The Chinese in Thailand

[Farang]

'
One seems to remember from Sterling Seagrave's books, that the actual Chinese hold on Thai society
is very subtle and well hidden. The board of the major banks and other financial institutions is Chinese only,
even to the extent that the minutes are kept in Chinese. 14 percent of Thai population is Chinese
and they own 80 % of all Thai resources.

The overseas Chinese loyalty according to Seagrave is: first family, then home village associates and then business
associates and partners. This, however, changes according to how well they have assimilated the the society.

Sterling Seagrave has put out other splendid books, and he appears to check his sources exhaustively.

Matters here expressed are unreliable due to having been stored in a brain well soaked in various libations.
,

[dane48]

Well, the chinese "situation" in Thailand and Philippines seems to be like.
There are two groups of Chinese - Those that are "refugees" - they blend in and after 2-3 generations they are assimilated almost 100%, then there are the business people, they are very conservative and stick very much to their own and don't want foreigners to intrude in any way. I used to work for a Chinese family corp. in Manila, and never get on friendly terms with any of them - very opposit to another family Pinoy corp. very open and very friendly.
I have now and then heard - even educated people - call the business Chinese, as the Jews of Asia - not that I support this statement in any way.

[johnnyk]

With regard to the Phillipines, one of the last truly feudal societies left:
Well-known that it is owned and controlled lock, stock and barrel by about 100 families who have ABSOLUTELY NO intention of relinquishing a single peso of it. The majority trace their families back to you know where.

For example, Seagrave points out that Corazon Aquino who threw out Marcos is nee Cojuangco. Nice Filipino family name, except its really Ko Huang Ko. Connect the dots.

BTW, she did not support any democratic reforms involving wealth sharing or land redistribution in any way. Nothing changed for the poor still looking for sustenance on Manila's steaming garbage mountains.

Interesting point about the order of loyalties also. Seagrave points out favours being done involving millions loans of dollars on the basis that someone helped out someone's grandfather back in the village decades before.

Whoever referred to the Chinese as the Jews of Asia is not up to speed.
The Chinese are the original and true masters of money.

That said, I find their attitude toward money to be refreshingly unambiguous. Money is good, more is better, stinking rich is best.
Totally realistic and a nice contrast to the guilt-ridden rich in the west.

[smiles]

For another take on the Chinese / Thai relationship(s) and cultural interweaving you might try reading this book which I found for sale at Amazon recently: LETTERS FROM THAILAND. Though the paperback is dated 2002, looking deeper I notice the book was actually written in 1977. But I suspect the power & social relationships between Chinese-Thais and "real" Thais have changed very little.

I haven't read it myself, though I think I will order it for beach readin' ($13.65US). The 7 or 8 reviews on the same page (scroll down) make it sound like a worthwhile book to have on the shelf, and relevent to the interesting comments in this thread.

Cheers ...

[dane48]

[quote="johnnyk"]
Whoever referred to the Chinese as the Jews of Asia is not up to speed.
The Chinese are the original and true masters of money.

Will that make the Jews the Chinese of Europe then ? - what to do about the original ? (LOL)

On the rest I agree, and there are many differenceses between the Philippines and Thailand, but not when it comes to the influence of you know who......

[vincent chang]

