BOOK REVIEWS : Vive la difference !

BOOK REVIEWS : Vive la difference !

Blending In, edited by Gray Rogers, 269 pp, 2005 Isan paperback, Available at Asia Books and leading book stores, 495 baht

BERNARD TRINK

The US prides itself on being a "melting pot." First generation immigrants are Italian-Americans, Pakistani-Americans, Egyptian-Americans, etc, but the prefix is dropped for the second generation. Regardless of their colour they speak the language, follow the customs, have the same education and aspirations as those who have been there longer. To be sure there's some prejudice, yet racism is by no means prevalent.

Few countries are so welcoming. The line between native and foreigners among them never narrows, much less disappears over time. There is Us and there is U. That's the way it is and will always be, even if U become a citizen and adopt the mores. We may work together, inter-marry, share rations, fight as comrades, U remain the outsider. Not being accepted is frustrating, psychologically depressing. A case in point is farangs, who tore up their roots in the expectation of putting them down in the Land of Smiles.

Alas the Thais, government and populace, won't allow assimilation. There are mixed feelings re farangs. Either they are regarded as rich and treated with deference or as poor (i.e. the backpackers) and personal valuables are clutched when near one or more. Are they really here to reside, do business or sightseeing? Or are they planning to strike a blow for neo-Imperialism?

Farangs pen books about their inability to turn U into Us. Blending In, edited by Gray Rogers, is one of the best. It is filled with true anecdotes by 15 farang academics, mainly male, about their reflections on living here. While not all strive to become Us and more than one insists that Thailand has much to answer for, most made the effort, with scant success. Some of what they say shows insight. But a few are laughable to old Thailand hands.

They range from serious to light: disgust at seeing middle-aged tourists with sweet young things; admiration for the laid-back Thais (1992, anyone?); locals don't take sports seriously (a visit to Lumpini boxing stadium is in order); nurses here kinder than their Western sisters (apart from the harridans).

The best anecdote is of a woman with dislocations of shoulder and arm being taken to a shaman out in the sticks who fixed her up. A good one is about varied spellings of Thai street names. A stay in an Isan village, kindness shown an ajarn under the weather, the exclusion of non-comformist locals. Attitudes of and towards katoeys are spot on. The piece on Buddhism makes the telling point that despite their resemblance with shorn hair and saffron robes, every monk is different.

The message of Blending In is that farangs can't and one writer questions what good it would do Us and U? Why can't we be content with our diversity? Vive la difference!

Bangkok Post
Friday January 12, 2007