Role Of Thai Culture In Mark Padoongpatt's Flavors Of Empire

In Mark Padoongpatt’s novel, Flavors of Empire (2017), the main argument of the novel is that the United States are fascinated with Thai culture and food that they use the culture to their advantages to gain power and profit while manipulating it to satisfy their own American culture. It is found throughout the book from when the United States were first exposed to Thai culture to when Thai people were beginning to establish an identity for themselves in the United States. For example, when the United States first came to Thailand during the war, they were captivated by the potential that Thailand had to offer that would allow them to establish their U.S. tourism there. With the Pacific Area Travel Association viewing Asia as a product for consumption, this led Thailand to become the next big site for tourism. However, the money used to, “… transform Bangkok’s urban landscape into a leisure getaway for U.S. tourists…” was originally used to, “… improve education, housing and other public works…”. This shows how the U.S. was able to influence the Thai government to change their priorities in order to benefit the U.S. and their tourism. Rather than helping Thailand …show more content…
He writes the novel in chronological order from Chapter 1 where the United States are first exposed to Thailand and their culture to the last chapter where Thai Town is created in 1999 and how it is finally being recognized in 2008. This is to show exactly what happened throughout those years and how the Thai culture has been integrated and adapted into the United States. It also provides more exposure on Thai culture and their history because even currently now, there is not a lot of coverage on Thai culture and Thai history is not commonly taught to