Day 2

Day 2

Fay, Fuyang Shen

 

Today we went to Wat Rong Khun, or better known as the White Temple. It was designed and constructed by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a well-known Thai artist. “Only death can stop my dream, but cannot stop my project,” Chalermchai was quoted as saying about the temple, adding that he believes the work will give him “immortal life”.

 

I did not know much about Buddhism and temples. But I was amazed by the sheer beauty of the White Temple. Unlike traditional temples, the White Temple is astoundingly stylish and modern. It looks more like a castle than a temple to me. The whole building was covered with white paint and tiny mirror pieces, making an impressive and fascinating view for visitors. A very photographic site indeed. Everyone was furiously taking pictures of the grandiose building. I, dubbed “selfie-queen” by my friends, unsurprisingly took a lot of selfies with my friends, trying hard to open our eyes under the glaring sunlight and making sure the White Temple was successfully captured in the camera.

 

We then “walked through hell” and went into the “heaven”. I was surprised to see some well-known fictitious figures, such as Hello Kitty, Doraemon and Spider Man, were painted on the inner walls of the temple. I did not quite understand the meaning behind it, though. Some think that the artist meant to show that popular culture, featuring mainly violence, greed and hedonism, is the wrong way of life. Whatever the message is, it is up to the interpretation of the viewers.

 

We also visited a museum displaying original works of Chalermchai Kositpipat. I saw a painting done by him when he was merely 14 years old. I was like, Wow! What were I doing when I was 14? Chalermchai Kositpipat is truly a great artist, his work a testament to his peerless artistic acumen and vast imagination.

 

On the coach, our tour guide, Mr. Happy, told us about the toilet at the White Temple, describing it “as much nicer than his own house”. So we went for it. It really was very nice and clean (which gives a stark contrast to the terrible toilet charged at 10 THB that I went the day before).

 

Our lunch was lunch box again. We thought it was Cai Fan, so we got really upset when we opened the box. That aside, I talked to Fye, a CMU student attached to our group, about the use of English in Thailand. She told me that Thais start learning English at Primary 1 and there are more English programmes offered at schools to expose students to the use of English and Western culture more. However, she did point out that the standard of English in Thailand still needs to be raised further as Thais generally do not speak English very fluently despite an early starting age. I also shared with her my experiences in China and Singapore. Fye was surprised to learn that I was a Chinese National despite noticing the difference in English accent between me and my other friends.

 

Following that, we interviewed two monks about the situation of young women in Thailand. One monk said that make-up is the first word that comes to his mind when he thinks about young women. That was a very interesting piece of information. However, after we took a photo of him with a paper on which the word make-up was written, a local woman said that it was bad to associate monks with anything related to women. We deleted the photos right in front of her afterwards. Disappointed? Yes. But to think in a more positive way, we began to understand that Buddhism really is a very sensitive issue in Thailand and Thais take it very seriously. Maybe that’s what we need to think about before doing our field work. Is our method appropriate for the cultural context? Are we asking the correct person about our studies?

 

Nevertheless, I do find the interview with the two monks quite interesting, which is somewhat unexpected. When I first heard that we would interview some monks in Chiang Mai, I thought it would be a waste of time as I assumed that monks would concentrate on their religious learnings and practices, leaving no time to learn about social issues. However, at the Monk Chat area, I saw people of different nationalities engage in conversation with these monks. Perhaps that explains why the monks are quite aware of the things happening in their society as well as the outside world. The two monks we interviewed explained to us the importance of religion in Thailand and how, in their opinion, some seemingly prejudicial practices (for example, women are not allowed to enter certain religious buildings) are merely a form of following the tradition. The fact that we interviewed monks also adds variety to the pool of interviewees for our research project.

 

We were dismissed after the monk chat. We went to CMU and landed our legs in a café that CMU students frequent. I saw a group of 8 students sitting around a huge table and curious-looking when they saw us. I suggested to my group that we conduct a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with them. In the meantime, we also gave out around 30 surveys for students who we did not have a chance to interview. The FGD is not so easy to manage as we have in total 8 participants, making it hard to give each of them equal amount of attention. However, we still managed to gather some interesting viewpoints. Through this process, I realized that Thai people are generally very approachable and helpful. Therefore, there is no reason for us to be afraid to ask them questions or ask for a favour. I liked how I had the Go-do-it spirit. When I see an opportunity, I just shamelessly go and grab it.  I hope this spirit can last me throughout this study trip.

 

We also conducted another two short individual interviews with two local guys. It was very somewhat surprising to hear an unequivocal “yes” from the FGD participants when they were asked whether Thai young women and young men are equal.  One guy actually brought in the concept of foreign culture being the driving force to change youths’ perceptions about female empowerment without us leading him to that direction.

 

We had a group discussion at night and decided to divide our roles according to our strengths and weaknesses, Darren, Crystal and Eliza being in charge of video recordings, while Jin Hu and I being interviewers for all FGDs and interviews.

 

We all agreed that today was a fruitful day and went happily for shopping after the group discussion.