Day 4 (7 Jan) Posting

This was the day which contained the highlight of our fieldwork: an interview with a professor and an expert from the Women’s Studies Centre of CMU.

We started the day with high expectations. For this interview, Dr Ariya Svetamra had invited her colleague Ms Matcha Phorn-in to join us. By this stage, Fay and I were sufficiently familiar with asking various permutations of our interview questions without needing to refer to our work plan. This turned out to be necessary since Dr Ariya and Ms Matcha were both well-versed with the topic at hand and offered various insights and perspectives that we did not consider previously. Even though English was not their native language, the arguments which they raised were coherent, clear and cogent.

One of the points they raised addressed our empirical findings on why the Thai youth seem to be perceive gender discrimination to be largely absent in their society. Apparently, the professors and passers-by which we have interviewed came from relatively privileged backgrounds where females can already do most of what men can do. They are thus more likely to believe to impose that impression on the whole of society. I found this bias inevitable. Just like how I believe that there is ample female empowerment in Singapore, others who come from more traditional families may claim otherwise. Perhaps the best way moving forward is to post a disclaimer and acknowledge that one has such a bias in the research.

During the interview, Ms Matcha mentioned about how cultures are indistinct in the sense that they have influenced one another throughout the course of history. In our survey and interview questions, we had perceived cultures to be distinct from one another. For instance, we assumed Western culture to be separately identifiable from Japanese culture. It was convenient to think of cultures as distinct and assume that each had developed in isolation. However that was not the case and this insight introduced more distortion when it came to attributing the influence of one culture on one’s perception. For example, elements which viewers perceive as Japanese culture may have originated from the West. Ms Matcha’s words left me reflecting about how complex and interconnected our world truly is.

What I noticed throughout the interview was how Dr Ariya and Ms Matcha tried to push for their own agendum. Specifically, they emphasised and reiterated that it was necessary to devote more resources in order to advance female empowerment, especially in rural areas. On our end, we tried to get them to establish and substantiate the casual link in our research question. It was an exhilarating interplay of agenda on a topic in which all parties were deeply invested in and where rhetoric was constantly employed. In spite of our competing objectives, all of us maintained cordial relations throughout the interview. It was a great learning experience for me to participate in such a mature exchange of ideas.

After a quick lunch, we returned to CMU for the second leg of our research: a focus group discussion with 4^th year Political Science students. Fye had gone to the extent of selecting friends of hers who were proficient in English. Those four young women also turned out to be liberal in their thoughts and experiences, which Fye warned may not be representative of Thai society. I should have taken that warning more seriously.

Some of the foreign entertainment media which we touched on included Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show which the young women initiated and were open discussing. It was opportune for Fay to lead the discussion since she would be better able to empathise and elicit more meaningful resources from them. Meanwhile, I pondered over how bizarre the situation was. It occurred to me that these young women were a product of the cultures they have been subjected to. They appeared as Thai but had American minds. After all, some of them had Western step-parents or had studied in the States in addition to being in the English-track of their school’s curriculum. Yet, having spent their formative years in Thailand, they retained subtleties which were more reflective of Thai culture. To me, these young women represent a growing population of youths who, while having their views derived from a hodgepodge of cultures, share a trait of open-mindedness. Some would call them global citizens.

After a few more interviews, it was time for OTOT. Having accomplished a significant amount of work, our group decided to head to Angkaew Reservoir which was located within the main campus. We were just in time to catch the sunset. Another popular activity that I noticed amongst the youth there was photo-taking. All around me were young people equipped with DSLRs while others were posing against the magnificent backdrop. It seemed like they were all trying to preserve fleeing moments of their youthful vigour before it was too late.

That would boil down to vanity then. Yet it also occurred to me that photo-taking was as much a social activity as it was a form of narcissism; I found myself posing much more enthusiastically with friends than alone. By having all our faces appear together in a photograph, we were proclaiming an association with one another. We bonded by showing solidarity not just to outsiders but also to ourselves. The desire to share a common identity is perhaps universal to all human beings. I feel that it is especially important for youths because most of us are still trying to discover who we are; being in groups helps by establishing a sense of belonging and a collective identity for the members within the group.

We had dinner at one of the night bazaars along the periphery of CMU. It was the Thai version of zi char and since we could not understand the menu, we left it to Fye to order for us. Again, I was blown away by the delectability of the dishes which ranged from a clear broth to garlic chicken. We gave Fye a treat for that meal as an expression of our gratitude for all that she had done in facilitating our journey in Chiang Mai.

Later that night, Fye brought us up to the top of Maya Mall. Suspended above the rest of the city was a series of four points of light. Their brightness was too uniform and their straight-line arrangement too organised to be stars. I was puzzled at the sight and asked Fye about it.

“That’s Doi Suthep. The lights are said to be visible to all in Chiang Mai at night.”

I ruminated on the significance of that for a moment before Fye continued.

“But with all the tall buildings, that may not be possible now.”

“Not if they go to their rooftops.”