Chulalongkorn Fine and Applied Arts Faculty dean apologizes for Hitler graduation mural

[pisico]

Not really an apology...an explanation of good and bad superheroes.

My view it either needs a full apolgy...with no conditions or none.

Thais are unable to have self awareness. The reason they cannot admit to flaws in themselves, their country or traditions. So self absorbed are they in their Thainess they cannot fathom that there is a vast universe of culture, history and science outside their country.

To Thais Asia is composed of countries such as Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, etc. Then, there is Thailand. The dean has shown to be very much Thai.

T I T indeed !!!

[atlbravosfan]

Try and tell a Thai why it is inappropriate and wrong... and they will just tell you that foreigners have no right to tell them what to do because they were never colonised... their general benightedness knows no bounds...

If they are that enlightened how come they don't know the Chinese have been colonising Thailand for a couple of hundred years or more. Or asian colonisation is ok?

But what on earth do you mean? Thai people believe they are Chinese people. They believe they get the vast majority of their culture from China, including: their food (especially curry), their religion, their medicine, their language...

[ETatBKK]

in the break, I talked to couple of Thai 'professors' about this. they do understand putting Hitler there was not a good idea, but they DON'T understand why it is so sensitive.

that may tell all about that apology means !

[Salapoo]

Meanwhile in Thailand:

It's hard to believe there is positive hope for the future of this country and society. Fast forward to 10 years of the AEC and Thailand might be starting to ponder why they are sitting dead last.

[wilcopops]

Got this from internet (FB in particular)..

oh yeah - like it's the first time this has happened?

[GeorgeO]

Come, study at Chula... we are the best in Thailand... we guarantee to make you as benighted as Adolph.

Says Assoc. Professor Supacorn Dispan,

Dean, Fine and Applied Arts Faculty, Chulalongkorn.

P.S. and some lunatic here said Chula is on par with Oxford, Harvard, Yale and Cambridge... Really!

P.P.S. Baht is bound to go up this month...

I think that the comparison was not meant to be between Chula and leading institutions overseas, but rather, the standing of Chula relative to other Thai institutions; that is, head and shoulders above all others, as we are led to believe Oxford, etc., stand head and shoulders above other institutions in the UK, although I also have my doubts about that.

[pisico]

As a Jew it is highly offensive to me and I would also think to many Russians who lost 20m people in WWII The really sad thing here is just how isolated and ignorant this facility must be to let it get to this stage. Ignorance comes to mind......the joke is on Thailand.

Yes it's basically ignorance but I think a new trend is growing of immature Thais KNOWING it ticks off foreigners so using Nazi images to have fun with that. But the bright side is that there really isn't an actual politically oriented Neo-Nazi movement in Thailand.

The latest fangled type of Xenophobia?

[unanimosity]

There are comics and movies about the Superhero's some by Marvel but what I cannot understand is where do the students in Thailand get the idea that Hitler was a hero. Has there ever been any books, magazines or movies about him that made him out as a hero. Is this something to do with the Groucho Marx black comedy. Anybody got any ideas it's way beyond me.

In an atmosphere of closed circuit education reminiscent of Ouroboros, the next rationalization you may hear is that they thought the mural was a tribute to Usain Bolt.

[nosatisfaction]

I suggest that this Uni should organise some field trips to a museum in Kanchanaburi.

Or even better, Buchenwald or Dachau or..........

[Jingthing]

...

Hitler was fighting a war against the rich jews the try to control the world.

...

It is not only Thais that could use some better education about Hitler and Nazis.

[unanimosity]

As a Jew it is highly offensive to me and I would also think to many Russians who lost 20m people in WWII The really sad thing here is just how isolated and ignorant this facility must be to let it get to this stage. Ignorance comes to mind......the joke is on Thailand.

Yes it's basically ignorance but I think a new trend is growing of immature Thais KNOWING it ticks off foreigners so using Nazi images to have fun with that. But the bright side is that there really isn't an actual politically oriented Neo-Nazi movement in Thailand.

Posting such murals may change all that. Not exactly the kinds of exchange students and tourists TAT has in mind.

Edited July 15, 2013 by unanimosity

[webfact]

UPDATE

Top Thai university apologises for Hitler mural

BANGKOK, July 15, 2013 (AFP) - One of Thailand's most prestigious universities apologised Monday after students created a large mural depicting Adolf Hitler among a host of comic book superheroes during graduation celebrations.

Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University expressed its "deep regret" over the painting, which appeared last week and featured Superman, Batman and the Incredible Hulk as well as the genocidal Nazi leader.

In a letter to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which had complained about the poster, the university said the students who created it were "unaware of its significance" and had received a verbal warning.

A picture posted on the Simon Wiesenthal Center website shows a young woman in a graduation gown giving a Nazi salute in front of the giant mural, which reads "Congratulation".

"Hitler as a superhero?" said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Jewish human rights and Holocaust memorial organisation, in comments on the website.

He questioned whether "a genocidal hate monger" was an appropriate role model for Thai young people.

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center is outraged and disgusted by this public display at Thailand's leading school of higher education," he said, adding that the mural had been displayed for days near the university's history faculty.

