Doraemon come to Thailand : The process of appropriating a foreign cultural product

Abstract

The popularity of Japanese-style comics is apparent in Thai society today. This thesis attempts to study the process of the cultural dissemination of Japanese comics by focusing on a popular comic book, Doraemon, and examines the factors which contributed to the spread of the comics. The author conducted an in-depth research of the Japanese-style comics industry, which has played an important role in the cultural dissemination of Japanese-style comics in Thailand for more than 30 years. The transition of the products, the production, the readers, the publishers and the distributions are explored. The cultural flow of Doraemon in Thailand can be classified into two styles: "local market-led" circulation in which the whole process was conducted by local publishers from 1971 to 1993; and "standardized" circulation which is the flow from the Japanese copyright holders to local publishers from 1994 to the present. Both flows contributed to the spread of Doraemon. The "local market-led" circulation which is often regarded as piracy helped the cultural dissemination of Doraemon in terms of quantity. Affordable price and high supply provided by the local publishers created greater access to the product. The "standardized" circulation contributed to the diffusion of Doraemon in terms of quality. The demand from local consumers created the beginning of the cultural dissemination while the profit-seeking motives of local publishers enhanced the cultural flow even after the Japanese publishers joined the process of cultural diffusion. Despite the parallel publishing relationship between Thailand and Japan even after the standardization due to the enforcing of copyright protection, the active circulation of Japanese-style comics led to the dominance of the market and social discourses. However, the potential of the cultural dialogue through the comics gives a new highlight in the cultural interaction between Thailand and Japan.