Category: Daniel Gauss
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Editor’s note: In this essay, Daniel Gauss reflects on Bangkok’s Democracy Monument as a symbol of Thailand’s unfulfilled democratic promise. Erected in 1939 to commemorate the 1932 coup that ended absolute monarchy, it honours a revolution carried out by elites…
![[ESSAY] “A Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Still Waiting for Democracy” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/the-monument-to-democracy-in-thailand-1.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “Does MOCA Bangkok Have a Soft Porn Problem?” by Daniel Gauss It is time for museums, especially those dedicated to contemporary art, finally to understand the objectification of women. It is also time to ask why one of Asia’s…
![[ESSAY] “Does MOCA Bangkok Have a Soft Porn Problem?” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/museum_of_contemporary_art_moca_bangkok_thailand_-_20161201-05.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “FOUR TWENTY PM: A.T. Apichart at the National Gallery of Thailand” by Daniel Gauss There is a famous painting by Caravaggio of St Jerome translating the Bible. He is old, gaunt, and frail, and he works with a skull…
![[ESSAY] “FOUR TWENTY PM: A.T. Apichart at the National Gallery of Thailand” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/https-__www.facebook.com_photo__fbid2572090546292510seta.633624243472493.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: Daniel Gauss treats Prambanan Temple as a ninth-century political technology, where ritual, architecture, and kingship converged to naturalise obedience by embedding rule within Shaivite cosmology. Built by the Sanjaya dynasty as a counter to Borobudur Temple, it functioned…
![[ESSAY] “Prambanan: A Temple in Java that Turned Faith into Obedience” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_20251111_094005.jpg?w=1024)
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Editor’s note: In his latest essay for Cha, Daniel Gauss examines Dafen, a former rural settlement located in Shenzhen’s Longgang District in southern China, within the Pearl River Delta near the Hong Kong border. The essay examines Dafen’s transformation from…
![[ESSAY] “Dafen Transformed: From Painting Factory to Pre-Fab Cool Zone” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_20260117_151141.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “Preserving the Path of Enlightenment at Borobudur and Not Just the Stones” by Daniel Gauss Borobudur is an allegory of self awareness, growth and social engagement, rendered in volcanic stone. It was not built for veneration, but to be…
![[ESSAY] “Preserving the Path of Enlightenment at Borobudur and Not Just the Stones” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/borobudur_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “1331 Runway: Hong Kong Youth Utopia or Real-Estate Planning Malfunction?” by Daniel Gauss In July 2025, international media erupted with enthusiasm over a project in Hong Kong called 1331 Runway. Built on land once occupied by the former Kai…
![[ESSAY] “1331 Runway: Hong Kong Youth Utopia or Real-Estate Planning Malfunction?” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/767206174.jpg?w=576)
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[ESSAY] “Sixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodia’s Monument to a Silenced Crime” by Daniel Gauss In 2009, Cambodia experienced a rare moment of national pride when Duch, the Khmer Rouge official who oversaw the notorious S-21 prison, was finally brought to…
![[ESSAY] “Sixteen Dead, Zero Justice: Cambodia’s Monument to a Silenced Crime” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/cambodia_cha.jpg?w=1024)
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[ESSAY] “A Woman Named Summer: Rethinking Xu Hongfei’s Early Sculpture at the Guangzhou Museum of Art” by Daniel Gauss Xu Hongfei’s Summer, photos by Daniel Gauss Among the many works displayed in the Guangzhou Museum of Art, one marble sculpture…
![[ESSAY] “A Woman Named Summer: Rethinking Xu Hongfei’s Early Sculpture at the Guangzhou Museum of Art” by Daniel Gauss](https://chajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/img_20251125_110600.jpg?w=1024)
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