386 King Vajiravudh, Sia-‐sala…, p. 233. 387 Ibid., p. 178.
388 King Vajiravudh, Phuean-‐tai…,, p. 35. 389 King Vajiravudh, Plukchai..., pp. 15-‐16. 389 King Vajiravudh, Plukchai..., pp. 15-‐16.
selecting a partner one should be cautious not to choose a bad woman.390 Moreover, suggesting the Wild Tigers to be ordained as monks, Vajiravudh considered wives and
children as a burden that would distract them from learning the dharma:
“It is normal that your wife and children are your dearest things. Though you do not love them that much, you cannot help but worrying about them. If you still cannot cut such concerns, to concentrate on learning dharma is
impossible.”391
From 1915 onwards, however, Rama VI shifted from focusing on male friendships and threats against national sovereignty towards instructing men and women’s identities on familial practices. Referring to public opinions and Western sexual mores in his verse dramas, intimate relationships outside marriage were
criticized, and people who adopted such practice condemned.392 Moreover, to marry a
promiscuous woman could also tarnish one’s social reputation, ruin friendships and
relationships with other members of the family.393 The King’s class-‐conscious stance
also supported sexual propriety. Honorable men marrying a good woman were depicted in his plays in the dignified roles of soldiers, government officials, young western graduates, and even the roles of a King. Modern women characters from the middle to high social strata (daughters or nieces of high-‐ranking officials) were also deployed to advocate monogamy.
Race was another concern of Vajiravudh throughout his reign. Chinese women, for instance, were deemed as a threat to monogamous family, as the characters of minor wife or secret wife in “Huachai-‐nakrop” and “Huachai-‐chainum” demonstrate. In the realm of actual policies, the King prohibited interracial marriage. In 1914, the royal command was sent to embassies in European countries ordering to investigate whether
390 King Vajiravudh, Lak-‐ratchakan..., p. 17. 391 King Vajiravudh, Thetsana…, p. 103. 391 King Vajiravudh, Thetsana…, p. 103. 392 King Vajiravudh, Phuean-‐tai…,,pp. 42-‐166.
Thai students studying abroad had developed intimate relationships with western
women.394 Although the title of the document suggests that such rule applied only to
princes, the document’s text indicates that any students or government officials defying
the royal command would be returned to Siam immediately.395 In his last year of reign,
the King’s speech to Thai scholarship students pontificated on the disadvantages of marrying European women. Although the Siamese aristocracy had a long history of intermarrying with foreigners, Rama VI affirmed, “Both westerners and Thais have no
respect for those who marry a person of a different nationality”.396 While interracial
marriage could discredit male patriotism, Vajiravudh attached much less significance to women. The obsession with men’ sexual practice could be due to the fact that he was surrounded by men and there was less chance of Thai women marrying westerners, different from the colonies.
In the latter years of his reign, Rama VI also developed the notion of romantic love to be an important element of the heterosexual family. Constantly criticizing arranged marriages according to social and financial status, Rama VI promoted romantic love as the proper motivation for marriage in his plays, which unprecedentedly included hugging and kissing scenes. In “Mai-‐nambona”, the King used the “pure love” of a modern woman, Mali, to turn polygamy into an acceptable practice. As her lover was accused of being once married, she eventually agreed to be his second wife: “Because she has time to think … and she feels that she loves Khun Kaew so much that she could
not let any cult stop her love for him”397
In “Kontaek” (1919) Vajiravudh also compromised his integrity to consider romantic relationships outside marriage as morally justifiable on some conditions. The condition of an arranged marriage was in his opinion more vicious than polygamy. This