Boys Love Series and Discursive Practices of Soft Power in Thailand

Abstract

The Thai government describes the phenomenon of Thai Y-series as soft power that generates money for the country in this article. The information is collected from the websites that have news about the Y-series from June to August 2024 to find the interviews of politicians, government officials, Y-series producers, directors, and male actors, including reading news about the marketing promotion of Thai Y-series internationally. Drawing on Young’s (2008) concept of discursive practices as a framework for analysis to point out that the Thai government constructed soft power language, narration, and discourses. This article is that the Thai Y- series is a cultural product that interprets soft power for Thailand, but it is narrated in terms of economics and marketing. Under this governmental definition, the Thai Y-series has become a symbol of international business success but not a mechanism to promote LGBTQ rights and social equality in Thailand. However, the meaning of soft power exists among the interactional responses of many groups of people with different ways of thinking. Soft power’s discursive practices reveal the system of power through which the Thai state controls the hegemonic truth about the Y-Thai series.