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ABSTRACT
Thailand has employed dance diplomacy in its international relations activities for more than 150 years, but there is a dearth of research on Thai dance. This study empirically explores untapped data on Thai dances used by Thai royal courts and governments. The research objectives are to elucidate communication strategies and strategic designs behind the ‘Thai dance diplomacy’ sponsored by Thai governments from 1998 to 2022 and to study the effectiveness of the diplomacy’s evaluation. Documentary research and in-depth interviews with five experts behind official Thai performances at home and abroad were conducted. The results indicate that directors designed performances based on budget constraint, creativity, cultural familiarity, and similarity between Thailand and other countries, exploiting the meanings of occasions upon which shows were performed. Show tactics were derived in alignment with the modified SMCR model of Thai dance communications by Virulrak ([2004]. หลักการแสดงนาฏยศิลป์ปริทรรศน์ [Principles of dramatic arts]. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press) to portray beautiful, skilful, moral, and contemporary elements of Thai culture. A pitfall of Thai dance diplomacy is the evaluation system, which employs only the subjective judgement of diplomats and dance crews.
Acknowledgement
189 Communications Intelligence Co., Ltd. provided pictures of Thai performances in with the permission to share and/or reproduce for educational purposes. And gratitude is extended to the two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions significantly enhanced the quality of this manuscript, and to the editor for providing the opportunity to further develop it.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Scholars indicate relationships between strategic communication and public diplomacy in four directions i.e. the two terms are synonymous; they are different; they are overarching; strategic communication is under public diplomacy (Löffelholz, Auer, and Srugies 2014; Nye 2004).
2 Melissen (2011) stated that public diplomacy practices in Asian countries show more strategic perspectives than those observed in Western countries by (1) emphasising on long-term goals rather than correcting short-term damages and (2) focusing more on regional dimensions (e.g. ASEAN countries) for community-building and cooperation.
3 Thailand Festival is the MFA's main cultural event in foreign countries. There are Thai performances, product and food stalls, crafting activities, and for some cities, an exhibition. The Royal Thai Consulates are usually the host, inviting businesses in Thailand and Thais in that country to perform dances or sell their products.