CHINATOWN (PART 1)

OF INFLUENCES AND ACCULTURATION

#attimidiordinariafotografia

The crowded Yaowarat Road - Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand.

A small roadside shop selling lanterns and other red items - Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand.

A Chinatown alley - Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand.

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The Chinese population in Thailand represents the largest community outside the borders of China in the world. Arriving in the 2000s to constitute 14% of the Thai population, relations between these peoples and their cultures go back many centuries, more precisely to when this area of Asia did not yet have the name by which we know it today. Phenomena such as immigration and trade have ensured intense and continuous contact, even if spoilt by the strongly conflicting feelings of different historical and political phases. In any case, having Chinese ancestry is very common among Thais - the so-called Sino-Thai component accounts for as much as 40% of the national population: suffice it to say that the founder of the current royal family, King Rama I (1782-1809), had Chinese ancestry, as did his predecessor, King Taskin (1767-1782), whose father had migrated from Guandong province.

Any relationship that is established between two or more elements is something extremely complex: at the same time encounter - capable of bringing together and assimilating characteristics - and clash - capable of distancing and emphasising differences. When it comes to cultures, to cultural identity, this process takes on greater importance and becomes even more delicate; it tends to negotiate its boundaries over time, drawing new ones, modifying existing ones all the time. Although this encounter/clash shows several facets of complex interpretation for which it would be erroneous to speak of assimilation, Thailand represents one of the South-East Asian countries where the integration of this community has taken place most easily.

The diffusion and practice of Buddhism, even though of two different schools of thought, the possibility of forging marriage ties, the Thai people's esteem for the hard-working culture and the Chinese business model, the strong influence, both in terms of techniques and recipes, in the culinary sphere still found today in many dishes that have become symbols of Thai street food. All this and many other factors provided an excellent starting point in fuelling the more spontaneous part of this process of mutual acculturation. Other elements, induced by laws born during phases when a strong nationalistic spirit prevailed, then did the rest. Examples of this are the use of Thai in the education system of Chinese schools in the country and the adoption of Thai surnames in addition to those of origin.

Regardless of the nature of these elements, over the course of long centuries, an ever-increasing common ground has formed on which these cultures have been able to establish their daily relations.

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A man in a motor cart rides through an alleyway full of murals - Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand.

A child walks down an alleyway full of murals - Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand.

A Chinese temple - Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand.