The difference in closeness and looseness of cultural pattern as between
Thailand and such a culture as the Japanese may also be seen in games of
poem exchange. In Japan a well known “socia1”game involves knowing by
heart a hundred classical poems, so that when two lines are recited by one
contestant the other can complete the poem with the remaining lines. In rural
Japan the folk poetry is less likely to take a contest form and there is some
improvisation, but by and large the texts are remarkably standard in any
given region. In Thailand also there are poetic contests, but here, while there
is a general plot to which any given series of rhymes must conform, there is
much room for improvisation and direction of the story to suit the occasion.2s
Both societies have poem contests, but one is bound by tight formal rules