Rong Wongsawan

Narong Wongsawan (20 May 1932 – 15 March 2009) was a Thai writer and journalist. He wrote under the name 'Rong Wongsawan 'รงค์ วงษ์สวรรค์. Much of his writing was semi-autobiographical reflecting his experiences and reporting from different places in Thailand, and in California, where he lived in the 1960s. In both places he was a critic of the hypocrisies of the powerful, while having sympathy for the disadvantaged.[1]

'Rong Wongsawan wrote in his native Thai language, although he spoke and read English fluently. He was also an occasional actor and personality on Thai television and film until his death in 2009. He is known for his innovations in the Thai language, and as with many Thai writers, used dialog to drive the story.[2]

'Rong Wongsawan was born in the province of Chainat, and moved to Bangkok to go to school in the 1940s. There, he was hired by the editor of the newspaper Siam Rath, M. R. Kukrit Pramoj to be a photographer and reporter. In Bangkok, Rong developed his distinctive style of reporting, in which he visited the poorer areas of Bangkok to describe the lives of the city’s disadvantaged, including the prostitutes, and their often wealthy customers. His best known book of this early period was published in 1961 and is Soi Sanim.[3]

In 1962, 'Rong was sent to California to be the correspondent for the Siam Rath. While in California, he became a bartender in San Francisco to supplement his salary. He continued to send stories to the Siam Rath in his distinctive writing style, which was a combination of journalism, and story-telling. Many of the stories were about the street life of San Francisco which were developed in one of his best selling book Lost in the Smell of Marijuana (1969), and later in On the Back of the Dog[4] (1978), a title which reserved to his travels on a Greyhound bus.

In the 1970s, 'Rong Wongsawan published books and articles about the relationships between Thai and Americans at the Sattahip naval base and Takli air base in Thailand during the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, Rong Wongsawan became known to Thai popular culture as a guest on television programs, and the occasional commercial. He appeared in at least one English language film, Saigon, Year of the Cat, where he played the role of the Prime Minister.

Rong Wongsawan published over 100 books between 1959 and 2005 in addition to his newspapers stories, and photography.

Rong Wongsawan was recognized as a Thai National Artist in 1995.

References
  1. The Guardian by Peter Leyland
  2. (see Anderson 1985:27-28)
  3. Feangfu 2011
  4. Waters 2018

Anderson, Benedict (1985). “Introduction” in In the Mirror: Literature and Politics in Siam in the American Era, edited and translated by Benedict R. O. G. Anderson and Ruchira Mendiones. pp. 9–87.

Feangfu, Janit (2011) (Ir)resistibly modern : the construction of modern Thai identities in Thai literature during the Cold War era, 1958‐1976. PhD thesis, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies)

Waters, Tony (2018) “Riding the iron dog: Rong Wongsawan in San Francisco”. Meeting Minutes of the Informal Northern Thai Discussion Group, 417th meeting, 2018.

Waters, Tony (2019) Rong Wongsawan’s Gonzo Journey through California in 1976: A Thai Writer Looks at the Americans. Journal of the Siam Society, v. 107.

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