You could see how everything connects to everything over the past week as a song went around the world and manifested itself on the other side of the planet. On Saturday, rapper Milli performed at a music festival in Indigo, California – and as a result Thailand’s national dessert “Mango and Sticky Rice” ran out.
At Coachella, superstars like Beyoncé perform alongside new and exciting artists from around the world. That’s how Milli, whose real name is Danupha Khanatheerakul and was born in Bangkok in 2002, came to appear. She’s already a star in Thailand, she raps about school bullies and beauty obsessions, topics that 19-year-olds are so concerned about.
Milli having dessert at her performance at the Coachella festival.
(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images via AFP)
After Lalisa Manobal, member of the incredibly successful K-pop band Blackpink, Milli was only the second Thai woman to ever perform at Coachella. That alone would have brought her much honor at home. Beyond that, though, Milli used her performance to correct some annoying stereotypes about her homeland – “I don’t ride an elephant” – and to criticize the government: “The country is good, the people are good, our food is good, but the government is corrupt.” Then she stuck her fork into a bowl of mango and sticky rice and took a bite.
As a result, the sales stalls for this slightly sweet, slightly sour and rather fresh-tasting dish in their homeland were overrun because Thais – another cliché – are very fixated on food anyway. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha tried to capitalize on the hype. He wanted to instruct the Ministry of Culture to have the food proposed to UNESCO as a cultural heritage, he said, according to the Bangkok Post“It is important for Thailand to use its soft power abroad. We have many resources that can be promoted on the international stage”.
Montages are now circulating on social media: in one, Bangkok’s Democracy Monument is replaced by a huge pile of sticky rice shielded by four slices of mango. Thailand is a facade democracy, Prayut is a former general who was confirmed in an election after the last coup. Protests are suppressed. The Ministry of Culture was filled according to army logic, based on rank rather than on intuition and competence. Lalisa Manobal, when she was already a star, was also wanted to make a New Year’s Eve appearance for tourism advertising. She declined. The country’s creative minds suffer from censorship and bureaucracy, which is probably one of the reasons why South Korea has overtaken larger Thailand in terms of soft power and is broadcasting TV series such as “Squid Game” in addition to K-Pop to promote the country advertise.
Milli, on the other hand, was fined 2,000 baht a year ago after criticizing the government’s poor management of the pandemic. So, as much as the prime minister wants to use her appearance to promote the country’s culture, the many orders may also be a very Thai way of expressing criticism. Eating as a subversive act.