Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

More recently, a new interest in local cultures has
facilitated a paradigm shift in the thinking about Thai
Southerners, from a negative image of being people
without culture—that is, people who lack “Thai culture”
to a positive image of people with local cultures to be
“discovered”.
It is worth noting that the impetus for cultural tourism
in Phuket is coming not from the tourism trade or
the expatriate population but from the Phuket locals
themselves. Educated Phuket Baba who had travelled
abroad began to appreciate their own culture anew and
thought of promoting their culture to the readymade
tourist market.
The late Khun Pracha Tandavanitj, custodian of the
Pithak Chinpraca House, is a pioneer of cultural
tourism. He started showing his house in the 1980s and
has kept it open daily since about 10 years ago. He said
he got the idea after visiting historic houses in Britain.
“Phuket culture is unique”, he thought, “If
Chiangmai can attract tourists with its local cultures,
why not Phuket?”
In contrast to the standard representations of Phuket
by the tourism industry, the Phuket Baba wants
to promote Thalang Road as the heart of the “Real
Phuket”; meaning the Baba culture of the tin-mining
days, although the definition can be more socially
inclusive if need be.
For them, cultural tourism is not just an economic
strategy to sustain cultural revival, but also a means to
re-stage the Baba identity and project it to a larger
audience, including the younger Phuket Baba, foreign
tourists, expatriates, other Thais and the powers-that-be
in Bangkok.
CONCLUSION
In relation to the focus of most current studies related
to Thai Chinese and Thai Muslims, Phuket society is
atypical. The Hokkien Baba are minorities among the
predominantly Teochew Thai Chinese, whereas the
Thai-speaking Muslims are marginal among the
Malay-speaking Muslims, who are the main interpreters
of the religion. Both groups feel more solidarity with
other Southerners than with Bangkok, and this is also
reflected in the tendency for Southerners, whether
Muslim or Buddhist, to vote Democrat over Thai Rak
Thai.
Identity is not just cultural but also political as it
translates into group identity, belonging, ownership,
HERITAGE, IDENTITY, CHANGE AND CONFLICT
entitlements, territory and legitimacy. In order to survive
the cultural hegemony of the nation-state, the Thai
Chinese and Thai Malay-Muslims have resiliently exerted
their cultural identity within a safe political space, which
shrinks and expands according to central policies. In the case
of Phuket, the limits of social discourse are increasingly
stretched to accommodate tourism, and the new
champions of culture and ethnicity also take advantage
of the liberalized space to articulate their identities, in
the name of cultural diversity.
In the latest developments, crisis has produced
opportunity. In the age of cultural tourism, the Thai
Muslims and Phuket Baba are now valued contributors
to the economic recovery of Phuket. Furthermore, the
conflict in the South has enhanced the Phuket Muslims’
position as an ally for the Democrat government.
Phuket locals, who have for the last two or three decades
participated in the business of re-imagining Phuket for
the farang [Westerner], now want to re-imagine Phuket
in a way which is meaningful for themselves. Since most
tourists come for beaches and Patong nightlife, cultural
tourism like eco-tourism will at most be a niche
market within the Phuket tourism industry, but it may
be enough to sustain cultural revival and support cultural
empowerment. Opportunities for cultural staging help
community groups to strengthen group identity, build
networks, and emerge as dynamic players in the cultural
tourism industry.
While tourism offers economic resources and impetus
for cultural revival, it can also lead to commercialization.
What is presented to tourists may be lacking “authenticity”,
facetious or downright false. Yet, it is precisely the
unexacting domain of made-for-tourism narratives as
opposed to that of carefully presented state narratives
that alternative interpretations, ranging from serious
historical re-examinations to cultural fantasies, are allowed
to flourish.
At the grassroots level, communities and cultural groups
tend to react to social change and globalization in two
ways. The first is by intensifying ethnicity, or reethnification,
facilitated by the media, travel
and internet technology. This is often experienced
subjectively as a discovery of one’s identity, origins, and
roots. The second is by intensifying religious practice;
the popular trend towards Islamization and the
flourishing of the Nine Emperor Gods festival are two
manifestations. Both are ways to affirm one’s place as a
part of a larger social grouping.
The arbitrariness of the Thai-Malaysian border,
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
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