Bodies Stripped.

My paper explores Lawrence Chua's novel Gold by the Inch and discusses how the text aids in understanding the neocolonial relationship of developed countries, especially the West, with Southeast Asian countries i.e. the subjugation and suppression which operates in a veiled and masked mechanism that is present in the region through certain schemes and systems. The novel reveals the subjugation by unmasking the implicit mechanism through a counter narrative. It exposes an opening to understanding inequality and a hierarchy of power in postcolonial Southeast Asian countries with specific attention to Thailand and Malaysia. The paper explores how the novel can be read as a theory of biopower in enforcing indirect domination in Southeast Asian countries, and reveals the system that allows a form of neocolonial subjugation through the creation of disposable lives in neoliberal practice.