The Laughter and Tears of Thailand's Ladyboys
When the plane arrived in Bangkok, Thailand at dawn, Thailand implements visa on arrival. In the Suvarnabhumi Airport waiting hall, people of all races were queuing for visas: blacks, whites, and yellows. Bangkok truly deserves its reputation as an international metropolis. Among these crowds, not only were the skin colors different, but the clothing was also varied, representing all seasons, though summer attire was predominant. We, aware of the hot climate, had prepared by shedding our down jackets for sweaters, yet we still felt cumbersome compared to the locals wearing tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops, with skin darkened by the sun. It was clear that we stuck out like ducks among chickens.
After completing the visa process, when we exited the waiting hall and boarded the bus that greeted us, Thai ladies placed a long garland of fresh flowers around each of our necks and greeted everyone with a wai (a traditional Thai greeting involving a prayer-like gesture), saying "SOWALICA" (the highest Thai courtesy). This immediately improved our impression of Thailand, clearly showing the government's support and emphasis on tourism.
Once on the bus, a male and female tour guide approached us. They referred to the men in our group as "Lama" or "PP", "Big P", while the women were called "Crystal Crystal", "Watery Watery", and "Dry Dry" depending on age. The exchange rate was 1:3.9 for converting Chinese yuan to Thai baht, but later we found that Chinese yuan was just as widely accepted as baht, even more so, with a rate of 1:4.3 in both large stores and small vendors. The male guide called the young women "Crystal Crystal", so we nicknamed him "King PP".
Although we hadn't left Asia, Southeast Asia is part of the Han cultural circle, but upon arriving here, everything was different from home: plants on the ground, birds in the sky, items sold on the streets—it was truly a foreign land. The language and writing systems had changed too. If it weren’t for the many other domestic tour groups around, one would really feel very estranged here. Dense coconut groves, oddly shaped and foul-smelling durians, dark faces, worm-like Arabic script, and hordes of white tourists all indicated this was another place. Although Buddhism is familiar to us, the Buddha statues here were thinner, with tall pointed hats on their heads, some even with elephant-trunk-like noses. Besides the color of the kasaya being golden yellow, all other details were different. This truly validated what a philosopher once said: gods are created by humans, reflecting humanity itself.
Thailand is a country with a strong Buddhist atmosphere. On the streets, you can often see offering platforms about 1.5 meters high and 1 meter wide. Not only are they present in public places such as hotels and shops, but also more so in front of schools and government institutions. According to the guide, this is not only a custom but also legally mandated. Equally common on the streets are portraits of the current ninth king. Divine rule and religious authority hold special positions here. Especially Buddhism, from the ruling class to the common people, whether in terms of physical infrastructure or spiritual level, the influence of Buddhism can be seen everywhere. For example, the etiquette of ordinary Thai people meeting is not the Eastern-style handshake or bow, but rather the wai like monks. Just like during the Jin Dynasty in China when everyone greeted each other with 'Amitabha', all Thai men must serve in the military once in their lifetime, but they must also enter the monkhood once. Monkhood can last as short as 7-10 days or as long as a lifetime. Afterward, it’s very casual; one can enter monkhood or return to lay life anytime, drink alcohol, eat meat, and visit bars, as long as no one reports them and the police don't find out. Once discovered by the police, one must forcibly leave the monkhood and cannot re-enter afterward. Despite this, there are still 300,000 monks in Thailand.
Thailand is a country with 60 million people and over 700 years of history, having been ruled by the Khmers for over 200 years without its own script. There have been nine kings in history, with the fifth king being the most influential. Because the fifth king studied in Europe and absorbed advanced democratic ideas, similar to Sun Yat-sen in China, he was dedicated to benefiting the people and reforming his country. He abolished slavery and did many things for the welfare of the citizens, thus earning great affection from the people. When people worship Buddha or deities, they burn three sticks of incense, but when worshipping the fifth king, they burn five. The current living king is the ninth, who has been in power for 60 years with three daughters and one son. However, the crown prince has not been designated as heir due to his bad habits of drinking, gambling, and womanizing. It is rumored that he forcibly defiled a famous female singer, hence the Thai people do not like him, nor does the ninth king. Among his three daughters, the eldest and youngest princesses are married, while the second princess is capable and hardworking. The people dislike the crown prince but adore the second princess. The ninth king plans to pass the throne to her, but the crown prince learned of this and sent hitmen to assassinate the second princess, who was saved by bodyguards. The ninth king dared not pass the throne to the second princess anymore and plans to give it to his two-year-old grandson when he turns three years and eight months old.
We arrived shortly after Thaksin had just stepped down, and domestic tourists had just been allowed to visit Thailand again. However, the political situation was somewhat unstable, so the guide repeatedly warned us not to leave the hotel alone at night due to possible robberies. According to the guide, on the second day of the coup, soldiers were every five steps and tanks every ten, with extremely tight security. Thaksin was a very talented politician who made many contributions early on, but later became corrupt, selling the national telecommunications operating rights to Singapore while pocketing billions himself. The ninth king had always wanted to replace him but didn't dare to act easily. This time, taking advantage of Thaksin's absence abroad, the coup was initiated.
