Thai dance diplomacy: Thai government communication strategies for building soft power through staging Thai performances abroad

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.