Thai Chinese
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese:	泰國華人
Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Tàiguó huárén Min - Min-nan POJ: Thai-kok hoa-lang - Teochew Peng'im: Thaai kok hua jing Yue (Cantonese) - Jyutping: taai3 gwok8 waa4 yan4
Thai name
Thai:	คนไทยเชื้อสายจีน,เจ๊ก

The Thai Chinese are an overseas Chinese community who live in Thailand. At present they constitute an estimated 14% of the population, though due to intermarriage with ethnic Thais there can be no precise figure.

The majority of the Thai Chinese trace their ancestry to the Chaozhou prefecture in northern Guangdong. Thus they speak the Minnan Chaozhou dialect. A minority trace their ancestry to Hakka and Hainanese immigrants. As of 1987, there were approximately six million Thais of Chinese descent. They are found at all levels of Thai society and play a leading role in business and politics. The revered monarch, His Majesty King Bhumipol Adulyadej, had some Chinese ancestry from his mother.

Language

The Thai language has largely supplanted Chinese amongst Thai Chinese, although Teochew is sometimes used as a commercial lingua franca, principally in Bangkok. However, the wide usage and revival of Mandarin Chinese is gradually making it the second language of the younger Thai Chinese for business purposes, as well as a tool to identify with their heritage.

Religion

Theravada Buddhism has overshadowed the traditional Mahayana Buddhist and Taoist beliefs of the Thai Chinese, although many of the less assimilated older Chinese retain some or most of their beliefs. For example, the Teochew and Hainanese preserve ashes from incense burned at the shrines in their home villages. The Hakka will have religious images in their houses called Faa Jukong, representing a male deity with black skin and upward pointing hair.

Unlike Singapore and to a lesser extent Malaysia, where the local Chinese largely speak Mandarin as their first language or second language, the majority of the Thai Chinese seldom consider themselves Chinese. Many have completely assimilated into mainstream Thai society.

History

The history of Chinese immigration to Thailand dates back many centuries. Chinese traders in Thailand, mostly from Fujian and Guangdong, began arriving in Ayutthaya by at least the thirteenth century. Ayutthaya was under almost constant Burmese threat from the 16th century, and Qianlong, Emperor of Qing was alarmed by the Burmese military might. From 1766-1769, Qianlong sent his armies four times to subdue the Burmese, but all four invasions failed. Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese in 1767. The Chinese efforts diverted the attention of Burma's Siam army, and the Thai Chinese General Taksin, took advantage of the situation by organizing his force and attacking them. Taksin actively encouraged Chinese immigration and trade. Settlers came principally from Chaozhou prefecture in large numbers.

Also, according to Chronicles of Ayutthaya, King Ekathotsarot (r. 1605-1610) had been "concerned solely with ways of enriching his treasury," and was "greatly inclined toward strangers and foreign nations," especially Portugal, Spain, the Philippines, China, and Japan.

The Chinese population in Thailand jumped from 230,000 in 1825 to 792,000 by 1910. By 1932, approximately 12.2% of the population of Thailand was Chinese.

However, early Chinese immigration consisted almost entirely of Chinese men who married Thai women. Children of such intermarriages were known as Luk-jin in Thai.^[1] This tradition of Chinese-Thai intermarriage declined when large numbers of Chinese women began to emigrate into Thailand in the early 20th century.

The corruption of the Qing dynasty and the massive population increase in China, along with very high taxes, caused many men to leave China for Thailand in search of work. If successful, they sent money back to their families in China. Many Chinese prospered under the "tax farming" system, whereby private individuals were sold the right to collect taxes at a price below the value of the tax revenues.

In the late 1800's, when Thailand was busy defending its independence from the colonial powers, Chinese bandits from Yunnan Province began raids into the country in the Haw wars (Thai: ปราบกบฏฮ่อ). Thai nationalist attitudes at all levels were accordingly colored by anti-Chinese sentiment. Members of the Chinese community had long dominated domestic commerce and had served as agents for the royal trade monopolies. With the rise of European economic influence, however, many Chinese shifted to the opium traffic and tax collecting, both of which were despised occupations. In addition, Chinese millers and rice traders were blamed for an economic recession that gripped Siam for nearly a decade after 1905. Accusations of bribery of officials, wars between the Chinese secret societies, and use of violent tactics to collect taxes served to turn foster Thai resentment against the Chinese at a time when the community was expanding rapidly due to immigration.

