Pink, White & Blue (2005)

Pink Man performed by Sompong Thawee

Since the early twentieth century, the overpowering cult of nationalism—the mythologising of the nation state—has dominated Thai public life and the Thai imagination. In modern times, nothing has had more impact on the way we think and live. Pink Man belongs to this new generation of Thai patriots. In ‘Pink, White & Blue’, he is expressing great pride and love for his own professed patriotism. As a New Thai Patriot, he wants Thai children to be smart and technologically savvy, but to still listen blindly to everything that adults tell them. The educational system is manufacturing a new generation of devoted consumers---children who are loyal to the Neo-Thai brand, products and vision, hook, line and sinker. Pink Man, icon of consumerism that he is, wants capitalism, not democracy. Pink Man is a leader with a modern image. In his pink satin suit, he is bright and friendly, unlike the grim and scary generals of the past. But this display of modernity belies the reality and contradicts the quaint and disquieting picture of obedient Thai children in their boy scout’s uniforms. The children are stuck in a time warp, generation after generation, trapped and cannibalised by official Thai society’s fascistic mindframe forever.