Living high and low in modern Bangkok VORNG SOPHORNTAVY Beneath the protest marches, rallies and sieges dividing Thailand in recent times are more subtle pressures that emerge from everyday encounters involving cultural notions of rank and hierarchy. These are the focus of this highly accessible ethnographic study, which ventures beyond the barricades to explore the connections be- tween inequality, space and social life in modern-day Bangkok. A MEETING OF MASKS A Meeting The author argues that the notion of an urban–rural divide obscures a far more complex reality linking city and countryside in reciprocal relations within both urban and national systems of sta- tus and class. Global market forces have increased the emphasis on of Masks material wealth in contemporary status relations and exacerbated pre-existing inequalities informed by a premodern system of status ranking called sakdina. This has compounded the challenges facing Status, Power and Hierarchy the growing urban middle classes and further marginalised rural and economically disadvantaged Thais. in Bangkok For Bangkok’s middle classes, pursuing aspirations and con- structing class identity involve negotiating a competitive social hierarchy based on status display and conspicuous consumption practices. Much of this is enacted in urban spaces such as shopping malls. Yet, access to opportunities and upward social mobility are often thwarted by an entrenched and unjust system of patronage and elite privilege. The resulting tensions have been exploited to tremendous effect in the ongoing political power struggle. About the author: Educated in Australia, Sophorntavy Vorng is an anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany. Her scholarly interests include space and politics, consumption and identity, aspirations and status inequality, and contemporary Buddhist belief and practice. She has also conducted research on religion and addiction in northern Thailand. www.niaspress.dk Sophorntavy Vorng Vorng-pbk-cover.indd 1 16/01/2017 12:52 A MEETING OF MASKS Vorng_book-MBS.indd 1 24/01/2017 11:34 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies New and recent Monographs 109. Anders Poulsen: Childbirth and Tradition in Northeast Thailand 110. R. A. Cramb: Land and Longhouse 111. Deborah Sutton: Other Landscapes 112. Søren Ivarsson: Creating Laos 113. Johan Fischer: Proper Islamic Consumption 114. Sean Turnell: Fiery Dragons 115. Are Knudsen: Violence and Belonging 116. Noburu Ishikawa: Between Frontiers 117. Jan Ovesen and Ing-Britt Trankell: Cambodians and Their Doctors 118. Kirsten Endres: Performing the Divine 119. Gerhard Hoffstaedter: Modern Muslim Identities 120. Malcolm McKinnon: Asian Cities 121. David I. Steinberg and Hongwei Fan: Modern China–Myanmar Relations 122. Vibeke Børdahl: Wu Song Fights the Tiger 123. Hiromi Sasamoto-Collins: Power and Dissent in Imperial Japan 124. Eren Zink: Hot Science, High Water 125. Monica Janowski: Tuked Rini, Cosmic Traveller 126. Martin Platt: Isan Writers, Thai Literature 127. John Becker: Pattern and Loom 128. Ziayan Zhang: Coping with Calamity 129. Natasha Pairaudeau: Mobile Citizens 130. Halfdan Siiger: The Bodo of Assam 131. Andrew Cock: Governing Cambodia’s Forests 132. John Coast: Recruit to Revolution 133. Souchou Yao: The Malayan Emergency 134. Megha Amrith: Caring for Strangers 135. Sophorntavy Vorng: A Meeting of Masks NIAS Press is the autonomous publishing arm of NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, a research institute located at the University of Copenhagen. NIAS is partially funded by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden via the Nordic Council of Ministers, and works to encourage and support Asian studies in the Nordic countries. In so doing, NIAS has been publishing books since 1969, with more than two hundred titles produced in the past few years. UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Nordic Council of Ministers Vorng_book-MBS.indd 2 24/01/2017 11:34 A MEETING OF MASKS Status, Power and Hierarchy in Bangkok SOPHORNTAVY VORNG Vorng_book-MBS.indd 3 24/01/2017 11:34 A Meeting of Masks Status, Power and Hierarchy in Bangkok by Sophorntavy Vorng Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph series, no. 135 First published in 2017 by NIAS Press NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: +45 3532 9501 • Fax: +45 3532 9549 E-mail: [email protected] • Online: www.niaspress.dk © Sophorntavy Vorng 2017 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-87-7694-196-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-87-7694-197-0 (pbk) Typeset in Arno Pro 12/14.4 Typesetting by BookWork Printed and bound in Great Britain by Marston Book Services Limited, Oxfordshire Vorng_book-MBS.indd 4 