Too Thai To Be True: Historical, cultural, societal and quantum observations
Amidst all the Siamerican’s various tasks and errands in yet another transition phase, valuable observations and contemplations have been slipping away with time unrecorded–and so now the Wanderer makes an effort to record some of the latest…
There are many instances in Thailand where one might notice that society is so forward, that it’s actually backward! Beyond the ignorant stereotype that Thailand is some ancient third world country in the jungle–where the masses commute on elephant back to their job in the rice field–in actuality, Thailand is so painted with trend, custom and formality, it’s a tickling affair to experience some of the bizarre practices occurring in this country of nearly 70 million souls.
No worries, for I shall not pitch a line-up for a new Faces of Death film–my intent today is only to share a simple yet ironic observation of Thai society–somewhat humorous, yet redundant.
It’s quite peculiar of how how the Siamese people have come to embrace foreign customs and practices. On one level, they have come to indulge and emulate the likes of Korean Pop, Japanese Rock, and Western everything, blending perfectly copied cultural prototypes into their own modern pop-culture genome, yet on another level, it seems that they have over interpreted-over assimilated foreign cultural contributions giving such imports their own unique Thai character.
Forks and Spoons for example. Every time I have a meal at the Pizza Company or KFC, I’m almost annoyed, to say the least, in watching my Siamese comrades putting so much effort in using a fork and knife to gracefully cut such ‘finger foods’ such as chicken wings and pizza into bite size pieces. If such practice was for practicality and convenience, perhaps I wouldn’t be bothered, but I am certain that this is not in the top of their reasoning–for I once asked my Thai friend why Thais insisted on using utensils for western finger food as in the west, using utensils for such food isn’t the norm–atleast not in the 21st century. The response I received was something along the lines that ‘Thais are civilized people’
The conversation was diverted sometime after I pointed out that traditional Thai food such as Kao Niaw (Sticky rice) and Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken) is consumed with fingers by all Thai people as it always has been–there’s no shame in that, and not many a foreigner would waste their time with a fork and knife to consume chicken wings, so why should us Thais???
So anyway, if I recall my history lessons right, I believe the instilling of Thai people using forks and spoons goes back to the Fifth Rama (King) of the current Chakri Dynasty. His Majesty, Chulalongkorn is credited with modernizing (westernizing) the Siamese people with various strict social reforms and rules regarding public dress and etiquette. While in one aspect, some will argue such a wave of coerced westernization turned out to be a controlling factor for Siam to have not been colonized like its neighbors, others will argue, for obvious reasons, that it was at a high cost and loss to cultural identity.
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December 17th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Your memory of the history is the same as mine. It is truly, truly unfortunate. I don’t like it when I see Thai people giving up their own culture to replace it with western faux culture. Yuck Yuck! Ick!
Perhaps Thai people don’t have enough connection to their own history?
Not sure.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Then, there is there is the counter Thailandization wave setting order among all the chaos, if not creating its own. Even though this particular tier in the bureaucracy value detail in the traditional Arts and Sciences–they tend to get stuck in their 1930s-1950s nationalization mode–even though there is no obvious world war at stake, it does create a discord with the greater globalization-assimilation wave.