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ABSTRACT
Romantic partnerships affect local ways of thinking about and experiencing the self amid rapid economic, social and political change. In evaluating social status, Thais are reconciling local mores, Western gazes, and Asian cultural flows that shape sensibilities, aesthetics and desires. I show how middle-class gay men negotiate romantic partner preferences with East Asians or ‘white Asians’. While there is a body of scholarship that addresses Western influences on Thai gender and sexuality, little is known about the impact of East Asia. Following Ara Wilson’s (2004. The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City. Berkeley: University of California Press) ‘intimate economies’ and her (2006. ‘Queering Asia’. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context N:14. Available online: intersections.anu.edu.au/issue14/wilson.html (accessed 15 March 2010)) call for studies addressing connections within Asia, I use macrosocial and ethnographic data to argue that Thailand’s geopolitical position, situated between wealthier and poorer countries in the region, constrains and enables new partner preferences. Specifically, there is a racialisation of Asianness and reorientation of desire away from Caucasian partners towards East Asian ones.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Nguyễn Tân Hoàng, Ming Yuen S. Ma, Lisa Rofel, Peter J. Brown, Howard Chiang, Alvin Wong and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on previous versions of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Dredge Byung’chu Kang is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California San Diego. His research focuses on beauty and love as they intersect with race, class, gender, sexuality, globalisation and structural violence in body modification and interracial relationships.
Notes
1 Farang is sometimes used more broadly to mean ‘foreigner’ (ชาวต่างชาติ chao-tang-chat), but typically refers to a Caucasian person. The term is least likely to be used for East and Southeast Asians, who are called ‘Asian’ or are referred to based on their country of origin. Farang is related to the Thai word for French (ฝรั่งเศษ farangset), numerous fruits and vegetables such as guava, asparagus, and potato that were introduced by European traders, and words used in languages such as Farsi, Arabic and Hindi that are derived from ‘Frank’ to denote European. A neutral term, farang, can also be used as a slur by itself or in compound words. For example, ฝรั่งขี้นก (farang-khi-nok, literally ‘bird shit farang’), refers to shabby-looking or ‘shoestring budget’ Caucasian tourists, such as backpackers. The term can also be used as a slur against another Thai in compounds like ฝรั่งจ๋า (farang-ja), which means a Thai who only likes Western culture or acts as if they are farang.
2 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 15 June 2006. I witnessed this behaviour many times. I also witnessed sex workers whose comportment (e.g., contorting their bodies to lean away from their partners) and affect (e.g., looking down, making sad eyes) demonstrated their displeasure in being with Caucasian clients compared to Asian ones.
3 There is a significant population of Indians and other populations from South and Southwest Asia in Thailand. Many have risen to economic prominence, though few have participated in electoral politics. There are, however, many Thais who have extremely negative views of Indian people, while even at the same time following Hindu, Brahman, or other religious practices associated with India. Sex workers will sometimes refuse to serve South Asian clients. There is a common saying: ‘If you run into a snake and an Indian in the road, deal with the Indian first.’
4 Fieldnotes, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, June–August 2004, June–July 2005, May–August 2006.
5 I thank Nguyen Tan Hoang for suggesting this term.
6 I have previously defined this as a monthly income of approximately 7,000 to 70,000 THB (250 to 2,250 USD) (Ezra Kyrill Erker Citation2011). The low end represents the starting salary of civil servants. The experiential bottom line is working in an air-conditioned environment. Post-secondary vocational education or a college degree seems secondary. Many occupations that surpass this income threshold, such as selling noodles on the street, or street-based sex work, are not considered ‘middle class’. However, selling noodles in a shopping mall or being an institutionally based sex worker can command both the income and cultural capital of middle classness.
7 I agree with Patcharin (Citation2012) that monetary and romantic motivations for transnational relationships are intimately entwined. Desires for farang partners engage globalised ideas about love, egalitarianism, modernity and cosmopolitanism (like in the Japanese context). Yet, I would suggest that the context of a rural village is different than that of metropolises like Bangkok. In urban spaces, an Isan woman with a farang husband, particularly an older one, is likely to be interpellated as a sex worker, whether or not that is the circumstance of their original meeting (which is often the case). Additionally, the issue of egalitarian gender relations is quite complex in the Thai context and should be investigated thoroughly, with particular attention paid to differences in class, region, religion and other factors.