Thailand is rich in resources, with seven provinces, four of which produce red, white, and blue gemstones, especially rubies. Therefore, the walls of the Grand Palace in Thailand are all inlaid with rubies. Initially, I didn't fully believe the guide, but after personally seeing the magnificent, unparalleled Grand Palace, touching the walls covered in gold powder and inlaid with glass and gems, and seeing the large jade Buddha, I truly believed all of this. I believe no matter how splendid any building in the world might be, none can match the grandeur and rarity of the Grand Palace in Thailand. No wonder there are so many European tourists here, people of all races can be seen. Rarity attracts people, just as flowers attract bees, stench attracts flies, and honey attracts children. People are drawn by the rare and precious.
What attracts numerous tourists is not only the Grand Palace but also the ladyboys. In terms of fame, Thailand's ladyboys may be even more famous than the Grand Palace, stemming from human curiosity. However, Thailand, the only country in the world producing ladyboys, is indeed a unique nation. If ladyboys appeared in a decadent and open-minded country, it wouldn't be surprising, much like homosexuality in America. You wouldn't find it particularly strange or jarring. But they appear in a Buddhist country known for abstinence, where abstinence and indulgence, conservatism and peculiarity form a unique combination that can only be seen in Thailand. Such contrasting elements coexisting in the same place is a great spectacle, also illustrating that any extreme leads to its opposite. Just as the full moon wanes and a full vessel tips, during China's Tang Dynasty, the social climate was extravagant, and people's thoughts were very open, leading to situations like Emperor Xuanzong marrying Yang Guifei, his son's wife. But by the Song Dynasty, it swung to extreme conservatism, resulting in incidents where women would cut off their arms if touched by a man, producing the most chaste widows in history. Buddhism considers desire the root of all evil, hence promoting abstinence. But when abstinence forces and suppresses human nature, it leads to its opposite. Thus, when those stunningly beautiful ladyboys, considered the epitome of femininity, perform the Buddhist gesture of respect, you don't know if it's demons becoming Buddhas or saints turning dissolute. All this can be summarized by a local saying: visit temples during the day and watch fairies at night. And there's a folk joke: visiting Thailand means implementing the three-light policy: stripping naked, spending all your bullets, and getting slapped by your wife when you return home. This shows the degree of openness in Thailand, where in a supposedly abstinent Buddhist country, people's thoughts are actually more open and casual.
Thailand's nightlife is extraordinarily rich and colorful, perhaps unmatched anywhere else. Some places, despite repeated bans by the Thai government, were still visited by our guide. I initially didn't want to go, but standing on the street for two hours was even more boring, so I went along. Upon entering, it was like stepping into a cave of monsters, a bizarre place filled with demons and spirits. Though the Moulin Rouge might belong to the same category, I haven't seen it. Compared to Thailand's ladyboys, the lack of regulation makes it more raw and open here. When Adam and Eve's fig leaves are torn away, everything is just as it appears—Adam's lower half can beat drums and blow up balloons, Eve's body can raise goldfish and shoot darts. Seen as a performance, it feels like a stunt show; viewed morally, it seems immoral, dull, and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, whatever the case, things under the sun are ultimately healthy and enduring, while those in the dark remain shadowy and hidden from light. Contact with darkness makes one appreciate the value of light even more.
In Chinese, we call men turned into women "ladyboys," and the word "妖" (yao) fits perfectly. During the day, seeing cheerful, angelic, and enchanting ladyboys, we like them, but at night, when you see someone on stage with a woman's upper body and a man's lower body, you lose direction, unsure of where you are, who you're seeing, or what year it is. When you can't tell if the person in front of you is male or female, calling them anything but "妖" would seem inappropriate. This word is truly brilliant.
There are two types of ladyboys in Thailand: one type has all physiological structures transformed into females except for lacking a uterus and unable to bear children, and their psychology has completely changed; the other type is partially transformed, half-man and half-woman. Regardless of the type, they are all artificially made, not naturally occurring. They usually start injecting estrogen from ages eleven or twelve, and as adults, undergo surgeries like breast augmentation and reproductive organ alterations. Their lifespans are short, health issues begin surfacing after forty, requiring medication to sustain life. Their group mindset is: living a thousand years ends in death, life is short but should be free of regrets. Although their income is considerable locally, they are essentially abnormal people, not natural or normal ones. While their bodies endure suffering, mentally, they are also in a difficult position of being looked down upon and treated as curiosities. Yet, in Thailand, the number of boys becoming ladyboys isn't small but amounts to 100,000, a quite significant group. Why? Monks may become monks for faith, but these boys do it for poverty and money. What does this group of 100,000 bring to Thailand? We'll discuss that later. Because ladyboys are so common, in Thailand, tall and beautiful women are easily mistaken for ladyboys, leading to many jokes.
