Ask a Thai: Why do Farang Like Tan Skin? Posted by palmisano on Jul 17, 2013 in Culture, Intermediate
For Thais, white skin and chinese looking faces are the ideal for beauty. As such, Thai’s are always perplexed why farang like to date dark skin girls, and it’s a question I’m often asked (probably because I’m a male farang). Regardless of what the real reasons are, or what my opinion is, I thought it would be interesting to see what the Thai theories are.
I spent some time probing the forums and found it to be a common question asked by Thais online. Generally, most Thais didn’t have a clue. Many of them only posted what they were told by farangs, after asking us. Those responses were generally accurate (in my opinion) and consistent among the various forums.
Below are selected responses that I thought were representative and/or interesting, with my following English translation. As not everyone can read Thai this will be mainly side-by-side translation practice for the more advanced readers. However, the cultural insight should be useful for everyone.
ทําไมฝรั่งชอบคนผิวดํา
Why do farang [romantically] like dark skin [people]?
ซีดๆขาวๆเห็นแล้วเบื่อๆอะ ดูไม่มีเลือด
[Farang] are uninterested in pale white [skin]. It looks like they are lacking blood. [as in poor blood flow]
เราว่า บ้านเค้ามีแต่ขาวๆอวบๆ เค้าก็เลยเบื่อ คนอีสานบ้านเรา ผิวแทน หุ่นดี เค้าเลยชอบ
I think that their country only has white chubby girls, so they’re bored of that. Our Isaan girls are tan with good bodies, so they like that.
คนขาวเค้าชอบคนผิวแทน ๆ เพราะ เค้าว่ามันดู healthy ค่ะ . คนขาวดู ซีดเซียว ไม่มีเรี่ยวแรง ดูขี้โรคไรประมาณนั้น
White skinned people like dark skinned people because they think it looks healthy. White skinned people look overly pale, weak, sick, etc.
รสนิยมฝรั่ง ผิวแทนคือ sexy ค่ะ สุขภาพดี เพราะบ้านเมืองฝรั่งหลายๆที่ มันหนาว แดดหายาก แล้วคนที่จะได้มีโอกาสไปนั่งอาบแดดก็คือคนรวย หรือไม่ก็ต้องมีเวลาไปเที่ยวอะค่ะ
The Farangs preference, tan skin, looks sexy [to them]. It looks healthy, because farang countries are cold with little sunlight, and those who have the opportunity to sunbathe are rich or have time to travel.
[my comment: Thais think that Thais with pale skin are richer, because they have the money and educated jobs to work inside and away from the sun.]
คนที่มีผิวแทนได้นั้นคือคนมีเงินที่จะไปอาบแดดตามต่างประเทศได้ บ้านเค้าแบบว่าแดดอ่อนๆ อากาศหนาวๆ ผิวสีแทนหายาก เห็นเพื่อนที่อยู่ที่อังกฤษบอกมานะ
People that have tan skin are those who have money to sunbathe in other countries. In their country the sun is weak and the weather is cold, so it’s hard to find tan skin. My friend in England told me so.
[my comment: it’s unclear whether this persons friend is Thai or English]
แฟนเราชอบให้ผิวแทนๆๆๆ เขาว่าสีขาวไม่สวย
My boyfriend likes really tan skin. He says that white skin isn’t beautiful.
แฟนเราเค้าชอบสีแทน เค้าว่าผิวสีแทนดูแล้วมีสุขภาพดี น่ามอง ส่วนผิวขาวเค้าว่าจึดซืด เหมือนคนไม่สบาย
My [farang] boyfriend likes tan skin. He said that tan skin looks healthy and is good to look at. Those with white skin are bland, like people who are sick.
เวลาโดนแดดทีไร แฟนหัวเราะร่าเลย แต่เวลากลับบ้านที โดนแม่บ่นใหญ่เลย หาว่าไม่รู้จักดูแลตัวเอง ปล่อยเนื้อปล่อยตัวใหญ่เลย ดูผิวซิดูไม่ได้เลย อยู่ที่นี่มีแต่คนชมว่าผิวดี น่ารัก พอกลับบ้านเรา แม้แต่…ก็ไม่มอง
When I tan, my boyfriend cheerfully laughs. But when I go home, my mother scolds me – ‘you don’t know how to take care of yourself, you are just letting yourself go, I can’t even look at you and your skin!’ Here [in a farang country] people say I have great skin, but as soon as I go home [to Thailand] people don’t even look at me.