8 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 16 June 2009.
9 See alphadesigner.com/mapping-stereotypes/. The updated 2012 map combines Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia into an area called ‘Sex Slaves’. The change in moniker suggests a more empathetic stance, but refers to victims of slavery. This problematically equates sex work with human trafficking and denies the agency of those who choose sex work as a profession, given the options available to them.
10 The term ‘kathoey’ is quite broad. In contemporary urban Thailand, the term is most often used for transgender women but can also refer to effeminate gay men and sissies.
11 The term คนขาว (khon-khao) or ‘white person’ first appeared in Thai Google searches in November 2005. In the popular historical film Yamada The Samurai of Ayothaya (2010), the Japanese character is referred to as ‘white face’ (หน้าขาว na khao).
12 The drink has 450 mgs of amino acid. The ‘plus’ active ingredient for whitening is glutathione (75 mg). The drink also has 1,000 mgs of collagen to promote smooth skin. Glutathione is a skin-depigmenting agent that works as a melanin inhibitor. By decreasing melanin production, it reduces the dark coloration of skin, though its effects when ingested are unproven.
13 A photo of the ‘seats reserved for … white people’ ad in a train car can be seen at: http://easternorientations.blogspot.com/2011/02/amino-plus-brightenn-bts-train-ads.html.
14 ‘เมื่อโฆษณา “ที่นั่งสำรองสำหรับ … คนขาว” บนรถไฟฟ้า ถูกชาวเน็ตรุมถล่มเละ ลามถึง “เหยียดผิว-แบ่งชนชั้น”’ (When the Advertisement for ‘Seats Reserved for White People’ on the Skytrain Caved in to Claims of ‘Racism and Classism’ on the Net), Matichon, 24 February 2011 (2554), www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1298534576&grpid=01&catid=01.
15 Many of my friends expressed anger over this ad, but as one stated: ‘That’s wrong. Wait, I shouldn’t care. I could sit there.’ Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 8 March 2011.
16 Luk-khreung (ลูกครึ่ง literally ‘half-child’) can be used for any racial/ethnic mix, but is most often associated with mixed parentage that ‘shows’; e.g., with white or black parents. The term is not used for Sino-Thais and rarely with other Asians (e.g., Thai-Japanese, Thai-Korean, Thai-Vietnamese). This points to the idea that other Asians are racially similar and more readily assimilable within the notion of Thainess. Nevertheless, all luk-khreung who grow up in Thailand speaking Thai are more or less accepted as Thai without question. Previously, luk-khreung were stigmatised as the children of Thai prostitutes and US soldiers during the American war. However, with the development of the Thai economy, light-skinned luk-khreung have become resignified as beautiful. That is, while in the past luk-khreung were more often imagined as the children of prostitutes and soldiers, now they are often the children of middle-class/wealthy women and foreign businessmen. Both luk-khreung and Sino-Thais are greatly overrepresented in Thai visual media.
17 Mae Moo, ‘The game’s up, Tasteless remarks, Fair-but-not-weak, Who’s your daddy now?’, Bangkok Post, 20 March 2011.
18 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, March 2010.
19 Dave, interview by the author, Bangkok, Thailand, August 4, 2009.
20 The cover of Attitude Magazine, September 2012 (Models: Jiho Lee and Jason Chee) can be viewed at: easternorientations.blogspot.com/2012/09/attitude.html.
21 This attitude has changed significantly in the last decade with the rapid development of Vietnam. In contemporary Thai discourse, there is great anxiety that Vietnam will surpass Thailand economically, as Malaysia has. Indeed, Ho Chi Minh City is now more expensive than Bangkok. Because of discount international airlines, it has become cheaper for gay men in Vietnam to go to Bangkok for a vacation than to go between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
22 I collected several different versions of Chakran Sauna advertisements showing this position of Bangkok from a number of free magazines and tourist maps.
23 This assumes that the rates of sex tourism among men are similar from sending countries. In 2010, 51.25 per cent of international tourists came from East Asia (which includes South East Asia), followed by Europe at 27.88 per cent, South Asia at 6.25 per cent, The Americas at 5.30 per cent, Oceania at 4.95 per cent (primarily Australia), the Middle East at 3.57 per cent, and Africa at 0.80 per cent (Tourism Authority of Thailand Citation2011). This does not include citizens of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia, who can cross land borders.
