Thai stereotypes

Today we gonna talk about the thai stereotypes! The movie “Hang Over 2” was full of negative stereotypes about Thailand, do you agree?

“One night in Bangkok make a hard man humble!
Not much between despair and ecstasy.
One night in Bangkok, and the tough guys tumble!
Can’t be too careful with your company.
I can feel the devil walkin’ next to me.”

The most known Thai in the world is Sagat! s a character in the Street Fighter series. He was originally a boss character in the early editions of the series. He was later turned into a regular, playable character.

Sagat rose from a childhood of extreme poverty in Thailand, being constantly bullied by other boys from his village due to his “abnormal” height and his family’s general lack of finances. Sometime in his early days he watched a small-time Muay Thai championship, which motivated him to practice the martial art, using his height as an advantage in combat.

After long, extensive years of training, Sagat won the title of Emperor/God of Muay Thai from Nuah Kahn as a teenager, and became a national hero.

Muay Thai is a combat sport from the muay martial arts of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques.

Another stuff that is a classical in Thailand is the movie “Thaitanic“.

Recently a friend of mine who claims to be a reader of this blog told me I should be careful about making generalizations about Thai people.

I asked him why.

He thought about it for a second. ”Hmm,” he said. ”I don’t know why.”

In a sense, he’s right. Relying on stereotypes and generalizations about people is not exactly a healthy way to think. Intellectual shorthand can be hopelessly inaccurate, myopic and even hurtful.

But stereotypes can also be funny.

This blog is not about mastering all things Thai or about becoming a cultural know-it-all. No, it’s about capturing and enjoying some of this city’s, and its inhabitants’, quirks and peculiarities.

You’ve heard them all before about other people. Canadians say ”eh” a lot, Americans are gun-hugging fat pigs, and a Norwegian can’t have a conversation that lasts more than three and half minutes without mentioning trolls at least once.

Here’s a list then about some of the Thai stereotypes I had initially heard about that turned out to be rather accurate.

1) Thais are lazy.

Please, take your time. Have a seat even.

No, they’re not. But my word, they do dawdle. Have you ever been late for work and rushing along the sidewalk or a corridor at a train station when you’ve been blocked by a horde of pedestrians moving at a snail’s pace?

You’ve almost certainly whispered curses under your breath while trying to break through a line of young people walking nine abreast as they halt randomly to view a smart phone video or to read a text.

And good luck getting past people riding idly on the escalator.

By my count, there were seven public holidays over April and May. Seven! This is not a condemnation; we should all be so lucky and wise to set aside more time for rest, relaxation and fun.

2) Thais don’t read.

Despite Bangkok being named the 2013 World Book Capital, Thais on average read only five books a year. I’d be shocked if the number is even that high among people who are not in school. A quick glance around a Sky Train cabin proves that most passengers are more interested in flicking away on the screens of their smartphones at some game resembling a frantic Tetris, than reading. And those who are reading, mark my words, are reading comics.

3) Thais are vain.

I saw a young Thai dude the other night spend an entire MRT subway ride from Sukhumvit to Huai Khwang — that’s four stops — checking out his own reflection in the train’s window. Granted, he looked good: Spiky hair, big biceps and a nice pair of combat boots, but come on man.

The women are much worse. I’m no longer surprised to observe a young lady fire off a series of 12-16 selfies with her smart phone in a public setting.

4) Old white men with young Thai girlfriends

I can can count on two fingers the amount of times I’ve met a Thai guy who has a farang girlfriend. It’s extremely rare. The vast majority of ex-pat/tourist-Thai relationships are between white dudes and young dark-skinned Thai gals.

For the really old white dudes, it appears to be a simple formula — and not a particularly problematic thing, I’d say — he bankrolls, she bed-rolls.

5) Thailand is a 24/7 year-round sextival.

Yep.
Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy, aka Sexapalooza.

6) Thais are friendly.

Whenever you get together with friends who have just returned home after a trip to some far-off exotic land and you ask them, without really caring, how it was, they always say: Oh, and the people were so friendly!”

That’s probably because most everyone they encountered on their trip had a role to play in catering to their service and comfort and their jobs required a minimal level of friendliness.

But the Thais at large truly are a smiling, fun-loving, friendly bunch.

7) Thai politicians are corrupt.

The following scenario, while silly, is actually quite a realistic portrayal of how things work here:

Having suspected a series of kick-backs orchestrated between the government and several foreign contracting firms involved in the 350-billion-baht water management scheme, the opposition Democrats called on the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to launch an investigation into the alleged graft.

The NACC then set up a sub-committee to review the scheme and to root out the wrongdoers. To get down to work, the sub-committee was allocated a boardroom in a downtown government office. Upon commencing their work, the chairman of the sub-committee realized that the room was much larger than they required.

He conspired with his fellow committee members to erect a partition in the room, cutting it in half. The second portion of the room, he surmised, could be rented out to be used as a gambling den.

A week later, a janitor at the building who meant to empty the wastebaskets, wandered into the casino room, which was now turning a nice little profit for the operators and thus the members of the sub-committee.

Armed with this information, the janitor informed the government of the goings-on regarding the very panel that was set up to probe it.

The government, in turn, requested the NACC to set up a second sub-committee — a sub-sub-committee, if you will, to probe for corruption within the first anti-graft sub-committee.

And all at the taxpayers’ expense, mind you.

 

Thailand is famous because its temples.The architecture of a Wat has seen many changes in Thailand in the course of history. Although there are many differences in lay-out and style, they all adhere to the same principals.

A Thai temple, with few exceptions, consists of two parts: The Phuttha-wat and the Sangha-wat.

This is it. I saw this post on the bankokist site.