Out of a total population of 60 million, 100,000 in Thailand become ladyboys, and 300,000 become monks. This breaks the balance between men and women, so polygamy is practiced in Thailand. Our two guides, one male and one female, were both in their forties. The male guide's husband had two wives, she being the first wife, working outside all day and reportedly massaging her husband's back at home. The male guide, only twenty-five years old, also had two wives—one worked outside, the other stayed home to take care of the children and manage household chores, a pattern that is quite common. Even so, because of the open-mindedness, many men still seek affairs outside, so the two wives must work together to keep an eye on the husband. Women in China have it much better with monogamy, higher social status, and so on. The female guide envied us in this way. However, in the Sichuan-Tibet border area of China, the male-to-female ratio is 5:1, so polyandry, where several brothers share one wife, is also a common scenario. Looking at it from both sides, it seems neither excess nor deficiency is good.
Both guides come from the Golden Triangle region in northern Thailand bordering Yunnan, third-generation descendants of the remnant Nationalist troops. Only these descendants of the Golden Triangle remnants can speak both Chinese and Thai. Those abandoned Nationalist troops, like motherless children, could neither return home nor find a foothold abroad, and could only rent land in the unregulated Golden Triangle to grow drugs to survive. The children couldn't attend school, the adults lacked food and clothing, and even shelter. Under such impoverished conditions, they struggled to survive without nationality or recognition, living in makeshift shacks, borrowing food from local Thais, leading primitive lives. Visiting the Golden Triangle, the stone-age tools displayed and the emaciated children beside the shacks moved us all to tears. A couplet at the exhibition read: "No home everywhere, tough years every year." To gain recognition and Thai citizenship, they gave up drug cultivation, letting teenagers carry guns to fight for the Thai army, sacrificing blood and lives to finally secure citizenship and land for their offspring. After decades of development, today's Golden Triangle has become a bustling town. However, most of its residents are Chinese.
Thailand is rich in resources, as they say themselves: mountains have treasures (gems), the ground has snakes (venomous snakes), and rivers have fish (crocodiles). This is something we deeply experienced. How abundant the gems are, just look at the walls of the Grand Palace; crocodiles, stacked one on top of another in the Rachacha Zoo river, densely packed, more than the pigs in a pig farm. Hence, we bought many crocodile wallets and belts in Thailand. As for snakes, we didn't see them in the wild, nor did we want to, but saw plenty in the snake house. According to the guide, a bite from an average venomous snake can kill within days, a tiger snake bite in Australia can kill in three minutes, and a bamboo pit viper bite in Thailand can kill in less than two minutes. Therefore, Thai snake venom is several times more valuable than gold, used in medicine based on the principle of fighting poison with poison, effective for stopping bleeding, detoxifying, and beautifying. Snake bile helps clear liver heat and improve eyesight. According to the Thai guide, if bitten by a snake, if the wound is flat with a row of teeth marks, it's fine, but if it's two puncture wounds, it's a venomous snake bite. You need to quickly make a cross cut, burn it with a lighter, or tie it with a cloth strip—not too tight or loose, loosening every twenty minutes, then rush to the hospital. Venomous snakes have strong vitality, going without food for two to three years won't kill them. Thai snakes mate for 36 hours straight, then continuously lay eggs for two years, leading many to believe snake penis has invigorating and kidney-nourishing effects.
During the few days in Thailand, traffic jams were frequent, so wherever we went, we had to move early. The reason for frequent traffic jams is that Bangkok is both the capital and a tourist city, with a large transient population. Moreover, it relates to their lifestyle. Thais have a slow pace of life, starting work at 10:30 AM and finishing at 3 PM, with half an hour reserved for snacking. So Thais are poor, but despite being poor, welfare and security are good. Education and healthcare are free for all citizens, with no costs for medical treatment or schooling. In old age, one can stay in nursing homes with a monthly allowance of a thousand baht. Therefore, in the seven days we spent in Thailand, we didn't see a single beggar or homeless person. This left me with a very good impression of Thailand. I've always thought that if people are compared to eggs, regardless of size or equality, what's important is padding the bottom. If social security is inadequate, many small eggs get crushed and scattered in the chaos of society's operations, creating a grim sight at the bottom. Too many broken eggs offer no benefit to society, so ensuring eggs aren't broken is more important than ensuring equality. What is a harmonious society? The rich are joyfully wealthy, the poor contentedly poor, the rich don't bully the poor, and the poor don't hate the rich—that's a harmonious society. Society doesn't fear the smell of wine and meat, but the existence of starvation. Providing survival guarantees and baselines for the vulnerable can prevent many desperate acts.
Despite Thailand's limited resources, it can still provide such guarantees. Where does all the welfare funding come from? All comes from tourism. The prosperity of tourism brings flourishing temple offerings, and temples use donation revenues for many public welfare projects, with many schools funded by temple donations. Among the thriving tourism, ladyboys have made indispensable contributions—they sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the country, benefiting the elderly and most of the young population. Therefore, Thailand's ladyboys thrive, and their existence has positive significance.