Editorial | Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat Thai culture in past, present and future

November and December 2017 were the best months of the year for me, because of two important events I put my heart and soul into. The first was Elite+ Magazine’s three-year anniversary, and the second was the International Children’s Content Rights Fair (ICCRF that we organized for the first time in Thailand.

I was thrilled that my all-time favourite singer, Agnes Chan, accepted our invitation to be a keynote speaker at our magazine’s anniversary, organized with UNICEF Thailand. All proceeds from the event went to charity. I would love to take this opportunity to thank all the VIP guests who took time out from their busy schedules to attend the event and listen to the captivating and inspirational speech from the UNICEF goodwill ambassador. I learned that the singer I always admired has not only a pretty face and angelic voice, but a big, warm heart. Her speech about her experience and passion for charity work, plus two songs she sang for us, truly lifted my heart and raised my spirits. I am impressed by what she said:

“Most of the time when we think we are in trouble or we think we are unlucky, it is because we are thinking too much about ourselves. And the only way to get around that is to just start thinking about others, and we will find out what we can do and what we can’t.”

It reminds me that I still have a long list of things to do. It reminds me that we all have an ability to help others. It reminds me that we have an ability to create things that will shake up society for a better future.

Another important event my team and I were passionate to organize, shaking up society for a bit, was the ICCRF; we felt really honoured that Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat presided over the event and gave us an exclusive interview for this issue. The minister said culture is dynamic and always changing. But despite the changes, I believe culture continues giving a community a sense of identity and dignity, and binds society together.

Culture is complex. But one of the types of culture I’m most accustomed to is, of course, reading culture. Born and raised in the publishing industry, I strongly believe that a strong reading culture will create a strong society where citizens will always be informed and inspired. That’s why we were determined to organize Thailand’s first content rights fair and we are committed to organizing it every year in order to make the country a hub of reading as well as buying and selling content rights.

I believe in the power of reading. And I hope you will enjoy reading all of the articles published in this issue. Have a very Happy New Year.

Warm regards,
Arthorn Techatada
Executive Editor