page_title: Plaek Phibunsongkhram
section_title: Thai Cultural Revolution
hierarchical_section_title: Plaek Phibunsongkhram / Prime Minister of Thailand / First premiership / Thai Cultural Revolution
caption_attribution_description: English: A Thai government poster from the Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram-era (1938-1945) promoting the "civilized" form of dress.
context_page_description: Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, locally known as Marshal P., contemporarily known as Phibun in the West, was a Thai military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Thailand and dictator from 1938 to 1944 and 1948 to 1957.
  Phibunsongkhram was a member of the Royal Siamese Army wing of Khana Ratsadon, the first political party in Thailand, and a leader of the Siamese revolution of 1932 transforming Thailand from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. Phibun became the third Prime Minister of Thailand in 1938 as Commander of the Royal Siamese Army, established a de facto military dictatorship inspired by the Italian fascism of Benito Mussolini, promoted Thai nationalism and sinophobia, and allied Thailand with Imperial Japan in World War II. Phibun launched a modernization campaign known as the Thai Cultural Revolution that included a series of cultural mandates, changing the country's name from "Siam" to "Thailand", and promotion of the common Thai language.
context_section_description: Phibun immediately prioritized Thai nationalism to the point of ultranationalism, and to support this policy he launched a series of major reforms known as the Thai Cultural Revolution to increase the pace of modernisation in Thailand. His goal "Aimed to uplift the national spirit and moral code of the nation and instilling progressive tendencies and a newness into Thai life". A series of cultural mandates were issued by the government. These mandates encouraged all Thais to salute the flag in public places, know the new national anthem, and use the standardized Thai language, not regional dialects or languages. People were encouraged to adopt Western attire as opposed to traditional clothing styles. Similarly, people were encouraged to eat with a fork and spoon, rather than with their hands as was customary in Thai culture at the time. Phibun saw these policies as necessary, in the interest of progressivism, to change Thailand in the minds of foreigners from an undeveloped country into a civilised and modern one.
  Phibun's administration encouraged economic nationalism and espoused staunchly anti-Chinese sentiment despite his own Chinese ancestry. Sinophobic policies were imposed by the government to reduce the economic power of Siam's Chinese minority and encouraged the Thai people to purchase as many Thai products as possible. In a speech in 1938, Luang Wichitwathakan, himself of Chinese ancestry, followed Rama VI's book Jews of the East in comparing the Chinese in Siam to the Jews in Germany, who at the time were harshly repressed.
  On 24 June 1939, Phibun changed the country's official English name from "Siam" to "Thailand" at Wichitwathakan's urging. The name "Siam" was an exonym of unknown and probably foreign origin, which conflicted with Phibun's nationalist policies.
  In 1941, in the midst of World War II, Phibun decreed 1 January as the official start of the new year instead of the traditional Songkran date on 13 April.
caption: Thai poster from the Phibun era, showing prohibited "uncivilised" dress on the left, and proper Western dress on the right.
exif: {}