Thai-farang cultural and social interactions as seen through marriage relationships

Abstract

This thesis focuses on Thai-farang marriage relationships to highlight the reciprocal effects of Thai-farang cultural and social interactions and Thai social change. As the first major study of its kind the research was based on indepth interviews with farang wives of Thai men. The interviewees were divided into two groups based upon the length of time the farang women had lived in Thailand; those who had lived in Thailand more than 20 years and those who had lived in Thailand less than 20 years. Age-generational differences in the farang women’s experiences revealed many areas of Thai social and cultural change, particularly in Thai family and gender-based roles. Thai social and cultural changes together with increased Thai-farang interactions over the past decades were seen to affect the position of and relations with farang living in Thailand. This thesis provides valuable first hand data and analysis and offers an alternative view of the effects of Thai socio-economic development and socio-cultural changes as experienced and perceived by farang wives of Thai men. Questions were posed and material provided which would be useful for further research into Thai socio-economic development and social change, and the effects thereof upon Thai-farang relations, the position of off-spring, luuk-khrueng, in Thai society and comparative studies of cross-cultural marriage relationships.