“Sao Phu Tai Num Muang Wae”: ‘Beauty Constructing’ ‘Consumption’ and ‘Self’ of Phu-Tai Ethnical Youth in Isaan Society

Abstract

This article aimed to study the youth culture in the ethnic context in the northeast, showing the self-formation of the young in the current Renu Nakhon society and how they integrated themselves into pop culture and local culture. In this context, they were not the young in binary relationships between the young of Tai Ban Isan, who became a young Isan stereotype, and urban young people who could consume and have a modern taste. However, the young growing up in the local culture under the Phu-Tai ethnicity represented the beauty of Phu-Tai’s people and culture as the nation’s identity, leading to their focus on the beauty of their faces and bodies. Accordingly, their taste and way of life matched current consumption related to beauty, dress, and brand name consumption. Moreover, it implied economic benefits, particularly for a new generation of ethical Phu-Tai youth, who used and created the beautiful capital as a model and a video jockey (VJ) in different applications.