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Thailand has seen waves of youth-led protests over the past three years. Pro-democracy youth activists have vociferously criticised authority figures: teachers, parents and political leaders, especially the king. Drawing on vignettes assembled over a 14-year ethnographic work with young people in Thailand, as well as on current research on youth (online and offline) activism in Bangkok, I examine the multi-layered meaning of kinship in Thai society. The chapter reveals the political nature of childhood and parenthood as entangled modes of governance that come into being with other, both local and international cultural entities. I argue that Thai youth activists are attempting to rework dominant tropes that sustain “age-patriarchy” in the Buddhist kingdom. Their “engaged siblinghood” aims to reframe Thailand's generational order, refuting the moral principles that establish citizens' political subordination to monarchical paternalism and, relatedly, children's unquestionable respect to parents. As I show, Thai youth activists are doing so by engaging creatively with transnational discourses such as “democracy” and “children's rights,” while simultaneously drawing on K-pop icons, Japanese manga and Buddhist astrology. In articulating their dissent, these youths are thus bearers of a “bottom-up cosmopolitanism” that channels culturally hybrid, and politically subversive notions of childhood and citizenship in Southeast Asia's cyberspace and beyond. Whatever the outcome of their commitment, Thai youth activism signals the cultural disarticulation of the mytheme of the Father in Thailand, as well as the growing political influence of younger generations in the region.

The action of the Ministry of Food, which was designed to check the abuses that had developed with regard to the advertising of food stuffs and the labelling of packages made up for the retail trade, is not only most welcome but very necessary in the public interest. The term “misleading” is applied by the Ministry to the proceedings that have led them to take action. It is accurate, but official reticence necessarily causes it to be somewhat lacking in vivacity. The fact is that the consumer, for a number of years past, has been misled by means of deceptive labels and advertisements, as to the real nature of an admittedly important part of his food supply. The wording of the suggested code is incidentally exposure and condemnation of this. The mislabelling of foods has for a very considerable time attracted the attention of Public Analysts and of others who are interested in the purity of our food supply and in public health. We need only refer to the periodical reports of the health authorities to obtain convincing proofs of the need that had arisen for official action. The cruder forms of this particular species of fraud were obvious and scandalous. Others were more subtle and less obvious. With regard to the former we have had “digestive teas” said to contain a lower proportion of tannin than ordinary blends, but found on examination to contain the normal quantity. “Diabetic foods ”containing unaltered starch though the label said otherwise. “Cream” made of nut oil, and so forth. Vitamins then appeared on the scene. Their discovery aroused great public interest, and certain types of food manufacturers took good care that this interest, however unenlightened it might be, should not be allowed to flag. On the contrary, it was recognised as a valuable trade asset and it was therefore encouraged by advertisements which were not characterised by pedantic adherence to accuracy. Accuracy of statement was in fact not demanded at that time by anyone, and it was not supplied by the advertisers who, in apparent confidence, proclaimed in many of these advertisements the superior vitamin content of the food advertised and the peculiar advantage to health that would accrue to the consumer of it. The campaign was entered on with a light heart and was for a time successful. The statements made proved to be very effective stumbling blocks for the blind, and sales, presumably, increased. Unfortunately everybody whose business it was to manufacture certain kinds of processed foods thus advertised began to be involved. The straightforward manufacturer found his interests threatened by the action of his less scrupulous competitors. The unscientific use of the commercial imagination in this respect threatened to bring about a chaotic state of affairs when it was used as a weapon in acute trade competition. The great complexity of the chemical and physiological problems which a study of the vitamins involves was, and is, recognised by all who have dealt with these matters. In 1936 the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington, in a report, dealing with the misleading and deceptive labelling of food, says “originally jam invariably consisted of fruit plus sugar, but keenness of competition amongst manufacturers to secure the ‘lion's share’ of the trade led to the substitution of such cheaper substances as apple pulp, pectin and fruit juices for a percentage of the named fruit, with a consequent lowering of the general standard of the jams placed on the market. The jam manufacturers apparently became alarmed at the chaotic condition which they themselves had created.” The result, as we all know, was the drawing up of unofficial standards for jam by the trade and primarily for the benefit of the trade. The interests of the consumer were by no means the main object of the transaction. We have referred to this episode of some ten years ago and more because the question of the vitamin and mineral content of certain foods both in kind and quantity seemed to be drifting into the same unsatisfactory condition. Some of these foods were made for the benefit of children or of persons in a weak state of health. It was therefore the more important that they should be what they claimed to be. It may be conceded that under certain conditions unofficial regulations are better than no regulations at all, but it is unquestionably better that if regulations are to be made they should be made by impartial official experts and receive ipso facto the support of law. This has now been done. The interests of the consumer as well as legitimate trade interests, which theoretically at least should be identical with those of the consumer, have been taken into account. Under the Labelling of Food (No. 2) Order, 1944, it will be remembered, the disclosure of the quantity of vitamins or of minerals is obligatory. This, however, is not sufficient. Not only must the quantity of vitamins or minerals be disclosed, but that quantity must be such as to justify the claims made in respect thereof, and further the amount of the food “which an average consumer may reasonably be expected to consume daily should contain not merely a significant quantity of the vitamin or mineral in question, but a quantity sufficient in the light of modern nutritional science to justify whatever reference is made to it in the advertisement or on the label.” These remarks are quoted from the preamble to the suggested code of practice in framing labels and advertisements. The code was drawn up in response to many requests from traders to the Ministry of Food, and the composition of this suggested code is the result of the consultation of the Ministry with the Medical Research Council. It is printed verbatim below:—

