Religion and Family of the Chinese and Thai in Thailand and Influences1

Religion and Family of the Chinese and Thai in Thailand and Influences1 Liang Chua Morita Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan Since the 1950s, the view that the Chinese in Thailand would be assimilated into Thai society was widely held. It was also believed that Chinese culture would be absorbed into Thai culture. This view was challenged in the 1990s and among other things, it was asserted that Chinese culture has not been absorbed, but rather influenced by Thai culture. Thai culture, on the other hand, has also changed due to influences from Chinese culture. It is also said that both Chinese and Thai culture may become more alike due to the adoption of Western beliefs and practices. This paper focuses on two aspects of culture: religion and family. Older views of the religion of the Chinese and the Thai, more recent studies and evidence of influence are discussed. It is shown that the degree to which Chinese and Thai practices are combined is remarkable, for example, the Chinese worship both the Buddha (housed in wat ‘Thai temple’) and Chinese deities. Even something as important to the Chinese as death practices and ancestor worship are infused with Thai practices. Chinese and Thai family values and attitudes are also discussed, particularly the less frequently mentioned Thai values in comparative studies. 1. Introduction Since the 1950s, the prevailing view had been that the Chinese would become assimilated into Thai society, but it was challenged by Chan Kwok Bun and Tong Chee Kiong, among others, in the 1990s. The assumption was that Chinese culture would change in the direction of Thai culture and that this change would be in one direction only. Culture presumably includes religion. Chan and Tong pointed out that in addition to Thai influences on Chinese culture, Chinese culture has influenced Thai culture. It has become widely accepted that it is more accurate and useful to think of Chinese culture as being influenced by its Thai counterpart rather than 125 言語文化論集第 XXVIII 巻第 2 号 being absorbed. Through the study of Chinese and Thai religious practices, the author supports Chan and Tong’s observation that both Chinese and Thai culture have changed due to their influence on each other. Despite heavy influence, Chinese religion has not been absorbed into its Thai counterpart. Writing in relation to funeral rituals, Chan and Tong (1993: 162) commented that there is undoubtedly a mixture of Chinese and Thai customs, but this mixture does not mean the demise of Chinese rituals nor its replacement by Thai ones, but a modification and adaptation of both customs to become part Chinese and part Thai. In this paper, even though the author finds more instances of Thai influence on Chinese religion than vice versa, Chinese culture has no doubt influenced Thai culture. Anthony Diller (personal communication) points out that, linguistically, Thai uses hundreds of Chinese loanwords. Some of these loanwords are from earlier periods, for example, the numbers from two to ten were borrowed more than 1,000 years ago. Other loanwords are several hundred years old, for example, kao-ii2 ‘chair’, tok ‘table’, kuai-tiaw ‘rice-flour noodles’ and tao-huu ‘bean curd’, probably from Teochew (a variety of Chinese spoken in the southern China). This paper also includes a study of Chinese and Thai family values and patterns of post-marital residence. I will proceed to discuss the assimilation thesis and some recent views, which will be followed by analyses of religion and family. 2. Assimilation of the Chinese in Thailand Compared to other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, Thailand has had greater success in integrating Chinese immigrants into its society. There has been relatively little violence involving them and the indigenous com- munity in comparison with the riots in Malaysia in 1969 or the violence in Java in 1998. In the 1950s, the view that within two to three generations, descendants of the Chinese would become so assimilated that they become Thai (Skinner 1957, 1958, 1963, 1973) became influential. Skinner asserted that assimilation would be complete by the fourth generation and the character of assimilation would take the form of prolific use of the Thai language in almost every social context, private or public. He (1963: 1) found that the majority of Chinese descendants merged with Thai society and became indistinguishable from the indigenous population. Many researchers in 126 Religion and Family of the Chinese and Thai in Thailand and Influences the field such as Amyot (1972) and Ossapan (1979) have used Skinner’s assumption in their work. They argued that the combination of Thai government policies and the lack of formal Chinese education had led to the assimilation of the Chinese. However, the Skinner’s thesis has been challenged by recent scholars and journal- ists. They