“Public” and “Private”: Notes on
Media, Performance, and the Public Sphere in the Lao PDR
Bret Johnston
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
USA
Abstract:
In light of the Lao government’s recent ban on the showing of Thai media in
public places, my paper considers what may be an emerging distinction between
ideas of “public” and “private” in contemporary Laos. In particular, such
policies point to what may be a de facto recognition of the limits of state
power on the part of the LPRP. I consider these issues by way of a comparison
between two musical performances I observed in Laos in 2003, each of which is
implicated with emerging media privatization in different ways.