THE WAY WE WERE
Steve Van Beek’s new book explores Bangkok at a turning point in history
The history of Bangkok is fascinating. But the textbooks in history class or the stories told by our grandparents can only tell us so much. We need to take a closer look if we want an understanding of what life here was really like more than a century ago.
The late 19th century was a momentous period in Thailand’s history. It witnessed the transformation of government, economy and society. King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910), seeking to modernise his Kingdom, formally put an end to institutions like slavery. He also established more efficient administrative systems, introduced basic sanitation and provided the city with fresh water, electricity, railroads and electric trams. These innovations opened the country up to many new possibilities. Siam was getting ready for the 20th century.
To help give us a better understanding of what was happening in the capital at that time, Steve Van Beek has published a new book, News From
The 90s: Bangkok 1890-1899. Based in Bangkok for nearly 50 years, Van Beek is a celebrated American expat writer, lecturer and author of 27 books on Asian history and culture. His new book is a companion piece to his best known work, Bangkok Then And Now. News From The 90s comes in a 165-page sturdy hardback, its jacket showing an image of a Bangkok street on the banks of the Chao Phraya river at the end of the 19th century. Inside, Van Beek transports us back to the 1890s with a collection of news stories from the Bangkok Times, one of the city’s earliest English-language newspapers, which began publishing around 1888 before being shut down by the Japanese in 1941.
“These are the stories you would have read each afternoon during the period, written in a unique style that varied between serious news and irreverent accounts,” said Van Beek in an exclusive interview with Life. “With this book, modern readers will gain valuable insights into the everyday living conditions of the time.”
Van Beek spent much of 2016 going back and forth between the Siam Society and the National Library’s Bangkok Times archives, combing through every issue published between 1890 and 1899.
“I came across a cache of these old microfilmed copies and went through every issue in that decade, typing them out one by one and gleaning the best stories. I also found photos of old commercial ads from the era at Siam Society. Then I put them together in this book. It took me about three full months to finish,” he explained.
The old newspapers stories are a window into what life was like in the city at the time. As time goes by, they reveal Siam’s dramatic transformation from a quiet backwater into a modern kingdom.
The Bangkok Times began as a six-page weekly journal with the entire front page devoted to advertisements. Over time, Thai-language sections were introduced for native readers. It would eventually evolve into a bi-weekly publication, then, by the late 1890s, a daily paper issued every evening.
“At first, the paper served as a community paper reporting local events and news such as social events or sports,” he said. “Then they realised that their primary readers were businessmen and diplomats, so they tried to report some global news too. But it took six to seven weeks for newspapers and magazines to arrive from Europe by ship.”
By the mid-1890s, with the introduction of telegrams, world news arrived via Reuters (formed in London in 1851) or Havas (founded in Paris in 1879). The Bangkok Times became increasingly cosmopolitan, focusing more on news from Europe and the rest of the world. Through this broader focus, readers were introduced to many of the wonders of modern science that would soon find their way to Siamese shores: X-rays, automobiles, railways and more. Indeed, railways were already beginning to connect Bangkok to the rest of the county.
Notably, the railways also facilitated King Chulalongkorn’s historical 1897 state visit to Europe. Van Beek said that the king was held in high respect by the foreign community for his attempts to modernise his country. His conduct during his state visit to Europe engendered pride among Siamese and European expats alike. The book sheds further light on the conduct of a king who cared deeply about his subjects.
“There are several interesting stories in the book, but one really caught my attention. The king sometimes went on incognito trips by himself, disguised as a commoner in order to inspect public works and to learn about people’s problems. That [shows] real openness,” Van Beek said.
Health and sickness was another hot news topic in the 1890s. There are regular reports of cities and towns at home and abroad consumed by an outbreak of some plague or other. One of the worst of these was a major cholera outbreak which began in India and spread throughout Asia. Back then, many minor ailments could easily become fatal illnesses due to a lack of antibiotics and medical know-how.
“There was a story that started with the line, ‘We regret having to report the death of...’, almost every day in the paper, often two or three times per issue,” Van Beek recalled. “Many were foreigners, possibly journalists. If you visit an old cemetery called Susan Farang on Charoen Krung 72, you’ll find a family who all died on the same day because of cholera. These people must have been very brave to leave their home countries and travel halfway around the world.”
Van Beek believes that it is important to study history and retain a connection with the past.
“When you read this book, you’ll get the picture that the people back then were very much like us. You get to learn about their lives back — how they coped, how they entertained themselves, how they got from place to place, what was important to them,” Van Beek explained. “What am I hoping people take away from the book is an appreciation for another period of history. We’re all connected one way or another.”
News From The90s: Bangkok 1890-1899 is now available at all Asia Books Stores (1,195 baht).
The old news stories are a window into life in the 1890s, as Siam transitioned from a quiet backwater to a modern kingdom