History of Pad Thai as a Symbol of Nationalism in Thailand:

The stir-fry rice noodle dish was encouraged and its recipe disseminated by the Thai fascist Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram in the late 1930s to mid-1940s (Chan). The government believed that Pad Thai, along with new cultural policies, would help strengthen the economy, prevent foreign interferences, promote a healthy diet, and unify the diverse nation. Not only does Pad Thai reflect the nation’s post-absolutist ideology to replace the citizen’s attachment to the monarchy with a standardized Thai culture, but also Thailand’s progression towards modernity. 

The political and economic circumstances of Thailand pressured the government to intervene in the cultural practices of its citizens, contributing to the rise of Thai values and cuisine that laid the path towards the spread of Pad Thai. 

On June 24, 1932, Plaek Phibunsonghram, a military officer popularly known as “Phibun” in the west, led a coup that ended Thailand's (then called Siam) 150 years long absolute monarchy (Scott). Six years after the country adopted constitutional monarchy as their governance style, Phibun became the Prime Minister and faced various economic and political challenges from the sudden change in the institution that had long held Thailand together (Scott). Along with World World II, Thailand experienced inflation, shortages of consumer goods, while the government feared that they will lack long term support from the Thai citizens (Reynolds). The nation was also at risk of being colonized by European powers like their neighboring countries if the Thailand does not prove itself modern enough. As a result, the state turned to consult fascist principles to prevent the escalation of the stated challenges. 

Led by Phibun, the late 1930s government aimed to unify Thailand by ingraining a sense of nationalism inspired by the popularization of Nazi-Fascism in Italy, Germany, and Japan at the time (Reynolds). Demographic-wise, Thailand was and is a diverse nation with immigrants from countries such as China and Malaysia, with the core religious beliefs in Buddhism and Islam. However, the government believed that freedom for individuals to express religious, cultural, and language beliefs will result in national instability, and so shall be restricted to homogenous values (Reynolds).

As a result, the government introduced the Nation-Building Regime, including three main aspects of building a perfect nation under nationalism, building power and unity, and building a prominent Thai culture (Numnonda). The last aspect of the regime in building a strong Thai culture became one of the most important parts of the government's regime (Numnonda). By building a new culture and sense of nationalism for its citizens, the government believe that Thais will become more accepting of the new governance system and path towards modernization. 

Prime Minister Phibun issued 12 state decrees (rattanhiyom) from 1939 to 1942 to build a prominent Thai Culture to fight economic hardships and prevent internal conflicts (Khovibulchai). However, the underlying goals of the 12 state decrees are also to ease the nation into the military-style of governance and prevent other nations from interfering with “Thai values”.

The following mandates outlined fascists rules such as urging Thais to adopt the national anthem, stop providing help to foreigners and speak only the Thai language.

“We must be as cultured as other nations. Otherwise, Thailand would be helpless and soon become colonized. But if we were highly cultured, we would be able to uphold our integrity” - Plaek Phibunsonghram  (Mayyasi, n.p.)

As evident from the 12 mandates, Phibun’s government saw the need to homogenize Thai society and fear the invasion of foreign powers. Since the majority Chinese immigrants in Thailand dominated the agricultural and food industry in the 1930s, the government soon turned to demonize those with Chinese origins with the claim to prevent Thailand from “the communists'' (Thaifoodmasters). An economic process known as “Thai-fication”, the state banned Chinese languages and discouraged Chinese vendors and goods to create a market for Thai business owners and keep Chinese ideologies at bay (Thaifoodmasters, n.p.). 

Despite the ban on Chinese vendors, the Thai government and citizens soon Tha-ify rice-noodles, a food originally sold by Chinese immigrants, mainly to fight food shortages. Thailand experienced economic instability during WWII and soon the Great Flood of 1942, contributing to the shortage of rice (Thaifoodmasters). Given that rice is a crucial food source to the Thai people, food shortage for the population as well as a following economic downturn was imminent.

The government noticed that Chinese rice noodles required only half the amount of rice to feed a person with other abundant fillers such as tapioca starch to produce (Chan). Therefore, the state popularized local rice noodles as a substitute for rice and imported noodles that are purely made from wheat and water (Chan). The government not only ordered the Public Relations Department to distribute hand books of how to prepare various noodle dishes, but also urged Thai vendors to sell noodles at every province, district, and school (Thaifoodmasters). As Phibun announced in his presidential speech, Thais shall consume “noodles for lunch” (Scott, n.p.).  The timely introduction and popularization of rice noodles allowed for better rationing strategies. 

However, noodles were still considered Chinese, so the consumption of noodle dishes would have contradicted the government’s mandates. Therefore, Phibun’s government intervened in the production, cooking, and distribution process of rice noodles. First of all, the government encouraged Thais to engage in the food industry, shifting some key producers of the food and agriculture industry in the early 1940s from the Chinese to Thais. With more Thais in the field, the ingredients used in noodle dishes that were “traditionally associated with the Chinese foodway became ‘Thai’ and slowly other culinary forms in the Chinese foodway across the nation became ‘Thai’ in the process" (Thaifoodmaster, n.p.). 

