"Khlong Toei Special Administrative Area": Locality, Masculinity, and Production of New Community in Football Consumption of Port FC Fans

Abstract

This article discusses football consumption of Port FC fans. Port FC is Thai football club located in Khlong Toei district, Bangkok. Khlong Toei contains Bangkok Port, major port facilities of Bangkok. Khlong Toei long known as biggest slum in Thailand. Many Port FC fans are adult-lower middle class-men who live in Khlong Toei. Port FC fans not only consume football match, but also create many activities both inside and outside the stadium; chanting in the stadium to celebrate “the pride of Khlong Toei", drinking together for hours before and after match, creating and spreading online media for reconstruct Khlong Toei identities. These activities fulfill their social demand; powerless men who look for men's space, modernized-men who seek for neo-community, people who aware of their locality, and citizen who realize their potential. All of these are represented by Port FC fan's catchphrase "Khlong Toei special administrative area", an imagined community of Port FC fans.