Day 1 (4 Jan) Posting

“Apart from hông náam you can also use sù-kăa, which literally translates to ‘pleasure room’, if you want to refer to the toilet.”

“Mae Fah Luang is the title which the local people refer to their current king’s mother and the university was established as a tribute to her contributions to her people.”

These were snippets of trivia which our tour guide shared with us as the bus made its 4-hour journey to Chiang Rai. They fell short of keeping the lethargy at bay and I was drifting in and out of a restless sleep for the most part. When we arrived at Mae Fah Luang University though, I was perked up by the clean and crisp air that came with the bucolic surroundings. After a quick lunch at the canteen, we were ushered to a conference room where we were to meet Professor Chirada Na Suwan.

Professor Chirada took questions from both sub-groups before she started her lecture on human security. Unfortunately, as the research topics of both sub-groups were quite different, we found ourselves competing for her attention and that resulted in a rather convoluted discussion. On hindsight, it would have been more fruitful had each of our sub-groups interviewed her separately.

This screeched to a halt when amidst the confusion, Professor Chirada asked for our research question and answered us directly. She later did us a favour by introducing us to Dr Yuki Miyake, a specialist in the field of gender studies in the university.

However, the interview with Dr Yuki was not as productive as we had hoped. She was flustered throughout the entire interview and her responses tended to be short and stilted. Due to time pressure and a desperation to procure meaningful results, I constructed arguments which established causal links between foreign entertainment media and Thai youths’ views on female empowerment and simply asked if she would agree if such an argument was sound. She agreed with us. Yet deep inside me, I was disappointed and dissatisfied with that concurrence. It seemed to me that she had only agreed out of politeness and a desire to aid us in our project and not because she fundamentally thought that way as well. How much was that ‘yes’ really worth then?

Nonetheless, I did not return to the hotel empty-handed that day. The visit to Mae Fah Luang University reinforced my understanding that people’s perceptions are indeed shaped by the environment which they have been exposed to. Having studied in the States, Professor Chirada raised some of her experiences there and cited “Pretty Woman” and “The Matrix” as examples in our discussion. As a Japanese native, Dr Yuki frequently drew comparisons between the status of women in Thailand and Japan.

Even though there were subtle differences in their responses, they largely concurred that female empowerment was not a major issue in Thailand. They had also thought that other factors such as education and socio-economic status were more relevant in determining Thai youths’ perceptions on female empowerment. That put us in a tailspin for it seemed now that our research question had plunged into irrelevance.

As a sub-group, we decided to seek advice from Dr Geraldine. Through our discussion, I learnt that it was sometimes necessary to take what people say at face value. Furthermore, we realised that the questions we posed contained terms which may have been too complex and intimidating and that we should have started by asking about more relatable events. Though disheartened, our sub-group felt that it was too early to discard the whole of our research question just yet.

To dispel the gloom of that day, we went out to the nearby night market. Most of the wares sold could be found in the Sunday Night Market Walking Street which we sauntered just the day before. What was surprising was the presence of men armed with large video cameras and other media paraphernalia. As it turns out, there was a K-pop Thai celebrity (FOREIGN ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA) in the vicinity who was participating in some variety show. There were also many local fangirls (THAI YOUTH and FEMALE EMPOWERMENT) present. Those keywords were flashing in my head and it felt like the perfect opportunity to do work. However, without our equipment and energy (and most probably the permission of the celebrity and the fangirls too), we just decided to enjoy ourselves for that night. We needed the downtime.