dutchguest

"A woman of Bangkok" is the title of a book I recently read, written by Jack Reynolds. First print in England 1956, so I think it is describing the situation in Thailand in the beginning of the 50's. A lot of things have changed since but what struck me more is that in a way nothing has changed.


It describes the adventures of an expat from England send out to Thailand. In those days, before the emancipation/feminism/sexual freedom movements in the west, sexual morals were still much more victorian and calvinistic in the west then today (a taboo to talk about sex, no sex before marrying, sex only for reproduction, not for pleasure), while in Thailand not so much has changed in this respect (nothing wrong with sex, it is a natural fenomenon). So the contrast and the cultureshock were even bigger then today.

The book can be called a classic, also because it focusses mainly on the bar/girlscene and the possible tensions between love and money, romantic ideas of love from the western side and a more pragmatic attitude from the eastern side. So a subject that has lost nothing of its actuality.

The book also gives a nice impression of Thailand in the days before globalisation, television, internet etc., so I can recommand it. I don't know if it can be bought new, but I bought it in a second-hand bookshop in Chiang Mai.