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Chinese Assimilation and Thai Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

G. William Skinner
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Extract

Chinese have been immigrating to Siam for at least six centuries. We are concerned here with the process whereby the descendants of Chinese immigrants become full members of Thai society. Assimilation is, of course, a social process. For the descendants of a given immigrant, its progress is defined by increasing social intercourse with members of Thai society, first public and then private and intimate; and by self-identification in an ever larger proportion of social situations as Thai rather than Chinese. Since social interaction is based on linguistic communication, assimilation perforce involves a command of the Thai language. Taking over the language of the society with which immigrants are in contact is but one part of acculturation, that is, the progressive incorporation of the way of life of the other society. While extensive acculturation can take place without complete assimilation, complete assimilation is inevitably accompanied or closely followed by fairly full acculturation. For our purposes here, assimilation is considered complete when the immigrant's descendant identifies himself in almost all social situations as a Thai, speaks the Thai language habitually and with native fluency, and interacts by choice with Thai more often than with Chinese.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , February 1957 , pp. 237 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1957

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References

1 Three typical references are as follows: According to the Siam Repository (1873, 331), grandchildren of Chinese immigrants “as a rule prefer to be considered Siamese subjects, and ignore the costume and habits of the grandfather.” In the words of Holt S. Hallett (A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States [London, 1890], p. 461), “the grandchildren of Chinese immigrants are classed and registered as Siamese, and are liable to corvée labour as soon as they measure … 50 inches to the shoulder, and are marked to one or other Government master.” Peter A. Thompson (Lotus Land [London, 1906], p. 76) wrote that lukjin “speak Siamese, have no particular reverence for the pigtail, which they as often as not dispense with, and in their sympathies and manners they are entirely Siamese.”

The writer wishes to express gratitude to the Cornell Southeast Asia Program for making the research behind this article possible.

2 In 1921/22, the first year for which immigration by sex is recorded, only 15% of Chinese immigrants were female (Statistical Year Book of Siam, No. 18, p. 981Google Scholar), while for 1945–49 inclusive, 34% of the Chinese immigration surplus was female. (Statistics supplied by the Immigration Division in Bangkok).

3 These factors are discussed in greater detail in the writer's forthcoming Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1957).Google Scholar

4 van Vliet, Jerimias, “Description of the Kingdom of Siam,” trans, by L. F. von Ravenswaay, Journal of the Siam Society, VII, Part 1 (1910), 51Google Scholar; de Mandelslo, J. A., The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors sent by Frederick, Duke of Holstein … (London, 1662), pp. 122, 130Google Scholar; [George White (?)], Report on the Trade of Siam, 1678, India Office Records O. C. 4694.

5 Yu-jung, Hsieh, Hsien-lo kuo chih [Siam Gazetteer] (Bangkok, 1949), p. 49.Google Scholar

6 Kaempfer, Engelbert, The History of Japan, together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690–98, trans, by Scheuchzer, J. G. (Glasgow, 1906), p. 38Google Scholar; Anderson, John, English Intercourse with Siam in the 17th Century (London, 1890), p. 426Google Scholar; Francois T., abbé de Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam fait en 1685 et 1686 (Paris, 1687).Google Scholar

7 Hsia Ting-hsün, “Min-ch'iao Wu Yang chi ch'i tzu-sun” (“The Hokkien Overseas Chinese Wu Yang and His Descendants”), Hua-ch'iao hsin-yü(Bangkok), Nos. 11–12 (1953).Google Scholar

8 Campbell, J. G. D., Siam in the Twentieth Century (London, 1902), p. 276.Google Scholar

9 Gutzlaff, Charles, Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China in 1831, 1832 and 1833, with Notices of Siam, Corea and the Loo-Choo Islands (London, [1840]).Google Scholar

10 Bastian, Adolf, Die Völker des östlichen Asien (Leipzig, 1867), III, 68.Google Scholar

11 Raquez, A., “Comment s'est peuplé le Siam?” L'Asie française, No. 31 (10 1903), pp. 428–438.Google Scholar

12 Burney, Captain H., “Report of the Mission to the Phraya of Salang and the Chiefs on the Isthmus of Kraw,” April 2, 1825, in The Burney Papers (Bangkok, 1910), II, 217.Google Scholar

13 Quoted in the Bangkok Times, 02 21, 1936.Google Scholar

14 Smyth, H. Warington, Five Years in Siam (London, 1898), I, 285–286, 320.Google Scholar

15 Campbell, , pp. 270–274.Google Scholar

16 “Les Chinois au Siam,” Revue indo-chinoise, N.S. V (01 15, 1907), 63–64Google Scholar; Garnier, Charles M., “Bangkok, colonie chinoise, ou le secret du colosse jaune,” Revue du mois, XII (08 10, 1911), 231–236Google Scholar; Campbell, , pp. 12–13Google Scholar; Siam Free Press, 09 27, 1906.Google Scholar

17 A translation of the document is given in Landon, Kenneth P., The Chinese in Thailand (New York, 1941), pp. 34–43.Google Scholar

18 Naturalization Act of Rathanakosin 130 (1911/12), Sec. 6; Nationality Act of B. E. 2456 (1913/14), Sec. 3. Both Acts remained in effect until 1952.

19 For statistics on Chinese education in the thirties, see Statistical Year Book of Siam, No. 18, p. 418Google Scholar; Yu-jung, Hsieh, p. 299.Google Scholar

20 Landon, , pp. 146–153, 181–185, 219–255, 277–288.Google Scholar

21 Nikon, 01 20, 1940Google Scholar. See Landon, , pp. 64–65.Google Scholar

22 The alien registration fee was set at four baht per annum in 1939, increased to eight baht in 1946, and to twenty baht in 1949. The five-fold increase in the fee between 1939 and 1949 had not quite kept pace with the inflation of the baht. 93 per cent of the aliens in Thailand in 1952 were Chinese nationals.

23 The results of this study and of an earlier study of Chinese leadership in 1952 are described and analyzed in the writer's forthcoming Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand (Monograph of the Association for Asian Studies).