The silence of 1976

Thongchai Winichakul at Thammasat University in 1976

Moments of Silence: The Unforgetting of the October 6, 1976, Massacre in Bangkok
Thongchai Winichakul
University of Hawai‘i Press: 2020
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Meet Chair Guy, the subject of a black-and-white photograph taken on the morning of 6 October 1976, in Bangkok, Thailand. Though Chair Guy is smartly dressed—in a safari shirt and what appear to be matching trousers, neatly ironed—he is barefoot. The expression on his face is impossible to read: it could be anger, exhilaration or nothing more than the result of physical exertion. The camera has caught him mid-action as he leaps up and raises a metal folding chair over his head, preparing to bring it down with full force upon a dead body hanging from a tree.

A crowd of onlookers form a neat semicircle around the scene, as if they are watching some kind of outdoor circus performance. Most of them are casually dressed young men; their expressions are mixed, but a number of them appear to be smiling. One small boy’s face is lit up with what looks like a broad grin of sheer delight. Clearly visible in the background are the austere facade of the Supreme Court and the golden spires of the Grand Palace.

Though nearly forty-five years have passed, Thailand remains haunted by this image, and by Chair Guy.

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