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樊夏 Chawarote Valyamedhi

Sounding Migration: Gender Affects of Mobility in Thai Country Music (Luk Thung)

摘要

本文探討泰國鄉村音樂 luk thungเพลงลูกทุ่ง)如何媒介二十世紀後半葉泰國城鄉轉型下的移動經驗。本文主張,luk thung 可被視為一種「聲音檔案」(sonic archive),透過聲音使遷移、鄉愁、離散與社會變遷得以被文化性地聽見。透過對19501980年代四首歌曲的細讀,包括以男性聲音為主的遷移分離歌曲與 phleng kaeเพลงแก้,應答歌曲)對唱形式,本文分析聲音、樂器聲響、地方性唱腔與聲音記憶如何保存與鄉村離鄉及都市工業生活相關的情感經驗。
  本文進一步指出,男性與女性歌者透過不同的聽覺與敘事策略協商移動經驗。〈Klap Thoet Riam Cha〉與〈Siang Khlui Riak Nang〉等男性主唱歌曲,透過呼喚式唱腔、環境聲景以及泰國竹笛 Khlui的象徵性聲音,呈現對鄉土、地方記憶與家園依附的情感。相對地,Chanthana對唱歌曲則透過聲音對話、延遲回應與跨越都市工業距離的想像性聆聽,建構親密關係與遷移距離。本文特別關注可辨識的聲音質地、地方口音與口傳音樂實踐如何形塑現代泰國的遷移聆聽文化。
  本文並不將遷移僅視為人口移動現象,而是將其理解為一種透過聲音、聆聽與記憶所媒介的聽覺與情感狀態。藉此,本文將 luk thung 音樂定位為一種語言文化與聲音實踐,使遷移者得以在都市化與離散過程中,持續維繫其人際關係、地方感與社會身份的連續性。

關鍵詞:泰國鄉村音樂、泰國內部遷移、移動情感、性別表演性、大眾音樂與遷移


Abstract

This article examines how luk thung songs (เพลงลูกทุ่ง, Thai country music) mediate experiences of mobility generated by Thailand’s rural–urban transformation during the second half of the twentieth century. The study argues that luk thung functions as a sonic archive through which migration, longing, displacement, and social change become culturally audible. Through close readings of four songs from the 1950s–1980s—including male-voiced songs of migratory separation and selected phleng kae (เพลงแก้, answer-song) duets—the article analyzes how voice, instrumental sound, regional vocality, and sonic memory preserve emotional experiences associated with rural departure and urban-industrial life.
  The analysis demonstrates how male and female singers negotiate mobility through distinct auditory and narrative strategies. Male-voiced songs such as “Klap Thoet Riam Cha” and “Siang Khlui Riak Nang” articulate longing, remembered locality, and attachment to rural home through vocal calling, environmental soundscape, and the symbolic role of khlui (Thai bamboo flute). In contrast, the Chanthana duet musical repertoire stages intimacy and migratory distance through dialogic vocal exchange, delayed correspondence, and imagined listening across urban-industrial separation. Particular attention is given to the role of recognizable vocal textures, regional pronunciation, and oral musicianship in shaping migratory listening cultures within modern Thailand.
  Rather than treating migration solely as demographic movement, this study approaches mobility as an auditory and emotional condition mediated through voice, sound, listening, and memory. In doing so, the article positions luk thung music as a linguistic-cultural and sonic practice through which migrants sustain continuity with relationships, locality, and social identity amid displacement and urban transformation.

Keywordsluk thung song, Thai internal migration, affects of mobility, gendered affect, popular music and migration


DOI:10.30404/FLS.202606_(43).0002