แต่น่าจะเป็นเพราะว่า ทุกคนย่อมไม่พอใจในสิ่งที่ตัวเองมี 55+ ประเทศที่เค้ามีคนขาวๆเยอะ เค้าเลยชอบคนดำ ไอ้บ้านเราคนดำเยอะ ชอบหมวยๆขาวๆ
It’s probably because everyone is naturally not satisfied with what they have, lol. In countries where white skin is common, they like dark skin. Our f’ing country has a lot of dark [skinned] people, so we like Chinese looking faces and white skin.
เราผิวคล้ำ มีแต่คนบอกว่าเป็นสเปคฝาหรั่ง และทุกคนฟันธงว่า มันต้องมีแฟนฝรั่งแน่ ฟันธง แต่ปัจจุบันนี้ มีแฟนเป็นคนญี่ปุ่นค่ะ ช่วงที่คบกันก็มีหนุ่มญี่ปุ่น หนุ่มเวียดนามชอบด้วย ฉะนั้น ขอสรุปว่า ผู้ชาย ไม่ว่าชาติไหน ถ้ามีผิวขาว ก็มักชอบสาวผิวคล้ำที่ไม่ค่อยมีในบ้านตัวเอง ลองดูหนุ่มไทยสิคะ ชอบแต่สาว ขาว หมวย เกาหลี ญี่ปุ่น อย่างงั้น
My skin is tan, so people always say I’m the type that farang like. Everyone has already decided that I’ll have a farang boyfriend. But right now I have a Japanese boyfriend. And during this time I’ve had Japanese and Vietnamese guys show interest in me. Because of that, I theorize that men – no matter from what country – if there are a lot of people with white skin, they usually like girls with tanned skin which they don’t have much of. Look at Thai men – they only like white-skinned girls, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc.
[note: Thais don’t consider Asian foreigners as ‘farang’. The term is only used to describe white people. So this person is saying it’s not just a white-person thing.]
ฝรั่งไม่สนใจผิว สนใจหุ่นมากกว่า ถ้าเปรียบเทียบระหว่างผิวกับหุ่น อีกอย่างฝรั่งเห็นผิวขาวจนเบื่อ สีไม่ขาวเลยดึงดูดใจมากกว่า
Farang aren’t interested in skin – they are more interested in the body (if comparing skin to body type). And another thing, farang have seen white skin to the point of boredom. Skin that isn’t white attracts their interest more.
ฝรั่งไม่ได้ชอบของแปลกหรอก!! คนไทยอ้ะแหละที่ชอบของแปลก เพราะคนส่วนมากบนโลก ชอบผู้หญิงผิวเข้มอ้ะ ไม่ใช่ขาว
Farang don’t like weird things! It’s Thai people who like weird things. Because most people on this world like women with tanned skin, not white skin.
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Comments:
Don:
Tan skin is not healthier since even people with dark skin can look pale and sickly. And healthy white skin is different from sickly white skin. Many people are also blessed with luminescent white skin. And most of the world does not like tanned women. Korea, Japan, China, India, phillipines etc all prefer white skinned women….not tanned and all those countries consist of more than half the world. Lol I think many are confused and just giving random answers that are not true.
Ol Grey:
Thai women try to whiten their skin with crap because they think white skin from wealthy family black skin from rice farm Issaan?I love the way Issaan girls look!Sooay Jung Lerie.
American Guy:
I think that Thai women have really shapely bodies. I love all different types of skin tones, but the natural tanned tone of Thais and Malays just looks so sexy to us. Still, healthy skin of any tone is nice too.
