A Meeting of Masks: Status, Power and Hierarchy in Bangkok by Sophorntavy Vorng (review)

In 1977, Benedict Anderson first focused attention on the then new Thai middle class, arguing that the success of the 1973 uprising against military rule in Bangkok had depended on its support. By the time of the massacre of students at Thammasat University in 1976, however, the same now anxious middle class, fearing economic decline and the loss of its status, provided tacit support to a successful rightist coup. Since that time, much has been written of the politics of the Thai middle class, but little of its attitudes, its anxieties and its aspirations. In this book, Sophorntavy Vorng helps to fill that gap.

A Meeting of Masks begins with the challenging task of defining the Bangkok middle class. Its author considers educational prestige the most important factor defining that middle class. Yet she notes that a wide variety of secondary factors, such as occupation, individual income or family income, may also contribute to middle-class status. Sophorntavy therefore opts for "a non-linear model incorporating multiple variables of class and status" (p. 29). While this approach makes for a complex definition with untidy boundaries, it fits well with the older status hierarchies in Thailand, which drew distinctions between individuals on the basis of an even wider set of factors. It may thus better represent the reality than more straightforward definitions taken from social science literature. In a work of ethnography, it proves effective.

Sophorntavy pursues the link between older status hierarchies and middle-class attitudes, employing the concepts of kalathesa (time and place), khaorop sathanthi (respect for place) and ru thisung thitam (knowing high and low) to link the etiquette of the middle class to the court culture of the past. She argues that using these terms, which frequently came up in her discussions with middle-class informants, best allows an analysis both of the interaction of local and global frameworks of space and of the way in which new status hierarchies overlay older hierarchies. For Sophorntavy the Thai middle class is thus embedded in both global and local status hierarchies, which largely shape its members' thinking and behaviour. She places particular emphasis on the role of local culture, including the use of personal pronouns, levels of speech, the wai and other status markers in Thai society.

Like Anderson, Sophorntavy attaches importance to the recent origins of much of the Thai middle class; for both scholars, that newness leads to anxieties. However, whereas Anderson investigated the political consequences of middle-class anxieties, Sophorntavy is more concerned with the social consequences. The middle class's social anxieties, she argues, are rooted in uncertainties regarding the expected behaviour of its members, and they are often compounded for those new to urban lifestyles. Knowing how to dress, where to shop, what to eat and how to comport oneself in such a way as to gain acceptance as a member of the middle class can be quite complex. Since status hierarchies are linked to Thai Buddhist culture, appropriate behaviour also includes a moral component. To address the resultant anxieties, an entire genre of "how to" books on proper middle-class behaviour has emerged. And yet, we might note, the most common model for behaviour is other members of the middle class. Perhaps, ironically, independent thinking is therefore discouraged in the class whose members we might otherwise expect to defend social and political freedoms. Here, again, Anderson and Sophorntavy appear to share common ground, in that the ultimate anxiety, concerning loss of their newfound middle-class status, leads members of the Bangkok middle class to defend status hierarchies jealously.

Sophorntavy also outlines the competitiveness inherent in the strong focus on social hierarchies and in the economic competition in a neo-liberal climate that sees members of the middle class competing with one another in hopes of achieving "hi-so" (high society) status. Members of the middle class see nothing immoral in employing connections to circumvent legal obstacles...