Natalie Ng

NATALIE NG, then a graduate student at University of California, Santa Cruz, California, received a grant in October 2022 to aid research on “Spirits and Sovereignty in the Boten Special Economic Zone,” supervised by Dr. Mayanthi Fernando. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted during 2023, this dissertation examines how the Boten Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Laos is produced through tension between past violence, present disorder, and future speculation. Initially established in 2003 by casino magnates, the Boten SEZ displaced border villages while attracting trafficking, ransom schemes, and murders. Chinese government intervention forcibly closed the casinos in 2011, but after years of abandonment, a Chinese company revived the zone, hoping to transform it into a node in China’s Belt & Road Initiative. The company’s utopian promises of modernization and connectivity — projected through elaborate marketing materials and architectural models — are continuously destabilized by its violent past and material present: abandoned buildings, failed investments, and rumors of hauntings. Different stakeholders including displaced villagers, new homeowners, and local spirits navigate this unstable landscape while waiting on an uncertain future. This study reveals the chasm between development fantasies and their material manifestations, suggesting that spectacular promises may be more valuable to state and corporate actors than their actual fulfillment. As China continues to export the SEZ model globally, understanding these dynamics becomes increasingly crucial for analyzing contemporary forms of sovereignty and capital accumulation.