Bangkok's Chinatown highlights Sino-Thai blend

Bangkok's Chinatown highlights Sino-Thai blend

John Hail, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Bangkok

Bangkok's Chinatown, like its Sino-Thai population, blends
seemlessly into Thailand's bustling administrative and business
capital.

Garish red gold shops emblazoned with glittering Chinese
characters line its narrow, traffic-choked streets and alleyways,
flanked by herbal medicine and spice shops, jam-packed
restaurants and Chinese temples bristling with joss sticks.

But there are no borders to this business-intensive enclave in
a city that is arguably as Chinese as it is Thai.

"Chinatown here is not like the ones in San Francisco or New
York," said Netra Ruthaiyanont, publisher of Sing Sian Yit Pao,
the biggest of Bangkok's six Chinese-language daily newspapers.

"You don't get the same feeling. There really aren't any
borders. It's blended quite well with the rest of the city."

It is the auspiciousness of this Sino-Thai blend that sets
Bangkok's Chinatown apart from those in other Asian cities, such
as Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.

"The difference with Indonesia is that Indonesia is Moslem and
Thailand is Buddhist," Netra said. "It's more tolerant here.
We're very mixed. You can't really tell who's Chinese and who's
Thai. I wouldn't be surprised if Bangkok was half Chinese."

But the assimilation process has been bumpy since it began
almost immediately after Bangkok was founded 220 years ago by the
first king of the ruling Chakri Dynasty, King Rama I.

Waves of Chinese immigrants, mainly Tae Chiew from the
southern Chinese province of Guandong, shaped the character of
Bangkok from the very beginning.

"The Chinese are the business people and they are in Bangkok,
where the action is," Netra said.

Part of the reason for this is that throughout much of
Bangkok's history, the Chinese were forbidden to own land,
forcing them to become entrepreneurs and tradesmen.

Early in the last century, King Rama VI referred disparagingly
to the Chinese as "the Jews of the East".

The Chinese faced violent persecution during Thailand's World
War II alliance with Japan, and in the 1950s and 1960s the
dictator Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat closed Chinese schools and
newspapers and whipped up anti-Chinese sentiment.

"Fifty years ago you didn't talk about being Chinese," Netra
said.

Thailand's Chinese were tarred with the Red China brush during
much of the Cold War, but this has eased considerably since
Beijing's adoption of Deng Xiaoping's philosophy on the glories
of getting rich.

"Communism has disappeared, so the interest in Chinese things
has come back," Netra said. "Now there's more interest in Chinese
New Year, the Vegetarian Festival and the Mooncake Festival. Now
people want to send their children to Beijing to study Chinese."

Another legacy of Maoism was the wholesale destruction of much
of China's traditional architecture, particularly temples,
increasing the importance of preserving these colourful remnants
of the past outside the Middle Kingdom.

Ironically, it was the financial collapse of 1997 that saved
much of Bangkok's Chinatown from the developers' bulldozers,
according to American author Steve Van Beek, who has written
several books on the history of the Thai capital.

"You haven't seen condominium development in Chinatown like
elsewhere in the city," Van Beek said. "The area has traffic
problems, narrow streets. If you wanted to develop it you'd have
to tear it down and start over."

Although Bangkok's Chinatown has no borders, it does have a
heart, and that is Yaowarat Road, or rather the countless streets
and alleys that cross it. Bangkok's Chinatown is often called
Yaowarat.

"Generally, the narrower the alley, the more authentic it is,"
Van Beek said.

Song Wat street, parallel to Yaowarat Road and near the Chao
Phrya River, offers one of the more "authentic" glimpses into
Chinatown at its most colourful.

Van Beek lamented the disappearance of the Chinese opera
houses, many of which were converted to cinemas in the booming
1980s, and such legendary haunts as the Fuji nightclub, which
featured bawdy, burlesque and cabaret-style shows from the time
of the early 1940s Japanese occupation up to the late 1970s.

"Actually, it was the green lanterns that denoted the red
light district," Van Beek recalled.

Chitra Kornantakiet, author of the Thai-language book "The
Chinese Children", has been riding a wave of fresh interest among
Sino-Thais in their Chinese roots.

The book, currently in its 24th printing, is a big hit
particularly among younger, more-assimilated Sino-Thais.

"They want to know why their parents do this and do that," she
said. "As they get older they get more interested in Chinese
culture.

The increasing assertiveness of the Chinese community was
perhaps most visibly demonstrated with the unveiling of the
community- sponsored "Chinese Gate" at the western end of
Yaowarat Road on December 5, 2000, the 73rd birthday of King Rama
IX.

It has also been reflected in rising enrollment in Chinese-
language schools and, according to some analysts, a strategic
tilt toward Beijing, vis a vis the U.S. and Japan, by Thailand's
current Sino-Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.