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Data will be gathered as well through In-depth interviews. Interview is one of the most important
tools by which researcher will gather data from important figures of the communities and individuals who
had a role in the process of promoting, selling and designing the cultural costumes in three southern
border provinces. The interview and conversation will be done as well with government cultural office
administrators/officials, community elders and other key informants – here the key informants referring
to individuals who have major role such as the designer and seller who are directly involved in the whole
designing and promoting process of the costume. There will be also an informal discussion with different
individuals (10 informants from each province). Informants were selected based on their knowledge about
the issue under discussion and based on their participation in the promotion process of these cultural
costumes.
Study Area Description

This research is targeted at one ethnic group from southern border province of Thailand - the
ethnic Thai Malays. 'Malay', is a term used to refer to ethnic Malay citizens of Thailand. They are Muslims
and speak a dialect of Malay known as Patani-Malay. The ethnic Thai Malays or also known (in other
academic writings) as Malay Muslims, constitute 18 per cent of Thai Muslims. Most ethnic Malays live
primarily in the four southernmost provinces (Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Pattani) where they constitute
more than 70 per cent of the population (Dingwerth 2008: 5; Liow 2006). Their language is a variety of
Malay, of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, and is closely related to Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa
Indonesia.

The Three Southern Provinces

Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
Politicians and academics (historians, social scientists) have predicted that ethnicity or sentiment

to ethnic identity would fade away by the forces of assimilation, modernization and globalization.
However, ethnicity and allegiance to ethnic identity has been growing stronger over time in most countries
contrary to the prediction. Nowadays, ethnicity has become the central issue at the social and political
arena and the concept has passed into the everyday discourse in academia (Hutchinson & Smith, 1996;

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