I have been in thailand a few years now, on and off, I speak English mainly and a little bit of Chinese, that I learned in school. I have been mistaken for Thai, Japanese, Singaporean, but never for an American until I open my mouth. I had originally thought, that with China only being less than a thousand miles away, that the Chinese and Thai culture would be quite similar. But I was wrong. I have met some Thai people who are very Chinesey, but sometimes I meet Thai people who view Chinese with suspicion and some prejudice. kind of like how some people from a rural environment might view Jews. They might think we are too clever, or trying to trick them, or resent the fact that the Chinese have the money or are good at business, or work too hard. They recognize that Chinese are good at making money, but they also stereotype us as being stingy, cheap, frugal, and not big spenders. The jewelry stores are also dominated by the Chinese-Thai. as are the merchants and landlords. I once made the mistake of giving a fake watch to a girl, and she was really mad at me for trying to pass it off as genuine. Never forgave me. she was also fed a lot of information from her farang friends which made her suspicious of Chinese people. It seems that all over the world, the Chinese are subject to vicious whispering campaigns by farangs around the world. I have heard all the stereotypes, and find it sad that some farangs continue to badmouth the chinese to all their thai friends and acquaintances. I grew up in San Francisco, where there are a lot of Chinese. but sometimes there is jealousy even from the other white residents or other minority groups as well. If I were Thai, I would probably resent China for taking away a lot of the factory jobs that were once here and relocated to China for lower wages. I see busloads of Chinese tourists coming from China in Pattaya everyday now, and the Thai people seem to look upon them with amusement, but gratefull for the tourist revenue. I think the number of tourists from China surpassed the number from Britain this year, but they dont seem to patronize the bar areas too much. There dont seem to be many Chinese buying second homes in Thailand yet, but maybe that will change as well.

[ozuncle]

[quote="vincent chang"] They might think we are too clever,

I very much doubt that!

[Big Boy]

They might think we are too clever

once made the mistake of giving a fake watch to a girl, and she was really mad at me for trying to pass it off as genuine

ozuncle,

This guy is so far up his own backside with his racist, blinkered view of the world, and he has such a large chip on his shoulder regarding his own lack of identity etc.

Personally, I couldn't care less if he looks Russian, Mongolian, Brazillian or whatever. If he is that clever, why hasn't he mastered the use of paragraphs etc etc?

He's just a wind up merchant.

[Nomad]

Three of the last 5 Prime ministers of Thailand have been Chinese-Thai. If you buy almost anything anywhere in the centeral part of Thailand and Bkk you will be using a Chinese business. The Thai chinese are the business and political powers of Thailand. The Thai passed a law 200 years ago forbidding Chinse from ownng property as they were better business people and were taking control then. So, the Chinese married Thais. Sound familar?

The Indians are starting to gain some of this power and money as well. Indians control much of lower Suk including many shops, properties and hotels and of course Nana plaza.

[vincent chang]

what is a wind up merchant? is that like a jew in the merchants of venice? I have not heard that phrase in the states before. Like I said, Chinese outside of China are a lot like the Jews, We are used to the hostility, in fact, we thrive on it.

[Big Boy]

vincent,

I'd have thought somebody as worldly wise as you would have had no problem at all googling a phrase to find out its meaning http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wind-up.

Do you not realise that the hostility is in your own head? The aggressive, racist comments are in your own postings - people are only reacting in the way they are because your postings are winding them up (inflamatory).

If you lost that chip off your shoulder, and realised that most people couldn't give a hoot what colour you are, your sexual orientation, what you look like etc; then maybe you'd get the level headed response that most people get and give on this forum.

[vincent chang]

merchant implies that I am selling something. what am I selling? If people get wound up, maybe it is because they recognize a bit of themselves in what I might be saying. sometimes the truth about oneself from another perspective is not so easy to take. You guys ask for an opinion of what other people might think of you, but maybe are not ready for a truthfull answer from an asian perspective. or an american point of view. I think most of our differences stem from cultural differences. and I dont mean asian vs. not asian. I think the american perspective on things is vastly different from the other viewpoints I have heard out there. Even though we share a common language mostly, it seems that the differences are as vast as they are with the Thai people and Thai culture as well. Perhaps if the Thai people were better at your language, they would voice some things that might be disconcerting to both you and me. but they are so polite here in the land of smiles that they probably would not tell us how they truly feel anyway. If I have a chip on my shoulder it is probably because my mom is from south africa and my dad is from an island kingdom which was conqured by the usa and colonialized by Americans.

[norm]

Vincent

I don't know why where your parents came from should give you a chip on your shoulder. I doubt seriously if most people know or care where they originated.

I think you have some basic problems when you think people are picking on you, paranoid perhaps?

[BaaBaa.]

I speak English mainly and a little bit of Chinese.

And a huge amount of something else.

[nevets]

American,s do not speek English anyway.