Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

When Raya and the Last Dragon premiered in 2021, it gave us Disney’s first South-East Asian princess, and joined a small minority of Western films centring South-East Asian people, culture and society. News of the film, therefore, drew a lot of excitement from SE Asian people (and those with SE Asian heritage) looking for representation in Western media. The film’s reception was more mixed however, with many feeling it just didn’t get things quite right.

 

In this episode, we’re joined by doctoral candidate, Piyawit Moonkham, to talk about Raya and SE Asian representation, specifically, that of the Naga, a semi-divine serpent found in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions.  Join us as Piyawit explains how Naga differ from Western and East Asian dragons, where the Naga myth came from and how it functions in SE Asian belief systems, and how Raya represented this important part of SE Asian culture.

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Glossary:

Heterarchy -

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A power structure that exists outside or adjacent to established power structures within societies, or within organised groups, in which authority is distributed rather than centralized around one individual / group. ("Power" as broadly understood relating to status, influence or responsibilities)

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Mythscape -

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The way in which people understand their surrounding landscape through myth.

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Episode Credits:

Many thanks to Piyawit Moonkham for his time and expertise.

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Piyawit is a Ph.D. Candidate (ABD)* in Archaeological Anthropology at Washington State University. His research focuses on human use of social space, built environment, and natural landscape through a diachronic investigation of spatial patterns of historical monuments, myths, and local folklores in Northern Thailand and Mainland Southeast Asia. His article “Ethnohistorical Archaeology and the Mythscape of the Naga in Chiang Saen Basin, Thailand” was published last year in Trans-Regional and -National Studies of South East Asia. You can find Piyawit on Twitter @JiwMoonkham

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 *Since recording with us, Piyawit has successfully defended his PhD. Many congrats to Dr Moonkham!

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Additional Content:

Enjoyed what you heard and looking for more? Don't miss our Bonus Chat with Piyawit​, where we talk about teaching anthropology with film.

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