Student video defines expat reasons for loving Thailand

Published:  16 Jan at 6 PM
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An award-winning video depicting Thai university students’ views of why expats come to Thailand is causing smiles amd a few raised eyebrows within the country’s expat community.

The group of five Communication Arts students from Lampang’s Nation University won the coveted 50,000 Thai baht prize in a government-sponsored competition entitled ‘Through the eyes of foreigners: Youth’s refection on the image of Thailand’. Kappook Creator, the makers of the home-made three minute video, were amazed and thrilled to find themselves the winners.

The submission documents for the contest announced the project gave a chance for young Thais from 15 to 25 years old to make a brief movie about their perception of foreigners in Thailand and why the country is attractive to would-be expats. Although not every expat would agree with its conclusions, the video gives a fascinating peephole into Thais’ and their government’s perceptions of resident foreigners.

According to the prize-winning short movie, expats are attracted to Thailand by water boxing, the chance to ride elephants in the commercial camps and the unique experience of eating spicy Pad Thai and fried insects in the street markets. The project’s cameraman, third-year student Nukul Kammin, told Coconuts Bangkok his group had taken their inspiration from Thai-American hip-hop group Thaitanium’s music video ‘Bangkok City’.

When asked about his perceptions as to why expats come to live in his country, he replied it’s just like the video with its focus on culture, massage, food, Muay Thai boxing and elephants. He told the online news publication the group hadn’t expected to win and were happy to just have the experience as part of their courses.

According to project advisor and lecturer Ajarn Chinnagrit Udomlappaisan, the project was mostly about giving his students the opportunity to present the unique quality of ‘Thainess’ within a very short video, given only a short set of instructions. Nukul thinks his group’s effort is pretty cool, and all five of the young moviemakers obviously had a great time making the video.
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