I love Thailand, because there is crazy news every day and scandals all the time. The latest ‘scandal’ in Thailand, of course, involves 23-year-old ‘artist’ Duangjai Jansaunoi who hails from northern Thailand. On Sunday’s edition of Thailand’s Got Talent, Duangjai told the judges she was an ‘independent artist’ and then proceeded to take off her shirt and bra, pour paint all over the upper part of her body, and paint a canvas topless — er….with her breasts. Needless to say, the two male judges couldn’t stop watching. The female judge, actress Pornchita Na Songkhla, sat with her mouth open.
Since the program aired on Sunday, Thailand’s Ministry of Culture has gotten themselves involved (when don’t they!!!), and declared the breast painting on Thailand’s Got Talent completely inappropriate for Thailand and for Thai TV. Channel 3, the TV channel that aired the program, was then fined 500,000 baht (around $16,100) by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) for airing the segment.
What I thought was a little odd about Duangjai Jansaunoi and her naked boob painting was not that she did it at all (really, whatever — it’s not like we haven’t all seen naked breasts before, and these were covered in paint so you couldn’t see anything), but that the painting she produced wasn’t even good.
After all, you’d think if she’d gone to all that trouble to ‘bare all’, she’d at least produce something worth looking at. The painting, I mean.
Needless to say, the internet in Thailand has been in an uproar about it since. But the funniest of all is the backlash that actress Pornchita Na Songkhla, one of the three judges, is getting after she said “I’m not saying this is not good, but it’s not appropriate. Within the Thai cultural context, I don’t support this.”
She was then lambasted with photographs of herself from a photo shoot last year, yep, you guessed it — naked to the waist and covered it chocolate.
Oh and yes, the two male judges voted for Duangjai to be put through to the next round. That caused Pornchita to storm off the state while shouting “I don’t understand, I don’t understand”. Hilarious, all around.
I love, I love, I love Thailand. The funniest culture and the weirdest (in a good way) people.
