How to really promote culture

If the deputy director-general thought he could get her to tone down the outfit and the shimmy for the sake of the country’s image overseas, he must have been dreaming.

Thank you for the “cultural promotion”, Baitoey can tell the ill-advised cynic after drawing more than 1,000 entrants to a nan oak dance competition outside the Siam Discovery shopping centre over the weekend. Nan oak is the jiggle she made famous in her video for the song “Rak Tong Perd”. The contest’s top prize was Bt100,000.

Media observers called it a clever “rebellion” on Baitoey’s part, and surely her label, R Siam, can now dismiss any thought of making the dance and the costume less sexy. 

One other reason for Baitoey to thank the cultural watchdog: Her appearance fee has tripled to Bt150,000! Everybody wants to see what the government doesn’t want us to see.

 

 

Mint condition

Chalida “Mint” Vijitvongthong, one of the stars of the hit Channel 3 series “Khunchai Ronapee”, had to learn a few new things for the role as poor Piangkwan, who sews, cooks and does traditional dance. Mint was never that poor, as you can probably guess from her nickname.

Poor kid just the same, though – she actually wanted to play beauty queen Krongkaew in the series “Suparbburut Chuthathep” but was rejected. “I think I’m not that beautiful,” Mint sighs. 

To portray Piangkwan, she had to learn the high-classical dance chui chai bram. “It’s very hard,” she says, but it probably serves her right because she’d declared in her CV that she could do the dance. It was an old CV, she pleads in her own defence. “I was 12 and listed all the skills I had!” She could do some classical dancing – but only well enough to nail a few commercials and music videos.