Bangkok's Chinatown highlights Sino-Thai blend<\/p>\n
John Hail, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Bangkok<\/p>\n
Bangkok's Chinatown, like its Sino-Thai population, blends
\nseemlessly into Thailand's bustling administrative and business
\ncapital.<\/p>\n
Garish red gold shops emblazoned with glittering Chinese
\ncharacters line its narrow, traffic-choked streets and alleyways,
\nflanked by herbal medicine and spice shops, jam-packed
\nrestaurants and Chinese temples bristling with joss sticks.<\/p>\n
But there are no borders to this business-intensive enclave in
\na city that is arguably as Chinese as it is Thai.<\/p>\n
\"Chinatown here is not like the ones in San Francisco or New
\nYork,\" said Netra Ruthaiyanont, publisher of Sing Sian Yit Pao,
\nthe biggest of Bangkok's six Chinese-language daily newspapers.<\/p>\n
\"You don't get the same feeling. There really aren't any
\nborders. It's blended quite well with the rest of the city.\"<\/p>\n
It is the auspiciousness of this Sino-Thai blend that sets
\nBangkok's Chinatown apart from those in other Asian cities, such
\nas Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
\"The difference with Indonesia is that Indonesia is Moslem and
\nThailand is Buddhist,\" Netra said. \"It's more tolerant here.
\nWe're very mixed. You can't really tell who's Chinese and who's
\nThai. I wouldn't be surprised if Bangkok was half Chinese.\"<\/p>\n
But the assimilation process has been bumpy since it began
\nalmost immediately after Bangkok was founded 220 years ago by the
\nfirst king of the ruling Chakri Dynasty, King Rama I.<\/p>\n
Waves of Chinese immigrants, mainly Tae Chiew from the
\nsouthern Chinese province of Guandong, shaped the character of
\nBangkok from the very beginning.<\/p>\n
\"The Chinese are the business people and they are in Bangkok,
\nwhere the action is,\" Netra said.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason for this is that throughout much of
\nBangkok's history, the Chinese were forbidden to own land,
\nforcing them to become entrepreneurs and tradesmen.<\/p>\n
Early in the last century, King Rama VI referred disparagingly
\nto the Chinese as \"the Jews of the East\".<\/p>\n
The Chinese faced violent persecution during Thailand's World
\nWar II alliance with Japan, and in the 1950s and 1960s the
\ndictator Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat closed Chinese schools and
\nnewspapers and whipped up anti-Chinese sentiment.<\/p>\n
\"Fifty years ago you didn't talk about being Chinese,\" Netra
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Thailand's Chinese were tarred with the Red China brush during
\nmuch of the Cold War, but this has eased considerably since
\nBeijing's adoption of Deng Xiaoping's philosophy on the glories
\nof getting rich.<\/p>\n
\"Communism has disappeared, so the interest in Chinese things
\nhas come back,\" Netra said. \"Now there's more interest in Chinese
\nNew Year, the Vegetarian Festival and the Mooncake Festival. Now
\npeople want to send their children to Beijing to study Chinese.\"<\/p>\n
Another legacy of Maoism was the wholesale destruction of much
\nof China's traditional architecture, particularly temples,
\nincreasing the importance of preserving these colourful remnants
\nof the past outside the Middle Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Ironically, it was the financial collapse of 1997 that saved
\nmuch of Bangkok's Chinatown from the developers' bulldozers,
\naccording to American author Steve Van Beek, who has written
\nseveral books on the history of the Thai capital.<\/p>\n
\"You haven't seen condominium development in Chinatown like
\nelsewhere in the city,\" Van Beek said. \"The area has traffic
\nproblems, narrow streets. If you wanted to develop it you'd have
\nto tear it down and start over.\"<\/p>\n
Although Bangkok's Chinatown has no borders, it does have a
\nheart, and that is Yaowarat Road, or rather the countless streets
\nand alleys that cross it. Bangkok's Chinatown is often called
\nYaowarat.<\/p>\n
\"Generally, the narrower the alley, the more authentic it is,\"
\nVan Beek said.<\/p>\n
Song Wat street, parallel to Yaowarat Road and near the Chao
\nPhrya River, offers one of the more \"authentic\" glimpses into
\nChinatown at its most colourful.<\/p>\n
Van Beek lamented the disappearance of the Chinese opera
\nhouses, many of which were converted to cinemas in the booming
\n1980s, and such legendary haunts as the Fuji nightclub, which
\nfeatured bawdy, burlesque and cabaret-style shows from the time
\nof the early 1940s Japanese occupation up to the late 1970s.<\/p>\n
\"Actually, it was the green lanterns that denoted the red
\nlight district,\" Van Beek recalled.<\/p>\n
Chitra Kornantakiet, author of the Thai-language book \"The
\nChinese Children\", has been riding a wave of fresh interest among
\nSino-Thais in their Chinese roots.<\/p>\n
The book, currently in its 24th printing, is a big hit
\nparticularly among younger, more-assimilated Sino-Thais.<\/p>\n
\"They want to know why their parents do this and do that,\" she
\nsaid. \"As they get older they get more interested in Chinese
\nculture.<\/p>\n
The increasing assertiveness of the Chinese community was
\nperhaps most visibly demonstrated with the unveiling of the
\ncommunity- sponsored \"Chinese Gate\" at the western end of
\nYaowarat Road on December 5, 2000, the 73rd birthday of King Rama
\nIX.<\/p>\n
It has also been reflected in rising enrollment in Chinese-
\nlanguage schools and, according to some analysts, a strategic
\ntilt toward Beijing, vis a vis the U.S. and Japan, by Thailand's
\ncurrent Sino-Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.<\/p>",
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