Kite-Fighting in Siam at the Turn of the 20th Century: Social Time and Self-Control

Abstract This research illustrates how the 2-month period of the “traditional” kite-fighting season was changed to suit the “modern” temporal order based on an attempt to separate work and leisure through the civilizing campaign by the Siamese elite in the context of colonization and nation-state building at the turn of the 20th century. The research also shows how the Siamese and the Westerners who participated in kite-fighting games learned to improve their self-control to follow this new temporal order. To understand sporting culture during the early era of modern, standardized sports in Siam, this research aims to fill the gap left from previous studies, which overlooked the changes in self-control with respect to Norbert Elias’ concept of a transformed “social time.” This research adopts the concept of the civilizing offensives and Norbert Elias’ concept of social time to investigate the ways the Siamese elite attempted to civilize the people’s behavior of spending time enjoying kite-fighting to help maintain the former’s political power. To answer the research questions (auto)biographies and newspapers are used to reflect the Siamese’s and Westerners’ perspectives on spending time and kite-fighting. To legitimize the king’s power in the absolutist monarchy, the nouveau temporal order of the elite was intentionally mixed with traditional elements of Siamese culture, emphasizing astrological calculations of auspicious time and religious sacredness. When participating in kite-fighting games, some participants—the Siamese and the Westerners—ambivalently applied self-control to respect the modern temporal order. It was not until the 1910s that many Siamese felt compelled to spend time “appropriately.”