Sweetie, I don’t want to override or contradict or speak for the entire diplomatic corps and Sinologists who populate your rank and file but.. are you doing these things in China? The Chinese are cautious and clever people, you know that. They are extremely circumspect most of all. Whatever it is you’re doing is not going to win you any favour with them and is actually anathema to the Chinese ethos. You can always reason with people, any people, however dire the situation is. I genuinely believe that. So whatever is distressing you, there must be better ways than demonstrating force and alienating them. Hearts and minds, do you know this phrase? Goes for allies as well as populace.
Don’t you know this was how I knew something wasn’t right with the Nong Bua Lamphu nursery massacre? You must have witnessed this. My video call with my Aussie partner right after it happened and my attempt to convince him that it didn’t pass the smell test. “Why did he burn the white truck it made no sense? There’s no way a Thai could have done this. It’s not in our cultural DNA. I don’t believe it. It must have been staged. No way in hell.” He dismissed it at the time but I read all the details to the letter. Thais are inherently not capable of an atrocity of this magnitude even if he was on cocaine and mentally ill. Don’t you know that the most individually anti-social act in all of Thai history was the cannibal killer named Si Ouey? That was just about it with the Thais. All the mass shootings at shopping mall all those years ago seem highly suspect as well. It’s like you transplant an anomaly of one culture onto another where such an act is almost inconceivable and entirely foreign to our way of life. I know my culture and my people well. Being prosocial is in our DNA. China is not that far off from us I don’t think. That doesn’t explain the cultural revolution but then again I’m not a Sinologist.
In a lot of Asian cultures collective harmony and social order are highly valued and truly antisocial acts are rare. So you must not alienate the Asians in this way. We abhor these actions through and through. The West probably not so much, but in Asia you have to be careful with your violent outbursts. We who value the collective over the individual cannot stand them.
The thing is Si Ouey wasn’t even Thai. He was a Chinese migrant and my point still stands. You are alienating me with your antisocial behaviours. I am deeply Thai beneath my Western veneer. I am Buddhist by upbringing and you are not winning any favour with me.
In our old literature like Khun Chang Khun Phan there were men who were antiheroes or lotharios or swashbucklers and there are reasons those stories are not being taught in Thai schools at all. They are considered immoral and so learning about them is forbidden (maybe not explicitly but it’s heavily frowned upon for sure). I think in the past thirty or forty years the Thais have revamped their male ideals and cultural icons. Classic Thai gentlemen are cleanly dressed and polite to a fault. If you watch Thai lakorns from the 1990s to the early 2010s the male protagonists are so prim and proper they fade into the background of the drama. It is the women who wrecked their havoc and the men who were mafia. After 2010s the cultural landscape was heavily influenced by Korean and Japanese imports. The male protagonists started having some personality and flavour and quirks to them. The women still continue to browbeat everyone on screen. These days young men I see on TV style their hair like they are Koreans and dress like they are hip hop stars. It is a great tragedy and I miss classic Thai gentlemen with their civilised parlance and demeanor and mannerism.
I have seen historical Chinese dramas in passing. Very popular back in the days. Isn’t that how they portray the classic male ideal over there? Have you ever seen them? Civilised restrained chivalrous courageous polite bordering on mute. That’s what I can recall from my hazy splotchy memory anyway. So whatever behaviours you are projecting will not sit well with a group of people who grew up valuing heroism and wisdom and civility above all. You should not go against their cultural grain.
I think antiheroes as heroes is still largely a Western phenomenon and a very recent one. In Asia especially prior to Western and Hollywood influences trickling in there are clear moral storylines and black-and-white good guys vs bad guys and not just in their fight against one another but in how they treat a female protagonist. Basically you are acting like the bad guy in every Asian movie and tv show ever made not just in your general behaviours but also in how you and your men treat me. Asian men are much more chivalrous than Western men when it comes to women and you always have to keep this in mind. Women are greatly valued across Asian cultures. You have to understand where they are coming from.
What’s with your yacht in the news? I’ve made up my mind to find my way to the West and you have two days to make an overture to me or we’ll see each other on different sides at the end of this. It’s up to you. It’s always been up to you.
— Salisa to Путуки, June 29th, 2026
Salisa lohavittayavikant 