Under the heading “ Science and Alcohol ” The Times recently observed in a leading article that the “ Central Control Board ” had placed the “ liquor ” question on a new plane by administrative action, and were now undertaking to illuminate it in a more general and radical way by bringing “ science ” to bear. This statement appears to be based on the fact that a little book issued by the Control Hoard under the title of “ Alcohol: Its Action on the Human Organism ” is a “ first instalment ” of this attempt. It is alleged that this book is “ a review of the existing knowledge on the subject prepared by a committee of eight gentlemen representing different branches of science and of acknowledged standing in their several spheres, under the chairmanship of Lord D'Abernon, who contributes a preface.” The Times imagines that “ all sincere seekers after knowledge on the subject will be grateful for the work, which places in their hands a compact summary of the results of past investigation and evolves some sort of order out of a pre‐existing chaos,” and observes that in recent years “ a good deal of research into the action of alcohol has been carried on in different countries, but, as usual, the investigators have been isolated, their observations vary much in value, and the results are scattered about in numerous technical journals, which are not within the reach of ordinary readers. To put these scattered utterances together, sift the grain from the chaff, and present it in an orderly form is a task which few men would have been either able or willing to undertake. Yet a dipassionate survey was badly needed.”

Bubble tea has become a popular beverage among the Gen-Z population in recent years, not only in Asia where this beverage originated, but also worldwide. This research aims to understand the motivational factors of Gen-Z consumers in Indonesia in purchasing bubble tea products.

This research adopts a qualitative methodology by interviewing 22 Gen-Z consumers living in Indonesia. A thematic-analysis approach and NVivo software are applied for the data analysis.

Eight factors, i.e. taste, texture, packaging, store, price, health, trend and brand, play important roles in explaining how the emotional dimensions (pleasure, arousal and dominance) created by the environmental stimuli of bubble tea were approached or avoided within the purchasing behaviors of Gen-Z consumers. This study also identified affiliation behaviors as the result of interactions between the three dimensions.

As a qualitative study, this research used a particular and limited context to gain insights. Hence, a broader scale of research using a quantitative approach is recommended to validate the factors influencing purchasing behavior among the Gen-Z population.

This study can help practitioners to gain a better understanding of Gen-Z consumers’ behaviors on beverage products and to formulate effective marketing strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, by adopting a qualitative approach, this study is among the first to explore more deeply the emotional dimensions that drive Gen-Z’s decisions regarding whether to purchase a bubble tea product or not.

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If challenged on the order of their importance, cricketers and Empire‐builders may be excused their preference. However, looking at it purely from the standpoint of pro bono publico, the dispassionate observer must surely opt for the birth of a certain publication as being ultimately the most beneficial of the three.

Elsewhere in this issue we review the First (Interim) Report of the Joint Survey of Pesticide Residues in Foodstuffs, published by the Association of Public Analysts (Editor: Mr. D. G. Forbes, B.Sc., F.R.I.C.). The Scheme, planned with meticulous care and executed with the best spirit of co‐operation, sets a pattern for this type of investigation; there are other problems which could be studied in the same manner. Such a response from the bodies representing the major local authorities of the country and their food and drugs administrations—inspectors, food sampling officers, public analysts—is evidence of the concern felt over this particular form of contamination of food. It constitutes a public health problem of world‐wide dimensions. The annual reports of public analysts show that many are examining foods outside the Survey lists now that gas/liquid chromatography, spectroscopy and other highly refined methods of analysis are available to them.