Part of it I think is the personality too. Humility and equality is sexy. Sometimes, it seems like beautiful women in our own country can just be so difficult, or even arrogant. A woman who is sexy and beautiful but doesn’t know she is is very attractive. Since beautiful Thai women are not considered beautiful in their own country, and therefore don’t have a bad attitude about their own beauty, they are not only physically beautiful to us, but even more beautiful to us on the inside too. The alternative is to date someone who isn’t very good looking here, but then they often have severe depression or other mental problems as well.
escort bayan:
Tan skin is not healthier since even people with dark skin can look pale and sickly. And healthy white skin is different from sickly white skin. Many people are also blessed with luminescent white skin. And most of the world does not like tanned women. Korea, Japan, China, India, phillipines etc all prefer white skinned women….not tanned and all those countries consist of more than half the world. Lol I think many are confused and just giving random answers that are not true.
ผู้หญิงหน้าผีกะฝรั่งง๊ะ:
Farang westerners walk with ghost faced women skin color is no longer concerned).
I do not want a farang:
I am a Thai woman of light skin, not dark and I never find a man of caucasian race attractive. A man of caucasian race is a different race from us, so it is almost impossible for me to appreciate his caucasian look that becomes strange to our world. When I meet a western man of even the best look, I never turn back to see him again, and I feel indifferent to that western man. Unlike other asian men other than Thai men (chinese, korean, or japanese of minimum good look, I feel so excited and quickly turn back to see these asian men of good look again again. I am an average Thai woman from light skin race.
thai chinese are dark:
There is a wrong belief about the light skinned thai race. Chinese blood is not the significant whitening genetics of thais. Thailand is a black majority and a white race minority. Our thai kings have light skin, and their significant whitening genetics are the white Dai race of Altai mountains above china and near Russia and the white mon-khmer from high lands in the north of today’s china. Thai kings do not marry any chinese blood people for 250 years, We had only one thai king with half chinese blood, and in order to purify our thai blood, this king and his family was killed by the majority of the white ruling class who were descendants of the white mon-khmer and the white Dai Race. Chinese blood was disconnected. People with chinese blood are not allowed to be our Thai queens.
Thai chinese are generally dark and supershort because chinese immigrants who are generally short and supershort hardly got light skinned thai girls whose ancestry is white Dai race of Altai Mountains and white mon-khmer but married dark women of high black race blood. A lot of my friends have chinese blood and have chinese names but they are dark like charchoal, because they have just one side chinese blood and the rest of their ancestry is black race.
Brown people and dark blown people in thailand have white genetics from the white mon khmer and the white Dai race and their black ancestry is the negro race with very think black skin.
My friends and I have no chinese blood, but we are light skinned girls and our white ancestry is a mixed race of the white mon-khmer and the white Dai race (some of us have with some black ancestry) and we are the smallest in number. Our some black ancestry is a remote blood. white milk with some dark chocolate juice remains white. I went to china twice, and chinese people there started to speak with me in chinese, not in chinese, misunderstanding that i was a chinese girl. In fact, I do not have chinese blood, and my white ancestry is the white mon-khmer and the white dai race and I have some black ancestry so my eyes are bigger than east asian women.
A lot of chinese immigrants fail to win seats for the number 1 Thai unversity. A lot of them do not have prestigious jobs but just small merchants. Most of the super high IQ students are the light skinned race without darker chinese blood, and they are descendants of the white mon-khmer and the white Dai race.
The closest white blood of the prime ministers Taksin and Yingluck are the white Dai race for 50%, the white mon-khmer for 30, the black blood for 10% and the chinese blood for just 5%. This is because their mother is the daughter of the Dai Race people, and their later ancestors did not marry any chinese blood people. Their chinese blood is remote and insignificant. Light skinned Thais with chinese blood is low, while dark people with chinese blood is vast, and light skinned thais with white mon-khmer blood and white Dai race are the highest.
Chinese immigrants are thaitified and were forced by our thai army to speak Thai instead of their chinese language and they are generally short. I do not hate chinese people, and chinese people are really short in general. Many chinese women who are generally short in Thailand even like to marry western men while the light skinned Thai girls with white blood of the mon-khmer and the Dai race who are generally tall almost never date any western men. Most of Thai girls dating western men are generally dark skinned and very ugly.