Column – The obsession with white in the land of the eternal sun

When you first arrive in Thailand, there is one thing that is hard to miss: Thai women. They are beautiful, slim as bamboo, with dark hair that shines like the night sky and eyes that you could easily drown in. They smile, they are polite, they are elegant and yes, they are even a bit mystical. In short, they are a bit like a postcard. But the real mystery of the Thai woman is not her smile or her charm, but an almost obsessive fascination with… being white. Yes, being white. In a tropical country where the sun burns mercilessly for at least twelve hours a day, “being white” is the holy grail.

And so, in Bangkok, you stumble not only over temples and tourists, but above all over a real industry of 'whiteners'. Think of everything you've ever seen in a drugstore, but then in a bleaching version. The deodorant has 'whitening' ingredients, the hand cream promises miraculous lightness, and even the face mask looks like a pot of chalk. As if you dip your face in a pot of wall paint and, with a bit of luck, emerge as a reincarnation of Snow White.

But what makes this obsession with white so persistent? The answer is as complex as the average episode of a Korean soap opera, which the Thais also love. That’s because being white in Thailand isn’t just a beauty ideal. No, it’s a status symbol. It doesn’t just say, “Look, I’m beautiful!” but more importantly, “Look, I’m important!” Because having light skin means that you don’t have any associations with the hard outdoor work of farming or street vendors. That you’re nice and cool inside an office, or better yet, that you don’t have to work at all because you’re, well, rich. Thai high society, or HiSo as they say here, is the epic goal of any woman with ambition and a healthy supply of bleaching cream.

It reminds me a bit of that rich lady in the soaps: she who hangs around in her luxurious air-conditioned home endlessly, occasionally gets into a blacked-out car, and otherwise fills her days with gossiping and watching more soaps. The ideal? Of course. Realistic? Even less than the average promise of a 'whitening' deodorant.

And it is not just the desire for status that keeps this pale-face mania going. There is also the influence of Japan and Korea that should not be underestimated. Both countries have a fascinating attraction for the Thai. Where we might snicker slightly at the sight of an anime hero with bright pink hair, Thai women see an aesthetic example to emulate. Add to that the seemingly perfect, evenly white skin of every Korean soap star and voilà: a whole ideal of beauty is born. Whereas in Europe black used to be seen as chic and elegant, here it is white that carries the symbol of the good life.

And so the Thai woman continues to happily smear, scrub and scrub herself, as if she were sitting with her hands in a wash for the eighteenth-century tablecloth every day. And we, Westerners, can look at it, chuckle or perhaps secretly recognize our own neuroses. Because let's be honest: how many of us don't feel that we are just a little bit less without a touch of self-tanning cream, or without that perfect 'summer tan' after the holiday?

But in the end, of course, it all comes down to one thing. The core of human deficiency, to put it dramatically. That all-consuming urge to be something you are not. A farmer wants to become a city dweller, a rich man wants to become even richer, and the dark Thai woman wants to become as white as possible, perhaps even like a ghost in the moonlight.

So the next time you’re in Thailand and a beaming smile greets you from a perfectly powdered white face, remember the fight that’s being waged here. A fight that has nothing to do with black or white, but everything to do with the human struggle with… itself.

About this blogger

The Expat

The Expat (66) has been living in Pattaya for 17 years and enjoys every day in the land of milk and honey! Previously employed in road and hydraulic engineering, but fled the capricious weather in the Netherlands. Lives here with his Thai girlfriend and two dogs just outside Pattaya, a 3-minute walk from the beach. Hobbies: enjoying life, going out, sports and philosophizing with friends about football, Formula 1 and politics.

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