Na Rak?

Na Rak passaat Thai means “cute,” and is quite an important concept to grasp living here. However, cute in Thailand is not the same as cute in other places. Thailand takes it to the extreme—we’re talking grown men jumping around in pink bunny suits during a music video kind of cute, and there’s not even the tiniest hint of irony. I’ve been proud of how long I’ve maintained my American style sensibilities, but lately a little of the na rak Thai has surreptitiously found its way into my daily existence.

It all started with me wanting to learn Thai. Joe, in an attempt to encourage, bought me some Hamtaro exercise books meant for small children. I was already familiar with Hamtaro (a Japanese animated cartoon) since a few years ago Joe bought me a Hamtaro video game for my birthday (side note: the point of the video game was to help little hamster couples find their lost hamster loves, it was almost unbearably cute). I therefore didn’t worry about this first bit of cute, it was just because it was meant for small children, and after all I didn’t buy it myself.

My next moment of weakness was a cell phone charm. I don’t know if this concept exists at home yet, but everyone here has cell phone charms- just a way to make your phone cute and original. When Mara moved in, she bought the exact same cell phone I have, so I rationalized that I needed a cell phone charm in order to tell our phones apart. At least mine (a jade Chinese fish) is tasteful. Joe bought a crocheted little Doremon (another cartoon character—this one a cat like robot).

I can find no excuse for the next two acquisitions. They were cute, I gave in. And as an added Thai bonus, both contain English language errors.

The first is a t-shirt, two giraffes, a big one sharing its food with a small one. The lettering says Sharing and underneath, in small letters, Design by No Proplem. It’s cute and I like it. But would I like it if I was still living in the U.S?

The other is a bag, and this is the purchase that is starting to worry me. It’s a print, with various people and creatures including: a girl with pink hair dressed as a cactus, a smiling pink she-devil carrying a steaming pie, smiling flowers of various colors (some with fangs), a carton and a bottle of milk with legs, eyes, and cow horns, a monkey with an Italian flag helmet riding a blue Vespa-style scooter, a skull and cross-bones from what appears to have been a cute cartoon character, an orange faced boy dressed up in a cow suit carrying a machine gun…etc. Mixed in with the various characters are the phrases “Nice?” and “Flower’spring.” Is it Nice? I don’t know, I seem to be losing my judgment, but I do know that I really like it (with a healthy dose of irony, of course). But if anyone sees me in a pink bunny suit, it’s time to stage an intervention.