My illustration friend let me borrow a graphic novel called Habibi. The craft and drawings are quite interesting and I found the tone of the story quite unique. As I had a little bit of discussion in class about this work, the concern about an issue of orientalism came to my awareness. After a few reflections I realized that many culture in Asia including my own(Thailand) are subjects to western romanticization. Foreign tourists especially outside Asia often have a romantic idea about Thailand that it is either an undeveloped place full of tropical wonder(partly true) or renown for sex tourism(even truer). This doesn’t completely mean good or bad but what does it mean to me as Thai and if I’m to portray my own culture how would I do it?
Thailand as it is now is not a kind of society I want it to be or a kind of place I want to be, although over years I became quite detached to that expectation and would rather cultivate myself, deep down in my mind I still wish that place a better future. Portraying my own country have always been a tricky task for me as I didn’t have much appreciation for Thai society in it’s current state, also because I’ve been living outside it for a while that the definition of my world became broader than a single nation can define.
I think it is ok to portray an ideal ahead of reality in order to make it become real, but in order to do so one must understand what the reality is like. I believe that media, narratives and imageries contain power to shape the world. Ultimately romanticization could be a useful tool to create a seed of change if we can find the way to do it correctly.
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