Chulalongkorn, whose alumni include academics, politicians and other public figures, posted apologies in Thai and English on its Facebook page and vowed to make sure such incidents never occur again.

"I will explain to the students involved and this will be a lesson for others that this man caused tragedy in the world," said Suppakorn Disatapundhu, dean of the faculty of fine arts, where the painting was produced.

The Nazi swastika, Hitler and other images apparently glorifying the World War II regime have caused controversy in Thailand on several occasions in the past and have been blamed on a lack of historical understanding.

In 2011 a Catholic school apologised after students dressed up in Nazi uniform for a sports day parade, some with swastikas painted on their faces.

The incident mirrored a similar parade held by another school in 2007.

In 2009, the Louis Tussaud's Waxworks museum took down its giant poster of Hitler giving a Nazi salute with the Thai-language slogan "Hitler is not dead" after the Israeli and German embassies lodged complaints.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-07-15

[unanimosity]

...

Hitler was fighting a war against the rich jews the try to control the world.

...

It is not only Thais that could use some better education about Hitler and Nazis.

Rich was not a prerequisite, Judaism was. Why the intent to turn genocide into economic warfare?

[tribalfusion001]

I really don't see what the problem is, why would the Thai's know about Hitler, he never invaded Thailand, the European theatre of war never came to Thailand, but the Pacific theatre of war did came to Thailand and the Japanese army with it.

Whilst Hitler is an evil figure for us in the western world, it's not same in the Asian world, it's why we like Thailand and live there, it's different to our home countries!

[orosee]

Come, study at Chula... we are the best in Thailand... we guarantee to make you as benighted as Adolph.

Says Assoc. Professor Supacorn Dispan,

Dean, Fine and Applied Arts Faculty, Chulalongkorn.

P.S. and some lunatic here said Chula is on par with Oxford, Harvard, Yale and Cambridge... Really!

P.P.S. Baht is bound to go up this month...

IIRC what was said is that Chula is to Thailand as Oxford etc. are to the UK, USA etc. Ivy league. That's very different.

[Jingthing]

...

Hitler was fighting a war against the rich jews the try to control the world.

...

It is not only Thais that could use some better education about Hitler and Nazis.

Rich was not a prerequisite, Judaism was. Why the intent to turn genocide into economic warfare?

Not even Judaism. A large portion of German Jews were quite secular. All that was needed to be exterminated like cockroaches (men, women, children, babies) was a small percentage of Jewish ethnic ancestry. It was a matter of toxic RACISM. Not specifically about religion. Hitler's ideology was that Jews as a "race" were SUBHUMANS. He still has followers today.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Jingthing

[Just1Voice]

Many complaining about this may remember Price Harry of the UK Parading around at a Uni party in Nazi regalia.

I presume he knew what he was doing!

Yes, and he got lambasted and raked over the coals for it by the British press, and very quickly made a very pubic apology for his act of stupidity.

[CIHUAHUA]

I would prefer her to rip open her shirt like Superman.

Well, on the light side it is “fine ART” – all of the images were of good guys except for the image of Hitler and he was recognized by his mustache. Even Hitler would have shaved it off if she opened her shirt like Super Man.

[orosee]

Someone for got to tell them, Hitler was also anti Asian. Blonde hair and blue eyes only.

But that would be telling an oft repeated lie, so why do it?

[Freedomfighter]

The Dean of Arts should resign. The artwork looks amateurish and drawn/painted by some kids. The Student Sieg Heiling and her classmates, faculty, admin etc should learn what Hitler would have done to Thais if the Nazis had won WW2

EEEE-dee ots!

[Just1Voice]

Got this from internet (FB in particular)..

A group of students who were unaware of who Hitler was? Gee, now just WHO do you think should be blamed, or responsible, for their lack of "educational awareness"?

Perhaps the man who wrote the letter of apology?

[ETatBKK]

Got this from internet (FB in particular)..

A group of students who were unaware of who Hitler was? Gee, now just WHO do you think should be blamed, or responsible, for their lack of "educational awareness"?

Perhaps the man who wrote the letter of apology?

where is the PRESIDENT of the university ?

[hgma]

Why should the dean apologizes for something he didn't bother to check in the first place.??

A call from Krabi experts maybe?

[GAZZPA]

Try and tell a Thai why it is inappropriate and wrong... and they will just tell you that foreigners have no right to tell them what to do because they were never colonised... their general benightedness knows no bounds...

Thailand may not have been colonised in the sense that they maintained their own government but they have certainly had conflict with the Japanese during ww2 and the Japanese then effectively moved in. Thailand then formed an alliance with Japan as they didn't have much option, this was until the war looked like it was not going in their Japans favour so they then tried to distance themselves from Japan. So, you can certainly say that Thailand has cleverly negotiated their way through troubles.

Also, I read that Thailand actually declared war with the US and Britain during WW2, new one to me.

Anway, this shows that Thailand were part of WW2 even if they only fought the Japanese on home turf for a while. So, in teaching modern history in school or university you would have thought that Hitler and his alliance with Japan would have been widely understood, and subsequently that the war atrocities would be understood. It is such a huge period of change in Thailands history.

