Culture vultures
What is wrong if a character from the classic tale of the Ramayana is shown in a music video to have enjoyed tourism activities? Or driving a go-cart or cooking coconut cream cakes? Many people in the country believe there is nothing untoward with such depictions, but not the Ministry of Culture which threatened to ban the video unless its content is adjusted.
The ministry’s reaction only shows how out-of-touch, backward and narrow-minded it is. While its ultra-conservative attitude is no longer a surprise, the level of parochialism and intolerance the ministry has shown in this case still seems extraordinary.
The four-minute-long video at the heart of the controversy was directed by Bhandit Thongdee and released on Sept 11. It uses characters from the Hindu epic Ramayana led by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, to encourage Thais to travel within the country.
The plot was simple enough. The “Fun to Travel in Thailand” video shows actors dressed as characters from the Ramayana enjoying tourism activities in different regions.
These include having the demon king and his commanders driving go-carts, cooking coconut cream cakes, biking and taking selfies.
Most people who saw the video online commented that it was a creative take, an admirable attempt to apply Thai cultural heritage to promote the country’s tourism.
Former Fine Arts Department official Ladda Tangsupachai, however, is not one of them.
Ms Ladda filed a complaint with the Bunditpatanasilpa Institute, formerly the College of Dramatic Arts, accusing the music video of being inappropriate as it shows the fictional character Ravana performing “inelegant” touristic activities that do not seem to befit his status as the king of ogres, in the literature.
The institute called a meeting of experts who agreed that it was not appropriate to depict characters from the literary classic featured in “mundane” scenes such as biking or taking selfies.
Early this week, the Cultural Promotion Department of the Ministry of Culture called the video director in and told him to adjust the content of the promotional clip.
It is no exaggeration to say that once the ministry made its stance clear, the controversy quickly escalated into an exchange of opinions between the ultra-conservative authority and the rest of the Thai people including academics, cultural experts, dancers and activists.
Should Thai cultural heritage be kept strictly “on the shelf” where it may be worshipped but likely to become irrelevant to modern people and wither away?
Should the character Ravana — the tale of the Ramayana, khon performances or any cultural legacies for that matter — be subject to modern interpretation, adaptation and changes to keep them alive as people’s lifestyles and tastes evolve?
Debates are going on ferociously and if the Culture Ministry is not buttressing itself too thickly it would have heard that arguments for cultures to be pluralistic, to be treated as ever-evolving ideas and beliefs that can be stretched in any given direction so that they are relevant to an increasingly diversified cultural life of various peoples have prevailed over its stiff interpretation of what “culture” should be.
The backlash actually prompted the Culture Ministry to do a double-take and call for another meeting of dramatic arts and culture experts to reconsider the Ravana-go-carting music video and find an amicable way out for all involved.
What the ministry should be aware of, however, that it is not the music video that is at issue, but its own ultra-conservative and narrow-minded approach towards culture that must be altered.