At the same time, the cooks were pressured to incorporate Thai elements into their Chinese noodle dishes to make it more “Thai”, following the government’s request for the citizens to consume Thai food (Scott). The cooks created Thai versions of their noodle dishes by including flavors that they believe Thais favor. For instance, the cooks differentiated their original pad-mee or stir fry small gauge rice noodles by the use of Thai chilli, creating a spicy taste popular among Thais (Sukphisit). The cooking style adapted to Thai’s taste was called “pad baeb Thai”, meaning “stir fry in Thai style” (Sukphisit, n.p.). The phrase “pad baeb Thai” later evolved into the shortened phrase “pad thai”, which marks the beginning of the dish Pad Thai (Sukphisit, n.p.). 

As evident by the evolution of Chinese noodle dishes into Thai-style noodle dishes, there was no single individual that gave birth to Pad Thai at a specific date. Pad Thai was not “invented”, but has its roots in Chinese noodle dishes that evolved in a non-linear manner from the government’s encouragement for the public to consume rice noodles and Thai cuisine. In this case, Pad Thai served as a convenient panacea for post-war Thailand’s critical rice shortage and reflected the state’s sucessful attempt to instill a sense of nationalism in Thailand as part of the effort to modernize the country. 

To make Thai-ify the dish furthermore, the government decided that the dish needed to include Thai local products as well. Unlike typical Chinese stir-fry noodles, the government suggests that the traditional Pad Thai Recipe calls for the use of Chantrabutr rice noodles instead of typical rice noodles in addition to the use of dry shrimps, yellow tofu, lime, garlic, bean sprouts, and the Thai Banana Flower “hua-plee” instead of just pork since it was regarded as a Chinese meat (Sukphisit, n.p.). The combination of filling rice noodles, staple kitchen vegetables and cheap, abundant protein such as tofu or shrimp, provided a perfect meal for a Thai citizen at the time; filling, nutritious, and most importantly, economical. 

This decision to include Thai products in Pad Thai aligns with the fifth of the twelve cultural mandates that call Thais to support local goods: “For Thais to Utilize Only Produces from Thailand” (The Royal Gazette 1). The decree shows how consuming Thai food like Pad Thai are political symbols for Thai nationalism. In the introduction of the decree, Phibunsonghram directly stated the importance for Thais to value “nationalism” and to "support the nation's agriculture and production industry” during World War II  (The Royal Gazette 1). He explained that consuming Thai products will stimulate the nation’s economy, showing how the consumption of Pad Thai was partly because of a materialistic reason.

Although the cultural mandates does not directly mention “Pad Thai”, Phibunsonghram revealed how he encouraged Thais to "consume only food that originated or are produced in Thailand" and "consume the food and products supported by the government" as two of the five points in the decree  (The Royal Gazette 1). For instance, Phibun encouraged Thais to grow and export bean sprouts and for the bean sprouts to be cooked with Thai dishes, including Pad Thai. The mandate also made other nationalistic suggestions such as for Thais to "wear only clothing that are produced in Thailand" and "support the agriculture and production factor and the local knowledge of Thais"  (The Royal Gazette 2). Since all the five points stressed on the consumption of products from only Thailand, the decree provides strong evidence that Thai cuisine like Pad Thai has its root in post-absolutist nationalism. Overall, it highlighted how the Thai government aimed to create a standard national vernacular food, protect the economy from foreign trades, and encourage its citizens to be proud of their country. 

Pad Thai spread throughout Thailand’s central region even after the reign of Phibun’s government since the dish is tasty, versatile and its ingredients can be easily switched around. For example, the dish can be easily made without meat and if one is avoiding fish and restaurants can switch the core ingredient of fish sauce into soy sauce instead (Mayyasi). Soon, Pad Thai became accessible across Thailand. Today, it grew to become a popular dish for Thai locals and tourists that can easily be found in streetfood restaurants and fine dining locations alike. 

The spread of Pad Thai internationally can be attributed to the Thai government’s desire to boost the Thai economy, which relied heavily on tourism. To boost tourism and eliminate the perception of Thailand as merely a sex-tourism destination, the government under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra believed that the nation needed to first increase the popularity of Thai cuisine overseas (Scharf). Since 2002, the Thai Export Promotion Department has launched the “Global Thai” program to boost the number of Thai restaurants owned by Thai ethnics, the consumption of authentic Thai food, and the perception of Thailand as a unique country worthy of a visit (Scharf, n.p.). Apart from organizing extensive public relation campaigns, the government offered culinary programs to aspiring Thai chefs abroad and offered “loans of up to US$3 million for overseas food industry initiatives'' (Karp, n.p.). To earn these help from the government, the Thai restaurants abroad must offer “six permanent menu items that follow official recipes for dishes as endorsed by the Ministry of Commerce” (Wallace, n.p.). One of the required dishes in the menu included Pad Thai. 

 Initially, the "Thai-ification" of the rice noodles into Pad Thai reflected the government's desire to unite Thai through a strong cultural identity for easy governance. Today, the Global Thai program revealed the power of Thai cusine, including Pad Thai, in reshaping the narrative of a nation. By distributing Thai cusines globally, Thailand educates international audiences of its culture, making the nation as the most visited country in Southeast Asia in 2019 (Wallace). By studying the history of Pad Thai, one gained a better understanding of how a culinary commonality enables the unification of a culture, and thus a nation. Pad Thai enables nationalism that helped the nation progress towards modernity and better economic development regardless of time.