Is using Chinese greeting “ni hao” (你好 or hello) on Thais by Westerners considered a racist move?
The question was fiercely debated since yesterday when a viral video showing a national park advisor in Krabi province telling a Russian couple that their vacation on an island is over after were found enjoying themselves on the island during off-limits period by hiring a guide to take the boat there, and when informed about why it’s not permissible, the Russian man replied to Mr Siranath Bhiromphakdee, AKA Sai Scott, the park advisor, with the word “ni hao”.
Siranath then went ballistic and told the two their vacation on the island is over for the day and if the man repeated the Chinese greeting again, he would be “deported”.
Siranath, a self-avowed marine environmentalist who refuses to eat seafood because he doesn’t want to harm marine life, is a scion of one of the richest Thai families, (Singha Beer wealth, if you need to know). He posted the video clip of the confrontation on his FB page, which has 213K followers and explained the incident in English. The video on Saturday was posted as news by a British tabloid news outlet.
“To come to Thailand, and not even have the respect to know the difference between Thailand and China is extremely racist. You cannot plan a vacation here to enjoy our natural resources and ignore the Thai people who live in the country. Something as small as saying “Ni Hao” to a Thai person, it’s not only disrespectful to Thais, but to Asians as Asia is not one nationality. It would be like me going to England and thinking it was the same as Russia,” Siranath wrote five days ago.
To be fair to the Russian tourist, we do not know what his exact intention was but all we have was the video where the sound quality wasn’t the best.
This writer will not dwell on whether who is right or wrong in this particular encounter but to try to explain why some Thais get offended when greeted by the words “ni hao”.
First, whether it is offensive or “racist” or not, depends on the context. If a Westerner greets a Thai like this abroad, particularly in the West, and then laughs, or follows it up with gibberish Chinese like “ching chong ching chong, etc” or mimick Bruce Lee’s movement, or makes slanted eyes, then yes, it definitely is. It’s a racist generalization of Chinese identity, which ends up lumping Thais in as Chinese – disregard of whether the offender is aware of the difference between the two nations and cultures.
Furthermore, it must be understood that China has a population of 1.4 billion, so Westerners are often more familiar with China than Thailand. It’s similar to how Thais unfamiliar with the West might expect all Westerners they encounter in Thailand to be first-and-foremost American, and to be able to speak fluent English.
If a Westerner greets a Thai in Thailand with “ni hao,” it might mean they are either completely unaware that Thai language is different from Chinese, conflated Thailand with Taiwan, or they think the particularly Thai person they encountered are Chinese because the person look Chinese (due to the Thai person’s Chinese ancestry).
Or perhaps they are too lazy to bother to learn Thai or the word “sawasdee,” or they think China is the big brother of Asia and Chinese language can be used anywhere in Asia, something akin to the use of English elsewhere. Depending on the context, Thais who know a bit about foreign countries should understand that it’s just a greeting.
Nevertheless, some Thais, like Siranath, feel that it’s a rejection of Thailand’s distinct identity from China, and triggered on their fears that Thailand is becoming an economic and cultural colony of China.
This is especially the case if Thais hear this kind of greeting in an already negative context (as happened in the controversial video), coupled with the recipient’s past negative experiences in the West of being mocked with racist caricatures like mimicking slanty eyes, or called “chinaman”. In this case, some Thais could get triggered and might suddenly explode, like this well-known case.
in conclusion: The Thai government, especially the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (and even Thai restaurants abroad), should promote the word “sawasdee” more and promote soft power more effectively.
BTW, and don’t forget that some Westerners also feel that the Thai word “farang” (foreigner) is problematic. Caution should be exercised when using it.
For example, one Westerner said that some Thais laughed when a Westerner (farang) eats guava, which is also called “farang” in Thai, and laugh. Whether the word farang, which probably originated from the Persian word “farangi” which originally referred to the Franks, or a Germanic tribe in Europe, is derogatory, and a neutral description of caucasians of various nationalities by Thais, should be the topic for another column, however, and Westerners familiar with Thailand are also divided on the matter, just like some Thais who don’t mind being greeted with the words “ni hao” while others get triggered.
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