24/01/2017 11:34 Contents Acknowledgements ix A Note on the Text x Glossary of Thai Terms xi Introduction: Division and Discontent 1 1. Class and Status in Thailand 21 2. Indigenous Space, Hierarchy, and Kalathesa 37 3. Hi-So Discourse and Middle-Class Aspirations 59 4. City Above Countryside 113 5. The Value of a Person 145 Conclusion 169 Bibliography 173 Index 183 v Vorng_book-MBS.indd 5 24/01/2017 11:34 Figures 1. PAD rally on 26 March 2006 along Rama I Road. 2 2. Free musical performance at CentralWorld Plaza, Ratchaprasong 61 3. Window-shopping at Emquartier District, Phrom Phong 74 4. Friends spending time together at a restaurant in CentralWorld Plaza 75 5. Food court inside Siam Paragon shopping mall, Pathumwan 75 6. Young people doen len in Siam Paragon 78 7. Crowded restaurant floor in Siam Paragon 78 8. Social … So Easy 86 9. Bargain hunting at a market near Siam Square, Pathumwan 90 10. Watches, jewellery, smartphones, and designer bags as furniture 92 11. Cleaner inside a luxury shopping mall 117 Maps 1. Thailand and its regions xi 2. Greater Bangkok xii 3. Rattanakosin 47 4. Downtown Bangkok 60 vi Vorng_book-MBS.indd 6 24/01/2017 11:34 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep appreciation to my family and friends, and to Richard and Ad Basham, for their support and encouragement in the course of researching and writing this book. I would also like to thank the faculty at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, my colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and Juree Vichit-Vadakan at the National Institute for Development Administration. Additionally, I am grateful to my research assistant, who contributed many perceptive insights and observations to this study. Not least, I am thankful to my informants, who opened up their lives and thoughts and engaged patiently with my endless enquiries. I hope this work does justice to their candour and generosity. The research for this book was made possible by grants from the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Carlyle Greenwell Fieldwork Fund, the Carlyle Greenwell Finishing Scholarship and the University of Sydney Postgraduate Support Scheme. Postdoctoral support pro- vided by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity allowed me to conduct additional field research in Bangkok and to revise the text for publication.1 1. Please note that earlier versions of parts of this book have been published as the following articles: ‘Bangkok’s two centres: Status, space, and consumption in a mil- lennial Southeast Asian city’, in City and Society, Vol. 23(S1); ‘Beyond the urban- rural divide: Complexities of class, status and hierarchy in Bangkok’, in The Asian Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 39; and, ‘Incendiary central: The spatial politics of the May 2010 street demonstrations in Bangkok’, in Urbanities, Vol. 2(1). vii Vorng_book-MBS.indd 7 24/01/2017 11:34 A Note on the Text Thai words have been transcribed in accordance with the revised rules of the Royal Institute of Thailand’s ‘Royal Thai General System of Transcription’ (RTGS). In direct quotations I keep to the author’s sys- tem of transliteration but employ the RTGS system where I paraphrase. I have adhered to widely known English transliterations of common Thai phrases and proper nouns and to individuals’ and organisations’ own preferences for transcribing their names. UK spelling conventions are used throughout the text with the exception of bibliographical refer- ences, which adhere to original spellings of article, book, and journal titles. Thai authors are referred to in the text and in the bibliography by their first names. Direct quotes from informants have been edited only for length and grammatical correctness. Most translations of interview data and Thai language material are my own, although some are those of my research assistant. All personal names are pseudonyms. In order to protect informants’ identities, possible identifying markers have been omitted or changed. All photographs were taken by the author. viii Vorng_book-MBS.indd 8 24/01/2017 11:34 Glossary of Thai Terms Ammat Government officials or bureaucrats; ruling elite Amnat Power; influence Bannok Countryside; rural Chan Layer; level; stage Chan sung/klang/tam High class/middle class/lower class Chao Lord; prince; princess Chon chan Social class Chue siang Reputation Doen len To go for a leisurely walk/stroll Farang Western; Westerner Furniture Slang referring to status symbols or status markers, both material and otherwise Hi-so Slang meaning ‘high society’ Inter Slang meaning ‘international’ Isan Northeastern region of Thailand composed of 20 provinces with an ethnic Lao majority population Kalathesa Time and space/place;