The ambiguious role and status of farang in Thailand by Kan. Nowadays, the emergence of globalisation has made a big impact to the world which allows people who have different backgrounds easily come and live with each other. There is no doubt that the modern world is the main key to create the world awareness amongst each country to adapt to the changing trend. The world is consider to be smaller than before because new technologies, such as the internet has been invented to connect every parts of the world to be more integrated rather than separated. It has also brought lots lot cultural, language, social exchanges between countries to countries. Many foreign workers move to work abroad and migrate to foreign countries permanently, such as the influx of migrants in Germany and the UK. However, there is a challenge for the governments in each nation and their own citizens to live and learn with foreigners. This is the main reason why the impacts of globalisation also bring us ideas of otherness and alien to us if we are not well prepared to accept the diversity and pluralism within our own society. Race and ethnicity has been taken into account more seriously and the cross cultural interaction has been the main key to help people have a more understanding with each other. Thailand is a country that has been influenced by globalisation. There are challenging issues facing the society such as the role of ethnic minority groups, the multicultural society and the new reform of Thai identity. In addition, Thailand has to be prepared for the upcoming AEC in 2015 to pave the way for international trade and relation with other neighbouring countries. No period of living alone and consider yourself to be the centre of the world. If Thailand still perceives that Non-Thai and the outside world are just outsiders of the society, the national would lose chances to create a new awareness and tolerant of diversity and equality amongst Thais. The increasing number of political and social incorporation from every groups of the society, such as expats who may be a significant part of the new future of Thailand in term of bringing different perspective and knowledge into Thai society. This term paper will mainly focus on the impact of nationalist policy on multicultural society in Thailand and Thai people’s perspective on the foreign world as well as ethnic minority groups in Thailand. The term Farang as an outsider of Thai society Farang or ฝรั่ง has been widely used as an ethnic clssification and a stereotyping concept in Thai society for a long time to refer to people who come from European/Western countries and being ethically Caucasians. There are both of negative and positive perceptions of Farang by Thais despite the fact that they influx rapidly to the country in the recent years. This is because the authority is attempting hard to keep the distance between Thais and foreigners, considering there is an increasing numbers of Westerners who are able to speak Thai fluently and may know Thailand better than a person who is considered by the authority to be Thai (Rachel, 2010). The Thai term farang emerges from a set of a pan-Asian identification maker for the West, Western people, and Western-derived things. The term ultimately derives from Frank but which originally refer to Germanic speaking people in the region of the modern France but which came to widely used in early medieval Egypt, Greece and other Mediterranean areas to refer to Western European in general. For Thai term, it was borrowed from Muslim Persian and Indian traders during the Ayuttaya period, when it referred to the Portuguese, who were the first European group to visit the Siamese kingdom. The term subsequently came to be widely used to refer to other European and more recently to all Caucasians and the West in general. African-American area also sometime referred to Farang dam (Black Farang). However, it can be often to define ambiguously to Westerners because the term Farang does not refer specifically to any nationality, culture, ethnicity, language, race or whatever. While Farang is generally a neutral word in Thai, in some cases it can be used to insult Westerners who have a bad manner like Farang Krinok or ฝรั่งขี้นก. But, the Farang and Thet or ต่างประเทศ is frequently held to label them as a superior group of people without a clear understanding amongst Thais. It signifies some superior qualities compared to the local and indigenous Thai counterparts. In the Thai context, farang is a cultural substance of cosmopolitan discourse and the overtone of the term displays how the Thais have made sense of their encounters with Western otherness through history. The interesting thing is the phrase called Tam Kon Farang which literally means following of backside of the Westerners in a less projective translation. The term can also mean tagging” along behind Westerners. It denotes the lack of self-belief and confidence, also the acceptance with Westerners which is considered as Non-Thai and strangers to the society (Pattana, 2010). This social perspective on Westerners shows the lack of clear understanding of Thai people which make a wider gap between these two ethnic groups (Thais and Westerners) to feel unfamiliar with each other. The reason why farang are still considered to be an ambiguous outsider of Thailand because both of pro and anti farang discourse made by Thai state and well-known intellectuals subsequently spared to general people and cause people who are called farang to feel unintegrated into Thai society. Thai governments and intellectuals have maintained that while farang are superior in secular, worldly matters, Thais are far stronger in the moral and spiritual realms until now. Many ordinary Thai people still keep the farang apart from Thai society and view them wealthier than Thais and rip them off just because they are farang, despite the fact that Expats in Thailand pay tax and contribute to the society. Generally speaking, farang do not like to be called and perceived as an outsider because they would like to feel integrated into Thai society. Many of them make an effort to learn Thai language and culture, but still being discriminated by their ill-defined position and status. They might be happy to work and live in Thailand for years, but they still question themselves for their uncertain future of being a farang both of formally and informally. . Share
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:40:55 +0000