkin, leaving one of the most detailed accounts of the pageantry of the celebrations, which has unfortunately been all but forgotten. However vivid his descriptions, they must also be read against the background of French-Siamese political tensions of the time, tensions that continue to have an impact on Thailand’s relations with its neighbors of former Indochina. This presentation will discuss Raquez’s coverage of King Chulalongkorn’s jubilee as 1) a historical artifact of French colonial posturing at the fin-de-siècle; 2) a descriptive travelogue that offers a vivid portrait of the event; 3) a source for traces of biographical information about the elusive Raquez himself.
Siam Society Talk on Raquez in Bangkok
My talk at the Siam Society on Alfred Raquez’s 1903 trip to Bangkok is next week. Unlike Raquez, due to pandemic travel restrictions, I will not be in Bangkok but broadcasting from my dining table in Singapore…so you can tune in too on the Society’s Facebook Live and YouTube Live pages, streams, sites, whatever…links in the link above!
See you there!
In 1903, French journalist and explorer Alfred Raquez visited Bangkok to cover the jubilee of King Chulalongkorn for the Hanoi-based newspaper L’Avenir du Tonkin, leaving one of the most detailed accounts of the pageantry of the celebrations, which has unfortunately been all but forgotten. However vivid his descriptions, they must also be read against the background of French-Siamese political tensions of the time, tensions that continue to have an impact on Thailand’s relations with its neighbors of former Indochina. This presentation will discuss Raquez’s coverage of King Chulalongkorn’s jubilee as 1) a historical artifact of French colonial posturing at the fin-de-siècle; 2) a descriptive travelogue that offers a vivid portrait of the event; 3) a source for traces of biographical information about the elusive Raquez himself.
Alfred Raquez biography is now here!
My biography of Alfred Raquez is now available from Routledge. Get your copy here: https://www.routledge.com/Alfred-Raquez-and-the-French-Experience-of-the-Far-East-1898-1906/Gibson/p/book/9780367702489
A Study of an Enigmatic Travel Writer and His Work in Colonial Asia during the fin de siècle.
In 1898, a man calling himself Alfred Raquez appeared in Indochina claiming to be a writer travelling the world to escape unfathomable sorrows back home in France. He published thousands of pages of highly detailed travel accounts that open a unique window onto the European presence in the Far East. He travelled far into the Zomia of upland Southeast Asia, a peripheral zone populated by people who lived beyond official state power. Raquez explored the nightlife of Shanghai and operated a popular cabaret in Hanoi. An amateur anthropologist, he helped mount expositions of colonial material in Hanoi and Marseille. Raquez met people in the highest circles of belle époque Indochina, as well as the kings of Annam, Cambodia, Laos and Siam. And yet, despite the charm and the ebullience and the erudition, through all his travels and rising fame, the man kept a secret that was so mortifying that even his closest companions would not learn of it until after his death in 1907. In truth, Alfred Raquez did not exist.
A fascinating read for students and scholars of colonial Southeast Asia, and European colonialism more broadly.
Table of Contents
1. Mitchell-Innes and Orts – Who is M. Raquez? – Batavia – King Norodom and Master Léopold – A Water-borne Mirage – Doctor of Law – Slow Boat to China
2. In the Land of Pagodas – Exote Flâneur Punk – The Paris of the Orient – General Chen Jitong – Not a single li is level – The Sounds of Guiyang –Vérascope Richard – Mayflies
3. Sugar Stick – Bird or Mouse? – Governor General Doumer – Endangered Species – Liquor and Opium – I always carry a khene in my luggage – Good Enough to Eat – Muang Sing – Soul-piercing Desolation – Le Comptoir Laotien
4. Le Petit Lac – F. H. Schneider – Laotian Pages – Mysterious Angkor – L’exposition de Hanoi –Human Zoos – Adventures with the Press Corps – Governor General Beau – War with Challaye
5. Famine in Guangxi, Railroads in Guangzhou – Norodom’s Last Bon Om Touk – Salome in Singapore – Chulalongkorn’s Jubilee – Sel Hybat – Is the Emperor Mad? – Even the dead are partying – Farewell to the King of the Khmers – Typhoon
6. Adieu, Hanoi – The Conquest of Hearts – Instructions pour les voyageurs – Postcards and Singing Ghosts – What Day is This? – Sisavang Vong’s Dancing Rats – Everyone wanted to see the King’s funeral pyre
7. Home Again – The Colonial Exposition of 1906 – Pigeon Coop – La plus gracieuse des Ballerines laotiennes –Sisowath’s Royal Troupe – Avant Garde Exoticism – The Christopher Columbus of Laos – Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
8. Black Pox or Death by Valentine? – Eulogies and Monuments – L’affaire Gervais – Loose Ends – The Unknowable – Fading Traces – The Repressed Returns
9. Longing for the Past
Grab the complete collection!
Both translations of Raquez’s travel books are available from NIAS Press: https://www.niaspress.dk/
Alfred Raquez and the French Experience of the Far East, 1898-1906
Some nice comments about my forthcoming biography of Alfred Raquez from the good folks over at Asian Books Blog!
http://www.asianbooksblog.com/2021/04/alfred-raquez-and-french-experience-of.html
Mission Raquez Final Dispatch
Don’t miss the thrilling conclusion to Alfred Raquez’s adventure through Laos in 1905 in the final dispatch posted to our Mission Raquez blogsite!
Dispatch Twenty-six is here!
Join Raquez as he returns to Luang Prabang in 1905 and explains the difficulties in transporting goods across the Laotian frontier…
https://missionraquez.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/dispatch-twenty-six/
Dispatch Twenty-Five is online!
Join Raquez in the ancient salt producing region of Boten!
https://missionraquez.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/dispatch-twenty-five/
Dispatch Twenty-Four is online
Join Alfred Raquez in his amazing adventure through Laos in 1905! In this dispatch, he’s in northern Laos en route to the salt wells of Boten, near the border with China.
https://missionraquez.wordpress.com/2021/01/24/dispatch-twenty-four/
Dispatch Twenty-Three
The twenty-third dispatch from Alfred Raquez’s mission through Laos in 1905 is now online.
Join the adventure today!
https://missionraquez.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/dispatch-twenty-three
Dispatch Twenty-Two is here!
Join Alfred Raquez in his adventure through Laos in 1905!
https://missionraquez.wordpress.com/2020/12/26/dispatch-twenty-two
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