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I should have included this with my last message.
My wife always shushes me when we see a 'falang' child with a Thai or Lao woman. She doesn't want to embarass the woman with any implication that her child is falang. The people of Okinawa, Japan are equally embarassed. After WW2, Okinawa was part of the USA for over 30 years. It was a vacation island for America and no passport was required, so many people visited and affairs often occurred between American visitors and the Japanese-American people of the island. Falangs have been in South East Asia since the 14th century. Portugese soldiers were hired by China, Burma and Siam. The thousands that survived the wars settled in ChiangMai or along the Mekong river. Greek, Spanish, French and English adventurers lived in Sukothai, Ayuttaya, Shianghai, and Canton. When the French took over IndoChina, the men usually took local mistresses. The French were in Vietnam for almost 100 years, with the result that Vietnamese people are much lighter skinned than other people in Asia. Then there is the Vietnam war, when millions of American men were here. At least 700,000 US airmen were stationed in Thailand and over 150,000 visted Bangkok for R&R. In all, approximately 7 million, young, unmarried, sexually active American men spent a year or more in South East Asia. So, many Vietnamese, Cambodians, Thais and Laos are half-falang or now, one quarter falang. At Sattaheep, in 1967, many, many of the bar ladies were from Cambodia, Burma, and Laos. Pattaya has the same tradition, most of the women are from Laos and Burma. Visitor |
