Humanities 8
Final Project: Migration & Me
11th March 2014
By: Nat G8L
Thailand nowadays is in a good relationship with China. Why it that? The
reason for that is that Thailand nowadays contained tons and tons of ThaiChinese people most of them lived in China Town obviously. The Chinese people
have been moving to Thailand since World War II since Japan is invading China
pretty hard. But when does it out started? When did the first Chinese moved in to
Thailand? From the report of a Chinese Professor who worked in HuaQiao
University; the answer for that is the first Chinese came in to Thailand during the
Sukhothai Dynasty (1238-1378). Since that time Chinese people started moving
into Thailand. At the end of the 17th Century, there were estimated of ten
thousand Chinese in Thailand. In addition to that more Chinese even move in
during Thonburi Dynasty (1767-1782). From that point on Thai-Chinese society
were formed and after that point the immigration of Chinese people filled
Thailand. The immigration even rushes more during the 20th Century because of
the World Wars and other economic crisis. The report concluded there are
estimated around 7-8 millions to Thai Chinese in Thailand. (“The Chinese-Thai
Society in Thailand Tended to be assimilated in the 20th Century ----By
Examining the Chinese-Thai Literature”). Comparing that to the United Nations
information center, the data is very close. UN says that the Thai Chinese makes
up 10-15% of Thailand total population (around 64 millions) and when you find
10-15% of 64 millions its around 7-8 millions which is pretty accurate (“United
Nations”).
My family is Thai-Chinese, so that we all have Chinese Name obviously.
Our family surname is Zhou (周) which is related the Zhou Dynasty. Our family
is one of the tribes of the Zhou Dynasty in conclusion. My great grandparents and
grandfather seemed to live pretty well in China at first, but after the World War II
sparkled up, everything turned out to be very horrible and horrific. Since our
border is very close to Japan, who is an allied of Germany whom started the
World War. They invaded; killing innocents’ civilians and soldiers. They pushed
up from the northern part down to the southern part. Our great grandparents and
grandfather needed to make a decisive decision, which is to migrate out of China
and moved to Thailand. From the interview with my grandfather who is in the
situation (migrated with his parents out from China), he said that I am current the
4th generation who lived in Thailand.1st Generation is my great grandparents’
generation, then my grandfather generations, after that its my mom generation
and finally its me, my generation. I am the 4th generation. He also said that we
lived in a district in Shantou province, Guangdong. He said that we left Shantou
when he is around 8-12 years old (since it is a very long time, he can not
remember the exact date or year). My grandfather estimated that we left Shantou
province around 1937 where the World War II situation is getting even more
intense and serious. At first he said that we want to go by feet, but my great
grandparents hesitated, since it is not a very safe idea because there could be an
ambush or the Japanese troops waiting to kill us. In conclusion, we decided to go
by a transporting Ship that uses to carry thing from one country to another
country. We could go on a better ship, but we do not want to do it since it is
wasting money without any reason. We chose to suffer a bit more on the ship, but
then pay less money. It is worth though. We spend around 5-6 months on the ship
before arriving in Bangkok. We settled in China Town, we bought a 2 stories
high house and lived there. “That is the beginning of our new life, a better one I
hope so” (Prakij Jivakanunt).
Like other Chinese immigrants who moved out of China, my great
grandparents and grandfather decided to settled in Bangkok because of the
current war occurring in China. From History.Com it talks about the Japan
invasion of China. Emperor Hirohito invaded the Manchuria area first, by
destroying railways and blamed on Chinese Bandits. With that in mind, the
emperor use that “Excuse” as a reason to take over Manchuria. So at that point
Manchuria unofficially is a Japan “puppet state”. By 1937, the war finally broke
out, with 200,000 troops marching from Manchuria in to the city of Nanking
(“History.Com”). When we looked at the Nanking map, we can see that Nanking
is geographically the North of Shantou and not really far away. This is the main
push factor that made my great grandparents decided to move out of China.
Staying there is the matter the extinction of our family Zhou. Japan Troops have
no mercy for any single civilians; everybody must be executed in their point of
view. With that acknowledgement, my great grandparents decided to move to
Thailand because of the country peacefulness. There were no war at that time and
it is a good place to start a new business. In addition to that, Lack of Resources
also is one of the main push factors. With war ongoing at that time, it is pretty
hard for people to find food to eat, since most of the farmers were killed or forced
to be prisoners. Famine is the next issue following up when there is not enough
food for everybody to share. With that in mind, my great grandparents chose
Thailand because it is a city full of resources. Thailand’s rice is well known
around the war, so my great grandparents did not hesitate to move to here.
