Wela wang: technologies, markets, and morals in Thai leisure culture, 1830s - 1932

Abstract

This thesis traces how the concept of leisure (wela wang) emerged in Siamese/Thai society during the period 1830s-1932. The rise of the Western-dominated world order from the early nineteenth century brought drastic changes to Siam, and the Siamese aristocratic elites responded to this new order strategically. These changes did not only occur in the political and economic spheres, but also in the cultural and intellectual dimensions of the Siamese society. This study analyses three closely imbricated aspects of social processes that provided the foundations for Siamese leisure culture to emerge. Firstly, the impact of new technology upon Siam's cultural sphere is considered. The adoption of the twenty-four hour mechanical clock and the Western calendar were two determining factors for the creation of the work/non-work time binary in Siamese society. Leisure time, in this aspect, was the time that was clocked and calendared. No less important, however, this study also shows that reforms in Buddhist calendrical calculation also contributed significantly to the separation of work from leisure, and without reform the process would not have been completed. The second crucial aspect of Siamese leisure culture is the role of the market. The expansion of the market economy in Siam from the middle of the nineteenth century led to the commodification of both work time and leisure time. It is argued that the market economy impacted as much upon leisure as upon work, and economic processes turned leisure activities into commodities. This new leisure economy, in turn, also became one of the most important sources of revenue for the absolutist Siamese state. The third aspect of Siamese leisure culture studied here is its subjection to Buddhist moralising discourses. For the absolutist state, leisure time had to be spent "productively" (hai pen prayot). The meaning of "productive" leisure time included the senses of both economically and morally useful employment of one's time. These both sides of Siamese leisure culture coexisted uneasily, and in tension with the state's need of revenue from the morally dubious leisure activities such as gambling and drinking. Two lines of dialectically related forms of inquiry are considered through this thesis. One is the attempt to trace the genealogy of the concept of wela wang (free time), and how this idea was contested and negotiated during the period of focus. The second related line of enquiry is a look at the meanings and practices of leisure activities, which will be portrayed through the lens of social and cultural history. This thesis focuses on case studies of dance-drama, "leisure plazas" (new urban spaces of markets, transport hubs, gambling houses, pawn shops, liquor stores, opium houses, and brothels), sports, and foreign and Siamese clubs to show how leisure was not peripheral, but in fact integral to the emergence of modern Siam. Show more