Thailand

The southeast Asian country of Thailand, with a 2007 population of 65 million, was called Siam until 1939. Ruled by kings, there has long been a wealthy Chinese middle class, which has resulted in many Chinese games being introduced into the country. As a result, Mahjong is played throughout Thailand, as well as many Chinese musical instruments, although the playing of Western instruments, especially the guitar, has increased in recent years. The current king, Rama IX, is an accomplished saxophonist, and Usni Pramoj, son of the prime minister Seni Pramoj, as well as being a leading politician, is a keen recreational musician.

For younger children throughout the country, Hide-and-Seek, Marbles, Skittles, and the like were played, with parents sometimes making swings from bamboo—now wooden and metal ones can be found throughout the country. Theaters, especially traveling theatrical groups in the countryside, have been popular, and many small children fashioned their own shadow puppets from kosol bushes. The arrival of American movies from the 1950s has led to children playing cowboy and Indian role acting.

Older children, and also many men, have been involved in making models, especially more elaborate puppets, and also kites. Chess—both Chinese Chess and Indian/European Chess—has become popular from the early 20th century. The increase in interest in Western culture has also led to the introduction of playing cards, and from 1906, children's comics started to be printed in the Thai language, with characters like Sawat Chuatrop's Khun Mu'n becoming popular in children's role-playing in the 1930s, being replaced by characters such as Suk Lek from the late 1950s. The latter was the creation of Prayun Chanyawong, who was awarded the World Peace Prize in 1960. He dressed more like a European than Khun Mu'n, who donned ancient military headgear that was imitated by many children in the 1930s and 1940s.

In some of the clubs frequented by expatriates, such as the Teutonia Club for the Germans and the Concordia Club for Scandinavians, billiards and card games were popular. The British writer W Somerset Maugham painted the famous scene in his novel The Gentlemen in the Parlour (1930) of a fictional British expatriate playing the card game Patience in a club in Thailand.

Outdoor activities such as playing Tackraw, with a ball made from woven rattan; or in recent years badminton, volleyball, and ping pong, have also found many adherents. Soccer has had a great impact on Thai youth, and soccer is popular in most villages and all towns in the country. There are people playing soccer in playing fields or makeshift spaces.

The interest in soccer has been so great that in 2007, the Thai Prime Minister at the time, Taksin Shinawatra, bought the British soccer team Manchester City Football Club. The emergence of more urbanization has seen youth clubs open up in most towns and all cities, with scores opened in Bangkok, offering billiards, darts, and access to pinball machines and jukeboxes. In fact, for some British manufacturers of billiard tables, Thailand was one of the major destinations for their products during the economic boom of the late 1980s and the 1990s.

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