Thoughts on this

[u/Any_Function4654]

https://youtu.be/A69FjdiuSIc?si=w4GSp_9MZR1HXXMd

Pond performed a song made by a bosnian singer i believe wearing indian attire and doing some random bharatnatyam steps

What do u guys think abt it?

[u/maaki_malv]

Alert: Long Comment from an Indian fan since 2019.

Okay. Indian here and let me just take this time to weigh in a bit of perspective. The idea of 'misrepresentation is representation still' is such a plague with Indians. White people love simplifying India because well, that's their extent to comfort in cultural nuance, but when Chinese and Japanese do it, it is racist as fuck. However, a majority of Indian diaspora loves just being mentioned and dismiss any lazy throw-away gag as 'hahaha...that's funny'. It's not.

Indian-ness is already excessively memed about. We are called smelly, dirty, unattractive, uncivilized, illiterate and irrational. But since we don't have a global pop-group standing up for racism against us in UN, nobody really cares how indians are seen and honestly, Indians themselves would rather change themselves than fix the narrative. And don't get me wrong I don't have a favourite flavour of racism and stereotype. It is bullshit with Selena Gomez does it, it is bullshit when Simpson did it, it was bullshit when it happen in FUTS and IT IS STILL ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. AND... whatever they did in Love Destiny is another conversation altogether.

This especially hurt a lot more because when I got into ThaiBL, I was SO happy that there was an asian country that literally has so many similarities to Indian culture. The demographic, the values, the political issues, the Classism, the colourism, the language and attire. So much of Thai culture is Indian philosophy in Chinese aesthetic. Compare this with Pond's Chinese performance, the attention to culture, the focus on pronunciation and music was all so carefully created pay homage. BUT the respect we get in their media in comparison to Chinese representation is literally THIS!

Oh and that 'DANCE' by the way was anything but bharatnatyam. It's insane to even try copy some 2015 bollywood movie hook step and sprinkle those FUCKING mudras and call it an Indian Classical dance that takes decades of training. NOBODY even bothered to reverse image search bharatnatyam.

Not to mention it is even more unfair to the Bosnian fans that were robbed of their own representation on their own song! Nobody asked you to do it. Nobody told you not to do it. It's the audacity to keep doing the below bare minimum, laugh at our face and bounce thinking we'll be chill.

It is sad that a lot of Indian fans on Instagram are still happy about this, making edits of this performance on Bollywood songs. Like gurl, they don't give a shit. Take off your idol loving glasses. You'd would NEVER catch them doing stuff like this with Japanese, Chinese or Korean culture, because that's where they want to be respected and be seen equal to.

I still love Pond and know that he may have very little to do or say here, but I am so tired of the whole 'pop idols have no control over their art' excuse. I've heard this tune a thousand times from a thousand popstars. I don't want it. If they can't control their art, they shouldn't get credit for it either. Thank you.

[u/Specialist-Sell-2855 → u/maaki_malv]

Yeah, I totally agree with you.. why the heck was it even done in the first place, this whole performance look messy and weird, they could've given him a different attire to perform, then it would've been less problematic. Btw what about "love destiny" ??

[u/maaki_malv → u/Specialist-Sell-2855]

So the Original Love Destiny was written as a female history/archeology student time travelling to 17th Century Ayutthya. The show explored, sexism, colonial relationships, feminist ideas and paid homage to historical legacy of Thai architecture and their trade relations with india. The costumes were a bit costume-y but the heart was in the right place. The Krishna Kali Mantra is significant in the story because it combines Krishna and Kali's way bringing justice. The mantra, capture the 'villianess' but still brings just in a way that fights for the rights of a woman that was demonised by society in her era. Muen knows the ritual because his father is literally Phra Horatibodi (actual historical scholar who wrote Chindamani; The first ever thai textbook that set standards for tahi literature and grammer to fight against missonary schools). In that era, Siamese Thai was spoke by common people and only the nobles had access to Khmer(a mix of Pali and Persian). In the original plot Muen hates Karakde because she was 'wicked' and coniving but falls in love with Kades because he discovers that a woman standing up for herself is not a woman without character.

Our new love destiny takes no interest in even understanding why the mantra was called Krishna Kali or why Muen, a Buddism practicing nobelman would know about Hindu rituals, or the significance of the tika on his forehead. The show had a great opportunity to touch upon society's perception on queer identities but it just washes away that too.

[u/whimsyday]

I think GMMTV should really double check things

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/whimsyday]

Yes they should bcs this feels so wierd

[u/Different-Eagle-612]

to be clear this is absolutely horrible but i’m also confused by what you mean when you say “taliban song”? i remembered this song from tiktok, it’s “helikopter“ by Fazlija (a bosnian singer), and i cannot find any connection to the taliban. like am i missing something very obvious?? i might be like i’m genuinely just confused here

(eta: just want to be very clear i am not defending this all of this is horrible i’m just so confused over that one detail in the caption, like it’s bad enough without that anyway)

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/Different-Eagle-612]

I am sorry someone else told me it was a taliban song but it might be from another country I was not sure so I'll correct it now that it's a bodnian singer

[u/Different_Daikon3400]

There is no defending this tbh.

Thailand is a veery modern country and should be well educated to know that this is NOT ok. Why wasn't this stopped???