Plentiful resource in Thailand is also one of the main pull factors that attracted
my great grandparents to move here. During the interview with my grandfather,
he also said that when he arrived Bangkok, he and his parent were astonished
because of how ostentatious Bangkok is. There are resources everything that they
were missing were all here in one city. Bangkok seemed like a paradise for us, on
the other hand China seemed like hell for them. He concluded that Thailand is so
different from China, and it is a very good choice that he moved here. (Prakij
Jivakanunt).
Most people say that when you are out of China you will be fine and rich.
It is not always true for my family; since we are middle class people we do not
have that money to invest. In fact, my grandfather is the one who needed to work
very hard each day to earn the money to take care of my family. During the
interview he told me that most people thinks that settling in Thailand is a piece of
cake, but in fact for him and his family its like finding a needle in the ocean (Thai
Proverb). He said that he needed to work as a labor all day long in the China
Town; carrying fabrics up and down, delivering them to the customers. He
worked all day long and when he came back he went to learn for 3 hours. After
that he came back home to help sweep the house and slept around midnight
everyday. It is a very tragic life. My grandfather almost give up, but he still
remembered what his parent taught him; a Chinese proverb. “Don't be concerned
with your position, but rather, place your concerns on whether you have set your
goals properly”. He explained that this literally means that you do not need to
care your social status, but rather care about your goals and to accomplish it. His
goals are to be rich, so every time when he wanted to give up, he always thinks of
this quote. All the hard work pay off, not long after that. He got promoted to be a
sale person. Not long after that, he got married to my grandmother and in the
mean time my great grandparents passed away. He has 5 children, 3 daughters
and 2 sons. These are the 3rd generation after moving to Thailand (1st GenerationGreat Grandparents, 2nd Generation- Grandfather, 3rd Generation – Mom, 4th
Generation – Me). He then collected enough money and opens a fabric store and
became the owner himself. He has enough money to travel where he wanted to.
He had a chance and He was stun by the new looks of his hometown. He said that
in the 20s and 30s is not like this. It was dirty very much at that time. Compared
to now, he can say that Shantou is officially a paradise now. Everything has been
improved and renovate in to a totally different place
When I was born (4th Generation), my family is wealthier and we moved.
From China town we moved to around Bangna area. My grandfather spends a lot
of money to buy new houses (2 houses connected together). Actually, my
grandfather can now rest and see things he had build and created, but he does not.
He still works even though he was like 80 already. Without fear, my grandfather
still works hard as usual. My grandfather never changes according to my mom
point of view. What she saws when she was a kid and what she sees now is still
do the same. Only physical appearance of my grandfather as usual (nature of life),
but the thing that is still the same is his psychological and mental which makes
him one of the most diligent and intellectual of my family. That’s also makes him
one of the most important in the family and also he is considered as the “Head of
The family”. He will be considered one of the heroes in my own opinion. His
intellectual and hard working trait inspired me, I will try to be like him and work
as hard I could to achieve what we call “success”. In this case it is a different
meaning from other people views, success in my opinion is to achieve PhD.
degrees and also earn a lot of money $$$. Most of all success to me is to be a
good and intellectual person.
To sum everything up, the main push factors that made my great
grandparents and grandfather (and also some others Chinese people) migrated out
of China is basically war and lack of natural resources (famine). This basically
pushed them out of their homeland. On the other hand, Bangkok with good
natural resource and peacefulness, it pulls us towards Bangkok or another name
for that is Pull Factors. These people when settled in Thailand will have the
opportunity to live a better life. In the future, Thailand may turn out to be
populated with Chinese people.
Work Cited Page
 Jivakanunt, Prakij. Migration from China interview. March 8th 2014
 "UN Thailand: Population." UN Thailand: Population. N.p., n.d.
Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
 "Hirohito." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 16
Mar. 2014.
 Chen, Xuanbo. The Chinese-Thai Society in Thailand Tended to Be
Assimilated in the 20th Century ----By Examining the Chinese-Thai
Literature. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Online.