ianwuk

15. When starting to open silly threads to waste time.

I didnt go looking for anything, but I am now married to a Thai. When I met her we got on, we had the same humour and connected if you like. She as little education and her family are what you might call poor. They can sustain there lives with their rubber trees and are happy.

At no point in our relationship did I feel the need to compare education or wealth. I really dont see why that is necessary. Just because my wife left school at 12 does that make her stupid? Or did she leave because the family had no money to sustain her education?

Since we have been married she lived in the Uk with me for 6 years and has a british passport (try doing the test online, its free and I bet you a Chang ALL of you will fail at least one in five attempts) which she passed 3 weeks after have a baby on her first attempt.

My point is education does not really reflect intelligence, intelligence is the ability to think, most exams, especially in Thailand and just memory tests AND from my time in the education system are paid for or someone else is paid to do the work.

For me chosing a life partner was just about finding someone I can grow old with and want to be with. Tight buns may be important to some of you, but we all get old and ugly and old and ugly is fine if you love that person.

There are many sides to this debate, and the earlier historical reference to the inflow of the Chinese from around about 5 generations ago is correct. Going back to the teachings of Lao Tzu and Confucius tells you a lot about the Chinese character, Lao Tzu was concerned with the merit of man within himself, and Confucius was concerned with the relationship of men to others in a social and political sphere.

There is a Chinese theory that a family business should work on a 20% mark up, and if it does so it will last forever as the guanxi ( connection ) between the business and customers will always stay strong. Guanxi is the probably the most important word in the Chinese language, if you do not have connection then you have nothing.

When the Chinese business ethic came into Thailand it came across the polar opposite mentality, sanuck, and this allowed the Chinese to become very dominant very quickly. It is interesting that the Lord Buddha was alive at roughly the same time as Lao Tzu and Confucius, as he was also concerned about the condition of man, and taught many of the same things as his Chinese contemporaries. I believe Socrates was teaching in this same fashion in Greece at the same time and his teachings went through the hands of others such as Aristotle and into the root of European history.

The Chinese take an attitude that if you are of Chinese descent then you always belong to the old country, and you will be expected to assist and defend the old country even centuries after departing, if that is taken literally then it means that China has massive Fifth Columns in place throughout the world.

The clash of cultures though effectively allowed the Chinese immigrants to run away the with the business and political spoils in this country, and to be of genuine Chinese descent is an indicator of your mental attitude to life, bred into you through 5000 years of cultural development. High achievement is a primary driver, so it is fair to generalize that your Thai Chinese wife will commonly come from a good family.

What I find bizarre is why members would boast about it? Is it not reverse gold digging? I would be far more impressed with people standing on their own two feet and creating companies and businesses which are a compliment to their own ability.

To boast about the wealth and class of your wife only proves one thing................you are lacking class.

I would never dream of objectifying my wife in that way.

It's simply an easy way to make a distinction in Thailand.  The Thais of Chinese decent, many would argue, are what have made Thailand half-way decent.  They most certainly (even in their relatively small population in Thailand) have racked up the most success and it's quite obvious from the top all way down.  Look at the best businesses, the best schools, the most prestigious families, they are overwhelmingly Chinese descent.  Thai-Chinese women from decent families usually live a Thai life which is an existence away from your typically more brown, real Thai.  They're quite different.  Many have been educated abroad in quite good schools in the US, Europe and UK and are realistically far more affluent (financially and culturally) than many Farang here in Thailand.  They also go to some lengths to remind many of that.  Don't dare confuse them with the average Thais.  Here's a list of common THAI stereotypes:

1. Thai-Chinese has prettier, fairer skin and better looks than brown Thai
2. Thai-Chinese has more wealth
3. Thai-Chinese has more power
4. Thai-Chinese has more education
5. Thai-Chinese has more status
ect...

So, generally speaking, Thai-Chinese women (and men) are much more highly regard in Thailand by Thais.  Being with a Thai-Chinese girl from a decent or well-established family can be used to say to the guys who marry bar girls in Issan, 'hey, I'm better than you and here's some proof.'

It's also a way to say, 'see, look at you.  Despite your White skin privilege and relative 'wealth' to the majority of Thais, you are still a bum to many quite wealthy and travelled (Thais or) Thai-Chinese here who aren't the slightest interested in you or your life.  Thusly, you got the bottom of the barrel so-to-speak of the very much poorly regarded, crusty, sunburnt, illiterate, ambition-less, dirty-feet country girls.'  A truly accomplished man, be he Farang White or other will be able to pull a respectable woman in any country.

Of course, there are plenty of girls in between these stereotypes, but in Thailand this easy system serves as an easy way to separate oneself from the vast majority of far-from-impressive Western men who have been rolling up on these shores for decades.  

Having a Thai-Chinese wife who is from a successful family is like owning a real luxury car, making tons of money, being good looking and intelligent.  In other words, it's a way for people to know (generally) that I am quite different from you, so Farang buddy, don't invite us over for drinks with your questionable girl friend or wife.  We are nothing like you.  I speak Thai fluently as a second (or third) language.  My wife speaks English fluently as a second (or third) language.  She's Ivy League educated as am I with advanced degrees.  Etc etc.  We are nothing like you and have no interests in pretending that we are, so thanks but no thanks.

It is just another way to say my wife isn't a prostitute from the bar......
Saying she is Thai-Chinese with wealthy background just sounds better.

You can get the dam_n rubber bands off plastic baggies without spilling the contents all over yourself.

You start eating MaMa noodles dry straight from the packet when you run out of other snacks.

Sorry, I haven't waded through all 7 pages. The reason for teen pregnancies is that parents out here do not take ANY responsibility for ensuring that their children receive proper, responsible sex education, including discussing all of the possible contraceptive methods. A Thai Mother would never take her daughter for any form of contraception around the 16-18 yr mark, as the philosophy is that "thai girls don't have sex until they are married'!! Oh Really!!

The school system is failing these teenagers but 95% of the failure and responsibility is down to piss poor parenting, plain and simple.