This painting and all of the current fascination with Hitler needs to stop whatever is understood, it is bad taste and extremely offensive to millions of people and does not do Thailand any favours in global reputation. It is good to see the University finally apologising for it, I hope it is removed and destroyed by now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand_in_World_War_II

[GuestHouse]

As a Jew it is highly offensive to me and I would also think to many Russians who lost 20m people in WWII The really sad thing here is just how isolated and ignorant this facility must be to let it get to this stage. Ignorance comes to mind......the joke is on Thailand.

Yes it's basically ignorance but I think a new trend is growing of immature Thais KNOWING it ticks off foreigners so using Nazi images to have fun with that. But the bright side is that there really isn't an actual politically oriented Neo-Nazi movement in Thailand.

There is no 'bright side' to this.

It is perhaps understandable that Thai people are not educated in this history of the Nazis and the atrocities the Nazis committed, Thailand and Thais were after all not direct victims of the Nazis.

Nevertheless, the atrocities committed by the Nazis are rightly recognised as crimes against humanity - Not just the genocide, but also euthanasia, the crimes committed by the Nazis against their own people, waging unprovoked war, and the wide spread war crimes committed against the both the civilian populations and the captured military personnel of the nations the Nazis invaded.

Of significance to Thailand (and all nations) is the fact that these atrocities started with the lies of Nationalism, the polarisation of the German people and the state control of freedom of expression, education, the press/media - all wrapped up in the flag.

The dangers of Nationalism are not just the genocide committed by the Nazis, though those dangers exist, the dangers start with Nationalists dictating what is and what is not acceptable (patriotic) thought.

There are other dangers too. The wars of Europe arose from national economic, resource and territorial conflicts - Europe learned the cost of these conflicts in WWI and WWII (aka WWI Part II).

Asia now, today, is facing national economic, resource and territorial conflicts - Asia, and Thailand, now, today has nationalist governments and populations 'trained' not 'educated' in blind observance of nationalist agendas.

The dangers are very real

It is in Thailand's best interest to understand the history of Nationalism and where it leads.

The lesson will be learned one way or another.

[wilcopops]

The Dean of Arts should resign. The artwork looks amateurish and drawn/painted by some kids. The Student Sieg Heiling and her classmates, faculty, admin etc should learn what Hitler would have done to Thais if the Nazis had won WW2 EEEE-dee ots!

That he should resign, I agree, but I think your reasoning is embarrassingly poor.

You seem to think you are some kind of art or education critic and have made a judgement based on one item alone - of a REPRODUCTION of a stylised backdrop. It is a shame that people seem to want to join in the indignation when they are as clueless themselves of the issues involved.

[FiestyFarang]

As a Jew it is highly offensive to me and I would also think to many Russians who lost 20m people in WWII The really sad thing here is just how isolated and ignorant this facility must be to let it get to this stage. Ignorance comes to mind......the joke is on Thailand.

Yes it's basically ignorance but I think a new trend is growing of immature Thais KNOWING it ticks off foreigners so using Nazi images to have fun with that. But the bright side is that there really isn't an actual politically oriented Neo-Nazi movement in Thailand.

Jingthing this is totally different from calling farangs "Walking ATM's etc" the atrocities that Hitler commanded in the concentration are widely acknowledged as the worst ever in human history. No civilised country in the world would allow this, sadly it makes Thailand look very backward and sad in the world's eyes but more importantly upsets people who are still alive who lost family members. I met a Belgium man who lost every single member across all generations of his family except one and it was May and he had travelled from Belgium to Israel to visit his only surviving cousin and was standing proudly waiting for his cousin in a European style suit which looked very formal by Israeli standards, a lump came to my throat as he told the story but at the same time he was so proud standing in his suit to be meeting his cousin. Imagine how people like him would feel seeing news like this.

[nami]

...

Hitler was fighting a war against the rich jews the try to control the world.

...

It is not only Thais that could use some better education about Hitler and Nazis.

Rich was not a prerequisite, Judaism was. Why the intent to turn genocide into economic warfare?

Not even Judaism. A large portion of German Jews were quite secular. All that was needed to be exterminated like cockroaches (men, women, children, babies) was a small percentage of Jewish ethnic ancestry. It was a matter of toxic RACISM. Not specifically about religion. Hitler's ideology was that Jews as a "race" were SUBHUMANS. He still has followers today.

While this is disgusting, there are also some non-secular Jews who believe in those old scriptures talking about how gentiles are inferior and can be killed or robbed.

That kind of 'thinking' makes me sick coming from any of both ways

[charmonman]

"Supakorn revealed that the main message behind the mural was that there were both good and bad superheroes"

I hope professor Supakorn and the students understand that Hitler was not a cartoon "superhero" like all the others in the painting but a real historical figure. What a lame excuse!

[FiestyFarang]

This is a person who is trying to educate the Thai people in Fine and Applied Arts. Readers on this site can come to their own conclusion if they would want their children going to this school.