What is more dangerous than being an unaccompanied young Chinese woman and not feeling safe in the Nana nightlife district of Bangkok at 11.30pm? Answer: Doing a video clip to make such a remark and post it on TikTok, only to have Thai immigration police “inviting” you for a talk, declaring you are persona non grata, and blacklisting you.
This is what happened to Miss Wang (given name withheld), a twenty-something Chinese lady on Friday after she posted such video on Tuesday which went viral, partly due to the fact that the Thai press and most news commentators were outraged and politicians accused the woman of deliberately portraying Nana area on Sukhumvit Road, also known as Soi Nana by many Thais, to be a dangerous place where a single Asian woman could be dragged away (and possibly sexually assaulted) by foreign sex tourists or sexpats in the area.
These nationalistic Thais feel it was a deliberate attempt to undermine the “reputation” of tourism of Soi Nana. Please note that there is a less-popular, but more sober drinking hole near Chinatown called Soi Nana as well, while the one we are talking about here is Nana, or Soi Nana, on both sides of Sukhumvit Road, filled with scantily-clad Thai girls serving drinks at the bars and independent sex workers standing and waiting for foreign clients. Hooters, the American Restaurant and Sports Bar, also has a branch there.
They rightly argue that given the way Miss Wang (provocatively) dressed, she was bound to be mistaken as a sex worker looking for a customer. In the short video clip, the foreign men, including old white men, looked at her and they walked past. One asked her how she is “doing today,” although it was clearly late at night before Miss Wang waved her hands and said “sorry.”
Miss Wang then quickly passed a moral judgment that this street is very dangerous for young single Chinese women to come alone and “ninety nine percent of people walking on this street are not good people.”
As much as I understand that this is a cheap video clip meant to exaggerate and attract as many Chinese eyeballs as possible, I think how the Thai authorities reacted was disproportionate. Mind you, they blacklisted Miss Wang after they discovered she is not a tourist, but based in Thailand and was selling goods online from Bangkok.
Still, without that viral video clip, it is inconceivable that the Thai immigration police would even bother to find out who is Miss Wang.
It also reflects a belief by some Thais, including the authorities, that some foreigners, including Chinese, are bent on destroying Thai tourism reputation. (Miss Wang insisted on Friday that she had no intention of destroying the good name of Soi Nana.)
Let’s face it, Soi Nana, is largely a nightlife and sex district (which I have no problem with, BTW). Thus, it ia understandable if a young good-looking girl intentionally dressed as if she might be a sex worker and standing alone at 11.30pm would be attracting the interests of western and non-western sexpats, sex tourists, or just drunk tourists, or those who had a stick of weed.
This is what the authorities should be saying. They must come to term with the fact that you cannot stop people from not feeling safe or talking badly about Bangkok or Thailand. We do not need travel guidebooks and websites to warn that foreigners should not speak badly about Soi Nana as many have already warned foreign tourists to not speak badly about the Thai king.
Instead, more tourist police should patrol the area to make unaccompanied foreign women who dress like Miss Wang feel safe at 11.30pm. BTW, I’m not really aware of any recent, or not recent, reported sexual assault on Soi Nana.
As for Miss Wang’s quick judgement on TikTok that 99 percent of those walking around her are no good people, I will leave it for you to ponder as to how credible, or ludicrous, Miss Wang is.
But please, please, Thailand does not need to blacklist her.
