Tatum and I at my going away party last June.
I hardly ever have guest posts but I’ve been wanting to change that. This blog features a lot of articles about asian men and western women from a western woman’s point of view (me), but what about from the guys point-of-view?
Enter Tatum, my Thai friend that lives in China. Before meeting his current girlfriend he dated several foreign women so he’s a good authority on the subject. Although you should know something about Tatum; the guy has more confidence then anyone I know. Although he doesn’t smack you in the face about it, he operates from a place of pure confidence which helps explain some of dating techniques and how he doesn’t think being asian is any sort of a boundary.
Section 1 : Pilot, Becky and Tatum
Well, how do I start? First of all let me tell you something interesting about myself, getting to know what kind of person I am by this introduction. My name is Thanapon Tatum Napawan, aka “Boss of Bangkok”, this name has just become official a couple years back, I will feel like I should tell y’all this now, which it also involves our superstar Becky, of course. She was just backpacking all over my home country Thailand during Chinese New Year which is right around February every year, trust me its cold. Hence she escaped the cold weather to Thailand, an absolute best choice, one of the best decisions she has ever made. Simply put, I was with Becky at legendary Khaosan road Bangkok, I call it Columbian street, but that’s another story. Anyways I feel like I’m drifting away from the main topic here. So, while we were just strolling around the street eating delicious thai noodle ‘Pad thai ’with shrimps, we happened to come across this t-shirts selling store, selling a summer tank top for guys about 150 baht. I was like “Becky, I can totally get 2 t-shirts for 200 baht, cuz I’m the boss here, I was born here, and I’m going to show you how it’s done right around here” In the end, I could not get the price I first told her I would get, but, still, I was bargaining my ass off, discounting some amount of money. Becky, despite my effort of being the boss, admits it yes ‘Ok, whatever you are not really Boss of Bangkok, I’ll never call you that because you could not pull the deal off.’
However, when I first met Becky, it was in Ellen’s bar Hangzhou, China though the year was 2013, just chilling chatting about the concert of “Wang Li Hom singer” she was there, I believe if I’m not mistaken.
Tatum’s right. I met him the night of Wang Leehom’s concert. I have this picture to prove it.
Let’s get back to me, as you should know by now I’m from Bangkok, Thailand, the land of smiles. Luckily I’m from the Capital, which I can boast about, and that’s my trademark also whenever somebody asks me where I’m from. At the moment I’m about 21 years old, living life in China having a blast, but I will turn 22 next year February, feel free to congratulate me with presents. Although everyone seems to be celebrating their birthdays crazily, I’d rather be spending time with my mom the most because on the day I was born she was there with me, before me, giving birth to me, and having to go through excruciating pain on that day, so I would like to show my love to her always on my birthday. I got an older brother also, he’s my nemesis my bro, my cool brah, my mentor, he’s about a year or 2 older than me. Don’t get me wrong, I still would like to party on my birthday J.
I’m a currently 5th year medical student at Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China, which is ranked one of the most classic and famous universities among the Great China.
Section : 2 My Romance Anna and Tatum
Becky has implored me to do this, so okay I’m going to do this for charity and the sake of god. Just kidding, I’m willing to do this not even against my will. Frankly, Becky probably thinks I’m arrogant prick, with unshakable, unflinching, awesome mad confidence. She asks me to write something about my romance, and yes of course I’m absolutely romantic and I got stories so why not?
I’ve been legitimately dating together together with this a…..mazing girl from Ukraine, modeling in Hangzhou, China where we met. She is about 26 now, we have just celebrated it quite recently with our friends at Amigo’s restaurant & bar as a starter then we move on to a club name G plus. What would you like to know; the usual questions I get would definitely be how long have you been together? Where did you first 2 met? How was she/he at first sight? Whoa what did you like about this individual?
Tatum and Anna at the top of Yellow Mountain.
We have officially been together for almost 7 months now. I first time met her was in a club name G plus, she was totally having a good time. How did I figure this out? Didn’t matter whether I was drunk or she or tipsy or not. It was her smile and dancing move that caught my attention, where I was just like “wow, I would really really like to get to know this girl.” She‘s got the best curve ever on her face. It clicked I’m attracted to her, I was completely drawn into her. Perhaps she did not realize it just yet because she doesn’t take a club seriously, which is a place where you just go have fun and that’s pretty much it with loud music, you can barely communicate. Beauty is a very common thing, you can find it anywhere, but you know what’s rare? …. 3 things 1. A good energy 2. Great outlook and 3. Beautiful personality and character making a beauty an actual unique beauty. She’s got more than just these 3 basic things that I’m attracted to, hence there’s much more quality in her that I don’t even know yet from gazing at her creepily. I would always tell her you are beautiful yet the most from the inside out.
Her name was ‘Anna’ I finally got to introduce myself because I was wearing this ‘Hello I’m awesome’, which the WWE superstar ‘the Miz’ wears on Monday night RAW. She was really friendly, but I knew to had to express myself that this is more than that I had to create a tension in that situation. It was pretty loud and noisy as I have mentioned earlier, so I grabbed her hand walking her into the quieter area around a huge lounge of restroom. We talked, understanding each other more vividly now, and exchanged our WeChat, an application like what’s app, tango, LINE, or skype in the end. We didn’t really start talking through text messages just yet. Because to me, personally, I would rather be communicate face to face in person, that way I really excel, expressing my emotions and my random hand gestures.
Tatum and Anna at a pool party. Feel free to hate them and their beautiful bodies. lol.
By the first time we kissed, I pulled out this move “If you remember my name you gotta kiss me” and she did. “Tatum” was my name, so we kissed, I could really feel the adrenaline rushing through my body, tingling sensation all over my torso. It was just “WOW” this is like Christmas. We also connected through a French friend “Correntin” he was being such a supportive and good friend. Anna had her guardian protecting her looking out for her is this gay dude name “German” from Argentina; his name is pronounced Herman in Spanish. In the meantime we were hanging out with lots of friends Joonas and Louise.
Our first date date was the time we went to fake Paris in Hangzhou with the replica of Eiffel tower around Wenze station of subway station. Even though we were pretty tired already, but this is something else; it’s not just a thing you do normally. My feelings started developing towards her, spending a lot of time together; we got to know each other more and more empirically. She could be such a fragile and sensitive girl, yet she has proved that she’s one tough girl also since I’ve known her. I didn’t feel a sassy vibe from her at all, she was utterly different from any other individual I have ever encountered I’m glad, whenever she smiles, it would just simply brighten my day always. That’s the story of how we met.
There are much much more stories but I’m saving the best for last. I’m not even sure I can say that because we are just gonna create more memorable stories every day. There’ll be some trips we go together and what we do what ‘s it like being with her? Any Questions would be appreciated, and I would love to answer them with proper answers.
I asked Tatum to write a little something and within 2 hours he ended up writing 18 pages which is obviously too long for one post. Tomorrow I’ll publish the part on his thoughts about dating western women in general and dealing with stereotypes.
On the last class with my darling graduated students we played a game. “Who’s gonna be the first…?” Things like, get married, have a baby, become a millionaire, live abroad, etc.
Recently Mingmei Yip contacted me and asked if i was willing to do a book review for her most recent novel Secret of a Thousand Beauties. I can never refuse a book, especially one about China, so I was happy to review it.