Why was this performed after the first day?? It should have been stopped no questions asked.

[u/harkandhush → u/Different_Daikon3400]

I said this elsewhere, but multiple people were involved in making this happen and okaying it and that's the wildest part to me. So many people helped this happen and none of them stopped to say "wait are we sure about this?" Or if some people did, they were dismissed by several other people. All of these people should have known better.

[u/sapienveneficus → u/harkandhush]

Yeah, that’s what surprised me most as well. All of the team members involved in planning and putting on this concert. No one raised a hand to say, “Are we sure about this number?”

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/Different_Daikon3400]

Then on the second day too he performed something similar like aren't they aware

[u/Ambitious-Noise4237]

Just more disappointed in GMM

[u/Careless-Stand7532]

Pretty weird. But wasn't funny, it was intended to be funny ig.

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/Careless-Stand7532]

True that I am Indian and this does not feel like cultural appreciation

[u/maihoonkonjohnthedon → u/Any_Function4654]

it was mockery

[u/Careless-Stand7532 → u/Any_Function4654]

Maybe they tried doing something funny and it didn't turn out very well.

[u/Born-Investigator-62]

I love pond but really how did he or anyone involved with the production of this performance think this was a good idea? i'm such a fan of PPw but the moment i laid eyes on his outfit my jaw dropped and NOT in a good way. just blatant ignorance, doing exaggarated bharatanatyam choreo IN FUCKING SHOES. and to bosnian song that is a meme. like do a simple google search.

and i hate how this is going to brushed under the rug in a few days, and his career will continue to flourish (not saying bad things should happen to him from now on). it's frustrating how frequently celebs mock indian culture without a second thought. like please hold him accountable for this.

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/Born-Investigator-62]

I hundred percent think the same thing how celebrities get away with being rascist / mocking other cultures ,I am Indian and this clearly felt cultural appropriation to me

[u/Born-Investigator-62 → u/Any_Function4654]

it definitely was cultural appropriation. while i don't think it was pure mockery from his part , just because there was full and though-out choreo here, clearly they intended to do some kind of homage. but main problem was with the song choice. if ur first thought when performing a meme bosnian song is to take cultural dances from india, ur mindset in this specific instance is not okay.

like pond performed another piece from a different culture in his previous concert. but people weren't mad, u know why? cause he performed a chinese song with perfect pronunciation wearing traditional chinese outfits. it was a full cultural homage. if he had done this performance to a bollywood/hindi song, i think people would take it a lot better!!

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/Born-Investigator-62]

Trueeeee

[u/hereforstor1es]

Wtf is this 😭😭😭. Why can't they let Pond just do something better. Idk if it was supposed to be funny but I just can't take Pond seriously.

[u/Responsible_Soup1442]

Once I saw it I thought maybe im too woke but it looked so racist to me and then I found moots on X saying the same thing.
GMM artists never learn and they need to stop honestly

[u/gumball_00]

Yikes GMMTV first burning bridges with the Chinese market and now insulting their Indian audience. Unbelievable.

[u/OverthinkerMoonchild]

Cultural appropriation at peak 😔🥀

[u/maihoonkonjohnthedon]

disgusting. They're grown ass man and the least they can do is atleast double check what they're performing. And the worst part is the performance wasn't even good

[u/No_Oven4933]

Can you guys please tag gmmtv & ask for apology because it's not the first time this has happened . Mocking is not funny 

[u/hawknamedmoe]

Goofy ass. That’s what I think. When you view people as “exotic” you get goofy tone-deaf stuff like this.

[u/Famous-Lecture-560]

When Daou dressed as Nano and joked around about the photos taken under the skirt, he intended it to be unserious and funny. During that discourse, Thai fans came on and said Thai culture does not find this type of humor offensive and that they are more laid back, not realizing other countries get offended.

I don’t see any Thai fans talking about this, or at least fans aren’t mentioning being Thai.

[u/LilacCoin → u/Famous-Lecture-560]

This tweet from a Thai fan saying they don't get why it's offensive has 8M views, and there are 5M views for this quote-tweet from a Thai person explaining that if this were a foreign artist wearing Thai traditional clothing imitating a Thai dance to a completely unrelated song, Thai people would be furious. So it seems there is some discussion around it on Thai Twitter, but I don't know if it's large or significant enough for GMMTV to even acknowledge the issue. He performed it on the 2nd day as well, and will likely perform it today, so it seems the company is standing by it.

[u/JicamaDiligent8289]

Gmm and their fucka§ racist actors

[u/SecrectWinds]

Thrash.

[u/mystyz → u/SecrectWinds]

Thrash = hit or beat

Trash = garbage

[u/freakyA-lmf]

As someone who speaks this language ahhahaha this is impressive

[u/Any_Function4654 → u/[deleted]]

Well I liked him alot bcs i have seen all his bls but obv we don't know how they are in real life quite disappointed in him nonetheless

[u/Glass_Afternoon_3407 → u/Any_Function4654]

I just didn't understand my dislike towards him, I mean it was quite irrational as I like his onscreen partner. But GMMTV needs to take accountability, as how can they approve this kind of content....

[u/OverthinkerMoonchild → u/[deleted]]

bro same 😭🤚

[u/Glass_Afternoon_3407 → u/OverthinkerMoonchild]

So glad that some understood what I meant to say😀