By 1910, nearly 10 percent of Thailand's population was Chinese. Moreover, the new arrivals frequently came in families and resisted assimilation. Chinese nationalism, encouraged by Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Chinese revolution, had also begun to develop, parallel with Thai nationalism. The Chinese community even supported a separate school system for its children.

Legislation by King Rama VI (1910-1925) that required the adoption of Thai surnames was largely directed at easing tensions with Chinese community by encouraging assimilation. Thai Chinese had to choose between forsaking their Chinese identity or being regarded as foreigners. Most opted to become Thai.

The Chinese in Thailand also suffered discrimination between the 1930s to 1950s under the military dictatorship of Prime Minister Plaek Pibulsonggram, (in spite of being part-Chinese himself).^[2] State corporations took over commodities such as rice, tobacco and petroleum, and Chinese businesses found themselves subject to a range of new taxes and controls.

Nevertheless, the Chinese were still encouraged to become Thai citizens, and by 1970 it was estimated that more than 90 percent of the Chinese born in Thailand had done so. When diplomatic relations were established with China in the 1970s, resident Chinese not born in Thailand were offered the chance of becoming Thai citizens. The remaining permanent resident Chinese alien population was then estimated at less than 200,000.

Dialect groups

The vast majority of the Thai Chinese belong to various southern Chinese dialect groups. Of these, 56% are Teochew, 16% Hakka and 11% Hainanese. The Cantonese and Hokkien each constitute 7% of the Chinese population, and 3% belong to other Chinese dialect groups.

The Teochew Chinese mainly settled around Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. Many of them worked in government sectors, while others were involved in trade. During the reign of King Taksin, some influential Teochew traders were granted enjoyed certain privileges. These traders were called "Royal Chinese" (Jin-luang in Thai).

The Hakka Chinese are mostly in Songkhla and Phuket. The Hakka own many private banks in Thailand, including both the Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn.

A significant number of Thai Chinese are descendants of the offsprings of Chinese immigrants and Thais, while there are also groups who are of pure Chinese orgin. Groups of pure Chinese orgin mostly are descendants of immigrants who relocated to Thailand as well as other parts of Nanyang (the Chinese term used at the time for calling Southeast Asia) in the early to mid 20th century due to famine and civil war in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong (Teochew, Cantonese, Hainan groups) and Fujian (Hokkien).

In the southern Thai provinces, especially those bordering Malaysia, the assimilated group is known as Peranakans. These people share a common culture and identity with the Peranakan Chinese in neighboring Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.^[3] More information on the Peranakan Thai Chinese can be found in the links below.

Substantial numbers of Chinese people of (mainly) Yunnanese descent can be found in villages around Chiang Rai Province. These are descendants of Kuomintang soldiers who fought against the Chinese Communist soldiers in the 1940s, before fleeing to the northern regions and settling among the local people.^[4][5][6]

Surnames

A Thai Chinese can often be recognized by having a surname containing the original Chinese name or its translation. In former prime minister Banharn Silpa-Archa's name, Archa (horse) is the translation of the Chinese surname (馬). Another example is Sondhi Limthongkul, where Lim is the Hainanese dialect of the Chinese surname Lin. Many Thai Chinese adopted long surnames to mimic the royal names formerly given to high officials by the kings. Ethnic Thais tend to have shorter surnames, though many have now changed them to longer ones. Thai Chinese generally adopted Thai surnames to avoid persecution by assimilating into society. When choosing a surname, they would often combine auspicious Thai words with their original Chinese surname.

See also

• Overseas Chinese
• British Chinese

Further reading

• Successfully Yours: Thanet Supornsaharungsi

External links

• 泰华网
• Thai-Chinese chamber of commerce
• Assessment for Chinese in Thailand
• The Peranakan Resource Library - A resource website for all things Peranakan Chinese
• Anti-Chinese Labor riot of 1924, & bottom of page, how Thai Army suppressed 1889 riot between Chinese triads Tang Kong Xi (Techiew) and Siew Li Kue (Fujian)
• Why do Thais have long surnames?
• Thai Chinese religion

•  • [ e] Ethnic groups in Thailand
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