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Thai Youth Hanging Out
| Article
# : |
17396 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1990 |
3,577 Words |
| Author
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Grant A. Olson
Grant A. Olson is a research associate and editor at the
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois
University, De Kalb, Illinois. He has just completed a
dissertation on the biography of a contemporary Thai Buddhist
monk for his doctoral degree in anthropology at Cornell
University. He is working on a collection of biographies of
Thai Buddhist monks and translating a volume on Buddhist
doctrine written in Thai. His interests in Thailand began with
three years of experience in the Peace Corps in Songkhla,
southern Thailand, from 1978 to 1981. |
About ten years ago, a number of editorials began to appear in prominent Thai weeklies posing a question that should be familiar to many Americans: Do you know where your children are?
One writer told Thai parents that if they wanted to find their children in their after-school hours they should go to Dunkin's Donuts. While this might seem rather tame - and even a relief to many parents in the West - the writer regarded the new and growing phenomenon of hanging-out at doughnut shops as an immense waste of time and a bad sign for the future of Thailand.
The increased concern over urban youth hanging out, which generally means going to coffee shops or cutting school to attend movies, but can include meeting to share the drugs that are readily available in that part of Southeast Asia, reflects a larger concern. Urban schools - and education and leadership in general - have shifted from a traditionally male and religious orientation, leading to ordination into the Buddhist monkhood, to a secular, coeducational system. However, modern secular education is being criticized for its lack of moral direction, and religious studies are gradually regaining popularity.
Rural children are still likely to attend a primary school within a temple compound, and young students in the countryside may stay late after school to tend their gardens or play in or near the temple compound, where monks are usually present. Although few monks take any kind of active role in government schools today, many villagers are still comforted by education's proximity to the symbols of religious aspiration and potential moral guides.
By contrast, after urban Thai youth have completed their school day, they value the chance to thieo (roam around) with friends. In the past this may have meant going to see some historic ruins, visiting a temple, or heading for the seashore during school breaks (or, for some young men, heading off to a brothel).
In the larger cities, such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai, to thieo often means heading for one of the many shopping malls, whose size and layout are becoming more amazing each year. Part of the malls' draw can be attributed to the multinational fast-food restaurants located there.
Initially, these restaurants met with little success: Kentucky Fried Chicken found it hard to compete with the women selling delicious marinated chicken from
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