Stéphane Peray, better known as ‘Stephff’, is a French cartoonist based in Bangkok. He is renowned throughout the region as one of the best satirical cartoonists in Asia.
Before starting his career as a press cartoonist 25 years ago Stephff was a photojournalist. He has worked for many international newspapers. Currently, he collaborates for Al Quds al arabi, Kuwait Times, China Daily and Korea Times, Expresso and Courrier international.
His impact has reached far and wide. In 2005, he met Kofi Annan who asked him for an original drawing. In Thailand, Stephff became a household name among long-term expats for his biting satire as the official cartoonist for the English-language newspaper The Nation for more than a decade through his ‘Farang Affairs’ series of daily cartoons.
Regular readers of The Phuket News will have noticed the introduction of Stephff’s cartoons on the News pages in the hardcopy, print-version of the newspaper. The cartoons are featured only in print, and not online.
Here, Stephff takes a look back at his spellbinding career and explains his momentum moving forward with his new book, ‘Farang Affairs 2’, and his inspiration for his latest collection.
What inspired you to make the transition from photojournalist to professional cartoonist?
Being unsuccessful at photojournalism 5555. I am only half-joking. After 10 years as a photo-reporter, I was still barely making a living and simultaneously I started to have good connections with newspapers and magazines. So I humbly proposed my services as a cartoonist and illustrator. To my surprise, it did work very quickly ‒ not necessarily because I had talent, but because I was among the first to use the Internet and Photoshop to distribute my cartoons and illustrations to the media. Editors are often more focused on getting cartoons on time than getting real pieces of art.
Why publish your new collection in a book, but not online?
Because it would cannibalise the books. I decided from the beginning to make very good quality books. I want them to be coffee table books with hardcovers ‒ something you display proudly on your… coffee table. I used one of the top printers in Bangkok, a British guy who is specialised in high-quality books printed in small quantities. Not cheap, but zero bad surprises.
Which cartoons in ‘Farang Affairs 2’ stand out for you? Why?
Those that speak about social issues such as poverty, social injustice, racism, xenophobia, the ultra-vertical system and of course the plague-like corruption. It is important to me because making jokes about lighter issues is also an opportunity to deliver a few strong and serious messages as well. That’s the real reason why I am a cartoonist: to bring a smile to readers (hopefully some big laughs, too) and at the same time bringing some more serious stuff to the table. But it’s not just me, it’s basically what all editorial cartoonists do: make you laugh and make you think at the same time.
Your reputation stands for itself: impressive, sometimes scathing, satire in presenting situational observations of foreigners living in Thailand. However, they are often misunderstood by newcomers to the Kingdom as a criticism of living in Thailand.
How do you see the advent of ‘Woke’ and the impact it plays in misunderstanding, misrepresenting and criticising the ideas and concepts presented in your cartoons?
The way I see it is there will always be haters, it was already like this before the age of the Internet when grumpy and bitter people would write to the editor a letter of complaint. Most of the time these people simply needed attention or to express jealousy. After all, the cartoonist who gets paid to make fun of society inevitably generates jealousy with people who don’t have an enjoyable life. Well, if those people knew how little we are paid, maybe they would get less jealous 5555.
Anyway, the era of social media has given power (too much power) to all people who need attention so we, cartoonists, are drowning under their attacks ‒ attacks which are most of the time totally insincere.
The sad thing is that editors are now afraid of all these people who pretend to be outraged at every occasion. So a lot of cartoonists have lost their jobs because of this this past decade. Remember the NYT [New York Times] stopped publishing cartoons in 2019 after a complaint about one single cartoon! I agree with plenty of claims that make sense in the original moderate Woke movement, but also I believe that the Woke movement ‒ and specifically the extremist part of the Woke movement ‒ is losing itself by being too excessive.
Going after humour is a good example of the excess of Wokism. They go after racism, sexism, homophobia, the wrongdoings in history such as colonialism, slavery, etc… and that is perfectly legitimate. The only problem is that some of them have decided that we can’t laugh at any of these issues anymore and I see it as a kind of extremism. And Woke people have now become a pain in the a… for humorists in general. Remember The Name of the Rose with Sean Connery? Forbidding people to laugh is extremely dangerous. Bad jokes when there are no ill-intentions behind them are pure salvation. They help us to live together, they help us to look at our minds full of prejudices. This is totally sane. But putting limits on humour is insane. Mankind needs humour, and humour helps to heal our stupidity…
What can we expect to see from Stephff in the future?
More political incorrectness 55555. I am working on ‘Farang Affairs 3’, so you can expect this one. Something maybe more poetic, something maybe entirely in Thai language, because there is demand among the Thai public for my cartoons. This surprised me at first, but Thais can laugh at themselves a lot. Look at Thai comedies and it’s obvious. And they are not yet too infected with excessive political correctness!
I am also working on a project of spiritual cartoons in a book, something you would offer to a friend who is facing a crisis, perhaps a period of depression or self-questioning his life. It’s a very important project for me.
Another project is a graphic novel with the topic of the environment and the possible extinction of life on Earth. And finally, working on two different movie scripts: one of the two stories happens in the Isan countryside. So you can already conclude that I have zero intention to retire anytime.
Farang Affairs 2 is available only in a hard-cover print run of 2,000 copies. To order, contact [email protected]. ‘Farang Affairs 2’, by Stephane Peray, 160pp (hard cover only), B1,400.
