8 - Thai Middle-Class Practice and Consumption of Traditional Dance: “Thai-ness” and High Art

Summary

The mid-1980s in Thailand saw the establishment of an export-oriented industrialization (EOI) policy in place of import-substitution industrialization (ISI). The sharp decline in agricultural commodity prices had contributed to a downturn in the economy — but the silver lining here was that Thai manufactures became more attractive on the world market (Hewison 1997). Since then, in policy and production terms, EOI has grown and strengthened, and the economic results amazing; it remains to be seen whether the 1997 Asian economic crisis is but a blip in the way Thailand has chosen to develop or whether it heralds possible new economic directions.

Either way, I begin with the 1980's growth as it is the important context that has significantly contributed towards the phenomenon of new wealth in Thailand in the past two decades. This new wealth has been accompanied by novel forms of consumption among the more affluent members of society. This ill-defined group — which cannot be divorced from the state's economic development and related economic growth — is represented by a range of social classification: the “middle class”, the “new rich”, the “white-collar” worker, the “salaried class”, and so on. While, as some scholars note, it is analytically dubious to speak of a single middle class or middle-class culture, there appears to be a broad agreement that one dominant image of the new middle class is that of an avaricious consumer whose lifestyle is defined by the consumption of modern high-technology goods such as cars, mobile phones, residences in new housing estates, and the purchase of sumptuous goods from department stores. At the same time it is not uncommon for the newly affluent to be characterized as “superficially Western” and “fundamentally Oriental” (Pinches 1999, p. 1).

This chapter will explore one aspect of middle-class Thai consumption: the adoption of traditional dance as a recreational activity for amateur practitioners.