observe that rather than becoming absorbed into Thai society and losing their sense of being Chinese, many descendants of immigrants continue to regard themselves as Chinese and have become increasingly open about their heritage (Chan and Tong 1993; Vatikiotis 1996). In the past, some writers may have overemphasised positive attitudes towards Thai society. Ramsay (2001: 55-6) points out that one reason those who predicted the complete acculturation and assimilation of the Chinese were mistaken is that they overlooked significant reasons the Chinese might have to retain a Chinese identity. One such reason was practical: the Chinese identity was critical to maintaining guanxi ‘personal relationship’ networks for business purposes. Such networks have been essential to success in business and continue to be so. Another reason is that a Chinese identity meets personal emotional needs for appreciation, affiliation, harmony and pleasure (Chan and Tong 1993: 144). 3. An alternative to assimilation The authors of Pornchai et al 2001 argue convincingly against Skinner’s thesis of assimilation. The concept of assimilation was first developed in the United States, where various ethnic groups participated in the creation of a new nation and a new identity. In Thailand, the same idea was applied to the Chinese, suggesting cultural transformation and social integration into Thai culture and society (p. 228). The authors discuss three problems with Skinner’s thesis. The first is that one cannot simply say that the Chinese are absorbed into Thai culture or society; many aspects of Thai culture and society have been influenced by Chinese elements as well (p. 229). In the introduction to Tong and Chan 2001, the authors argue that assimilation cannot be seen as a straight line, one-way process of the Chinese becoming Thai. Assimilation is at least a two-way process which, in the long run, will leave the Chinese with something Thai and the Thai with something Chinese (p. 9). The second problem is that both the Thai and the Chinese have been exposed to external Western practices and ideas during the country’s modernisation, develop- ment and industrialisation process, especially in recent years. They have become more alike because both are to some extent assimilated into a common new cultural 127 言語文化論集第 XXVIII 巻第 2 号 and social environment as they share many cosmopolitan practices and beliefs (Porn- chai et al 2001: 229). This Western influence comes in the form of consumerism, materialism and capitalism. A case in point is the Western-styled consumerism and materialism Bao (2001) observes in Sino-Thai3 weddings. Both the Thai and the Chinese could be developing to form a new collective identity and consciousness (Tong and Chan 2001: 4). Thirdly, the Thai and the Chinese are not homogeneous ethnic groups. There is no single set of Thai cultural practices which one can say the Chinese have assimilated, nor do all Chinese share the same pattern of relationship with the Thai (Pornchai et al 2001: 229-30). There are many dialect groups among the Chinese while the Thai are a diverse collection of people (including Siamese in the centre, Lao in the northeast and Khon Muang in the north). Walwipha (2001: 69-72, 76-7) questions assumptions of the Chinese and the Thai as homogeneous groups. Researchers have used deviation from cultural norms in China as a yardstick of assimilation. However, if we take the view that identity and perception of an ethnic group is not necessarily bound to any fixed culture and that they can exist and adapt to social and cultural changes, then the Chinese will remain Chinese as long as they still believe in their Chineseness, even if parts of their culture may be different from those of their ancestors (Walwipha 2001: 70). The fieldwork carried out in Wang Thong in Pornchai et al 2001 (pp. 235-7) is particularly useful for illustrating this point. Like the Chinese in Singapore who as a group see themselves as racially or primordially Chinese though individually using a multiplicity of indicators such as language, religion, education, culture or none at all, there are many Chinese in Wang Thong who identify themselves as Chinese and yet differ in many aspects of their religious beliefs and cultural practices. The authors provide three definitions of Chinese ethnicity: the first belongs to the Chinese who went to Thailand before and after the Second World War. They emphasised the ability to speak a Chinese dialect and the knowledge of Chinese ritual practices, especially ancestor worship and prayers to deities. The second notion is held by Thai-born Chinese whose parents are both Chinese (immigrants or local born) and they stress on the knowledge of ancestral history and the consciousness of the Chinese blood ties. They strongly believe in ancestral worship and Chinese deities but not as strongly as the previous group.

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