Thai women are snapping up Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography, Living History, eager to learn the former US first lady's secrets of success. But they may also have an ulterior motive. How does this lawyer-turned-senator with an eye on the White House deal with one of the world's most notorious philanderers?
Middle-class Thai women are increasingly getting to grips with business, politics and the men in their lives - and putting to rest the traditional Thai view that married women are the 'back legs of the elephant', the front legs being the husband.
Senator Clinton's book, which has been translated into Thai, could not come at a better time. According to the publisher, it is 'mostly working women' who have bought 10,000 copies in just over a month. Wongsiri Miyaji, chief operating officer of Nation Book International, said: 'Hillary is a capable woman, so women would like to find out how she is able to succeed.'
Success, though, matters on a personal level. That is why one businesswoman said she was really interested in the book: 'We want to read about how she dealt with that naughty husband of hers,' she said.
Thai women can sympathise with Senator Clinton, following the scandal of her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Thailand laughs at extramarital dalliances. Men love to visit massage parlours and have affairs. The Culture Minister, a woman, recently sought to ban some popular songs which were deemed ''inappropriate to Thai culture'. These included one about men getting upset because they do not have time to visit their mistress. The move did seem odd, given the country's history of concubines and prostitutes.
Just take a look at the popular press and TV soap operas. The wronged Thai wife frequently takes to sulking or explodes in a fit of rage, often with painful consequences for a vital part of her husband's anatomy. Bangkok is the only capital where a leading hospital has a unit specialising in reattaching a man's appendage.