ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the relationship between Roger Caracera and Pitik Sindit opens up a critical discussion of sex tourism and transnational modes of commodification. Han Ong’s application of the formal technique of multifocalisation brings into relief the asymmetrical links between sex tourism and athletic sponsorship, and how these transnationally inflected modes of relationality impact the novel’s rhetorical representation of consumption, social justice, and systemic inequalities at both local and global scales. The rise of feminist transnational studies has enabled a nuancing of the very different cultural, historical, and social contexts surrounding sex work and global tourism. I. Grewal and C. Kaplan’s point applies to the complex tapestry that is Ong’s novel, especially as shifting narrative perspectives bring light to the asymmetrical power relations that arise out of transnational circuits of ‘encounter and exchange’. Ong’s choice to create a realist novel through multifocalisation grants readers and cultural critics access to various psychic interiorities.
