while the other stresses individual variation within broad boundaries of rhyme and plot.
Still another manifestation of the Thai way is found in cabaret life. In
Singapore the Chinese have organized cabarets so that there is no dancing
with the taxi dance-girls without tickets, and the whole procedure is well
organized to give a steady financial profit to the management. Bangkok also
has cabarets-but no manager has succeeded in running one Singapore style.
Each girl comes or does not come on a given night as she pleases; she may or
may not require a guest to buy a dance ticket; and if she goes home with him
afterward she may or may not be mercenary about it, depending on how she
feels. A man from Singapore with some experience in cabaret management
commented unfavorably to me on the casual way in which these things are
done in Bangkok. Cabarets are, of course, an innovation in Bangkok from
the West, but the permissive behavior pattern of managers and the individual
behavior of the girls are characteristically Thai. Even if the manager is
Chinese or European he finds it necessary to adjust his management to the