Thailand: Land of … whom?

By Timmy Grimberg

The Thai flag is easy to recognize, Thai people cannot be easily recognized by the look.

What does it mean to be Thai? And what does it mean not to be Thai? These questions are not easy to answer.
Ethnically the word Thai refers to the main group of people living in Thailand, which makes up about 80% of the population. The people’s main characteristic is their language: They speak Thai or any related dialect of which many can be found throughout the country. To give further meaning to being Thai the national anthem states that ‘Thailand unites flesh and blood of Thais. Nation of the people’.

Nevertheless Thailand’s demography has changed since it was renamed from Siam to Thailand in order to make a reference to the ethnic Thai. Yet, there are many people living in Thailand who speak Thai and grew up there, but don’t have flesh and blood of Thais. On the other hand, there are people in Thailand who share flesh and blood of Thais (to at least 50%), but they don’t know the language or even Thai customs and traditions. Where do people in Thailand make a difference between Thai and Farang (a Thai term referring to foreigners, usually Caucasians)?

Valentine Reaud, 28, was born in New York to a French father and an American mother. His appearance grabs everybody’s attention. He is tall, wears a two-day-old beard and has wild, long, curly brown hair, contradicting the idea of silky, smooth Thai hair. A few months after he had been born, his parents moved to Asia, where he spent almost all his life. The last 21 years he used to live in Thailand. He barely knows anything about either the U.S.A. or France. When talking about ‘Thai-ness’ his face gets slightly serious. “I will never be accepted as Thai, even though I have been living here almost all my life”, he says. “I think it’s because of my appearance. I just don’t look Thai.” What about ‘luk-krueng’ (half Thai, half foreigner) then? “The situation is different for them. If they can speak the language, they will represent a bridge between foreigners and Thais.” But many of them don’t look Thai? “No, many don’t look like a Thai, but in many cases their looks represent the Thai ideal of beauty. “

Mario Maurer, Ananda Everingham, Paula Taylor, or ‘Bird’ Thongchai are just a few examples of very successful luk-krueng who have established themselves in the Thai media.
“Sometimes I wish I was half-Thai, too”, says Ilada W., a 21-year old Thai woman from Bangkok. “It’s not only about their look. I know they are very successful because of their bigger eyes and pale skin, but it’s also about their family background.” She looks very excited and explains that half-Thais usually speak two languages, Thai and another one. They also travel around and see more of the world.

Look, for instance, at Paula Taylor, a British-Thai actress who used to live in Australia, before she came to Thailand. It was during one of her holiday trips when she was discovered as a model and then started her career.

Other half-Thais come to Thailand for different reasons. Johnny Visser, 28, half-Thai, half-Dutch explains that he came to Thailand because he feels more connected to the people here. Do they accept him as Thai? He thinks that they accept him as their fellow citizen, but not as a real Thai. And what about Holland? “In Holland, now they would definitely say that I am Dutch. That was not the case when I was young. I got mobbed in school and I sometimes had to face racism.”

Similar experiences are not only part of growing up as a luk-krueng in foreign countries. Half-Thais growing up in Thailand also often face discrimination. “One of my friends got beaten up in school here in Thailand when he was young”, Valentine says. “That was mostly because he is half-Thai and looks different.” He adds that the major conflict for half-Thais might lie in finding some real connection to either one half or the other ... It’s somehow not easy to find a balance.

However, not all Thai-foreigners face a conflict with their identity. Donald Ruangsorn, 23, was born in California and is half Thai, half Hmong, which is an ethnic group that mainly lives in Thailand, Burma, Vietnam or Laos. He doesn’t speak Thai, but believes that many people in Thailand accept to call him a Thai.
“Since, I am from the U.S.A. I have never had problems with my identity. I am actually American and not Thai.”, he says, “In the U.S. we don’t make any difference because of your look or whether you’re born there or not. What really matters is your attitude, not your blood.”

But yet, he says, Thai people accept foreigners more often as one of their kind than, for example, Japanese people would accept someone as Japanese. Thais are more open and flexible to interpretation of who is considered a Thai.

Copyright © Timmy Grimberg