Thais Are Shocked, Shocked by Topless Dancers

[Gerald]

BANGKOK — To millions of tourists, this is a city famous for its tolerance and notoriously wild nightlife.

But a national uproar over several girls who danced topless in public during raucous celebrations at the recently concluded Songkran water festival has underlined the limits of acceptable behavior and the nuances of public morality here.

The dancers were filmed gyrating to thumping music in the heart of Bangkok on Friday, and video of it circulated widely. One clip was viewed by nearly one million people before being removed. Reports of the episode shot to the top of Thai news Web sites, and the police began an investigation. Suddenly, one of Asia’s most socially liberal societies showed a deeply conservative side.

“We will take legal actions against them,” a police official, Maj. Gen. Suwat Jangyodsuk, said of the dancers in an interview on Monday. “This has damaged a traditional Thai ceremony. The charge is doing a shameful act in public by indecently exposing oneself.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/wo...html?ref=world


Note: April 18, 2011