I installed the Vipa (Thai PBS) app months ago but haven't watched anything until this evening. Not a BL, The Rhythm of Life / จังหวะชีวิตลิขิตฝัน episode 1 shows us an ambitious captain of a school marching band bullying his juniors, presenting heavy narcissistic traits. His teacher and even his father are irritated by this out of date behaviour to uphold old ideas of discipline. Very very intense first episode (50 minutes).
The aforementioned Thai lakorn / period drama with classic hierarchical images has in episode 25 the servants taking over the house. Still questioning if this can be called a development or not.
I love to complain about living in a society which promotes and champions individualism (and hence public common spaces - like something as mundane as seats in public transport - are often neglected).
I'm aware though that on the other hand, a society which strongly emphasises collectivism and being considerate of other people etc. somehow trains you to think and worry too much about "what will others say"?
Okay the native title to the #ThaiBL "A Boss And A Babe" wasn't easy for me to get. I still don't get it. Trying to find out about it was a bit educational. And even if I don't get it, I have found out at least that it's a wordplay with a verse from a poem which is used for learning the alphabet. There's a line that runs:
There are different kinds of water pouring rituals in Thailand.
Water pouring from a vessel into another vessel after making merit (giving alms to the monks, after listening to a sermon etc) is a ritual for dedication of merit - to your ancestors who have passed away, to persons you think of. During the pouring of water verses are being recited (by a monk). The water then is poured out outside preferably over the roots of a tree.
A friend asked recently: So how do you feel about "being German" nowadays?, and I can only say that I have lost interest in trying to belong to some imaginary cultural heritage. Moreover I am rather angry that I have been educated in Western music so well but know nothing and have zero experience with other musics of this world. (I'm a musician in a specific institutional setting - that is my work.) I feel like all the cultural things were being sold to me as "global high culture" and that's bs.
#KinnPorscheTheSeries EP6 / How come I thought the series was something like a Mafia themed BL? Fans should point out the many slapstick fun scenes how entertaining all that is.
Two quarreling leads (expected to become lovers) handcuffed - it can't get more Classic right? Or maybe it can and that would be hilarious.
I guess not many people are watching the "1000 Years Old" #ThaiBL because it's so slow and "nothing is happening". And I think the overall quirkiness, and maybe because of the colours?, has a certain Wes Anderson feel to it haha.
Like, is there space for introvert people in Thailand? I was with my parents' group of friends yesterday and I witnessed again how important the whole silliness / not being too serious spiel is in Thai interaction.
My personality is just not built for that. Or was I just kidnapped by the German notion of "We're just not so superficial, we're so deep, and that's why we don't make friends quickly"?
I wonder why my parents decided to stay here and not go back to Thailand. I guess it's mainly because my niece is here. And maybe they have more trust in the German health services.
I guess I'm asking just because I would very much like to leave or at least spend less time in this country which leaves me more and more weary. Would it be weird for a second generation kid to return to the place where their parents came from?
And of course I'm aware how much this may be just a silly fantasy and not much based in reality. (On the other hand it's a huge motivation for learning to read and write properly.)
I guess everyone deals differently with experiences of being othered. It is a journey in itself. For most of my life I wanted to belong, wanted to be part of the mainstream dominant culture. This has changed in the past years. I discovered that I can seek out other spaces. Being othered didn't go away and perhaps there's a way to say: Yes, I Am Other. If you want to ridicule my otherness - may it strengthen my just-the-way-that-I-am.
I really didn't practice writing Thai. I was okay with writing short sentences on my phone. On a Thai keyboard I am still rather lost. But what really helped me write more was to be okay with my handwriting.
But isn't it so silly that I didn't enjoy writing with pen and paper just because I wrote like a kid with all the proper loops etc. However with a more adult looking handwriting I feel more comfortable haha.
@emmaaum They should be there of course. But there are some letters which I really didn't like in my make-every-correct-loop-handwriting. I still struggle to find a handwriting version of ง that I find okay / beautiful.
Because I was filling out a form I started thinking about my handwriting again. There are letters which I can't write beautifully. A friend suggested to look at "handwriting fonts" and model my handwriting on those. Turns out the best result from my own hand is a font style without the loops.
#ThaiBL#DFF ep11 / Okay so we see the "bad" guy having compassion and the bullied boy questioning why he has to suffer all this while he did his best to belong. If we want to discuss this with Buddhist terms I would say that it's important for the oppressed to question karma. "What did I do wrong that I am trapped now as part of other people's deluded behaviour?"
As for listening to everyday Thai I find the PBS programme ยินดีที่ได้รู้จัก (Nice To Meet You) very helpful. In each 25 minute episode the host, P'Bper, asks people on the streets in different regions of Thailand about their happiness and their struggles.
One wonders why me, a Thai person growing up in a European country, turned to activities connected to Japanese culture (Urasenke tea school, Aikido, Japanese BL etc.).
The simple answer is that Japanese culture just has a good image. (Why is Japanese the "better Asian" on the globe?) Following from that there's enough interest, enough resources to find, more spaces to just go to and engage with etc. >