24 There are temples open 24 hours in this area for Thai women who work in this industry. Non-Thai/Chinese/Japanese/Korean men (generally farang and Indians) who visit such establishments are sometimes subject to a 500–1000 THB surcharge for a service that is 2000–6000 THB. However, given the surcharges that Thais/Asians are expected pay (snacks, parking, tips for managers, etc.) the price is often closer to 10,000 THB for regular Thai customers. These establishments also have Russian masseuses, who are working illegally but not in the open, like in Pattaya.
25 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 25 December 2009.
26 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 25 July 2009.
27 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 30 May 2010.
28 A go-go (sometimes referred to as a-go-go) boy is a sex worker in gay bars that work on the ‘off’ system, where the client pays a fee to the bar to take the go-go boy out of the bar. Go-go boys wear bikinis with small numbers pinned to them so that customers can request them without pointing, which would be rude. Go-go boys are required to present themselves on stage, usually by standing in rotating formations at prescribed times, to allow customers to examine them.
A coyote is a sex worker who dances to music on stage in a bar. The genre of coyote dance is quite distinctive. The movements are fast and jerky. This contrasts with ‘macho’ dance, a genre performed by some go-go boys, which is slow and fluid. Clients who are interested can ‘off’ coyotes but they also function like a show. Coyotes can wear bikinis or be fully dressed depending on the situation. Typically, the amount of clothing decreases over the course of a night.
‘Freelance’ refers to work that does not occur in an establishment, such as a massage parlour. Freelance massage is primarily marketed on online gay cruising sites. In the public health literature on sex work, freelance would be referred to as ‘direct’ sex work, where the sex worker and the client do not engage each other through an institutionalised intermediary such as a bar or brothel. In contrast, those who work through establishments are referred to as ‘indirect’ sex workers.
29 Payment is in the form of ‘tips’, that are mandatory but variable. There is generally a minimum tip, explicit or not. Tips are generally left up to the client as long as they meet the minimum a sex worker expects (in Bangkok, in an establishment with foreign clients, usually 1000–1500 THB for a short term and 1500–2000 THB for the night). Tips can also be negotiated. Although sex workers state that they have an absolute minimum tip, this is often not enforced given the circumstances (e.g., what services were rendered, how far they have to travel, how attracted they are to the client).
30 Fieldnotes, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 28 July 2004.
31 Initially, during my fieldwork I stated that I was ‘Korean-American’. However, this was usually taken to mean that I was luk-khreung. Thais assumed that my mother was Korean and that my father was (white) American. I subsequently described myself as a Korean who was born in Korea but grew up in the US.
32 Miu, interview by the author, Bangkok, Thailand, 12 September 2010.
33 Fieldnotes, Bangkok, Thailand, 16 January 2010.
34 Mark, interview by the author, Bangkok, Thailand, 11 January, 2009.
35 ‘Asian values’ discourse, particularly as they have been espoused from Malaysia and Singapore, posits that there is a pan-Asian/pan-religious culture with common values distinct from Western ones (Ong Citation1999, Citation2006). Thus, the economic, social and political development of Asia should not ape Western nations. Asian institutions are justified in implementing authoritarian policies and practices that, in a Western context, would infringe upon personal civil liberties or human rights because Asian societies express greater collectivism. Much of these so-called values are derived from Chinese and Japanese sources. ‘Asian values’ nations are nearly isomorphic with my concept of ‘white Asian’, as both map onto Confucianism. Former Prime Ministers Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore) and Mahathir Mohammad (Malaysia) are most closely associated with this line of thought. Countries such as China continue to employ this ideological framework to deflect Western criticism, which is considered ideological imperialism inappropriate for a new multi-polar world order.
36 In the broader project, I address the particularities of the gay community that crystalize such desires and note differences among kathoey, tom, and heterosexual Thais. I also note that my fieldwork is spread among various subpopulations of gay men including academics, activists, artists, NGO workers, and sex workers. However, these groups are not representative of a ‘general’ gay community. Thus my analysis focuses on individuals I interacted with through gay venues such as bars, clubs, saunas, online websites and smartphone apps. Additionally, the majority of my fieldwork took place outside the internationalised gay triangle centered on Silom Road approximately bounded by Sathorn Road/Soi Ngamduplee, Surawongse Road/Soi Pratuchai and Siam Paragon.