Most studies on China-Thailand relations are framed within three conventional paradigms, all of which use the nation-state as the primary unit of analysis. First, the statist paradigm, grounded in realist theory, emphasizes the politico-economic aspects and the role of political elites in negotiating national interests. This approach often overlooks cultural factors and the influence of ordinary people. Second, although recent research has increasingly explored cultural elements—such as knowledge production and discourse in China-Thailand relations—it remains rooted in a nation-centric framework rather than a transnational one. Third, the role of the Overseas Chinese, which should be analyzed as a transnational entity, is paradoxically often studied through a nationalist lens. As a result, Overseas Chinese are frequently viewed as either “Chinese of Thailand” or “Chinese of China.”
This short article proposes a new perspective on China-Thailand relations by focusing on the role of the Overseas Chinese and knowledge production during the Cold War. Placing the Overseas Chinese and knowledge production at the center of analysis would help conflate domestic nation-building project and transnational identity politics of the Overseas Chinese into a single analytical framework. It thus takes the interplay of nationalism and transnationalism into the forefront.
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Obituary of a Thai or a Chinese?
In July 2019, news outlets in Thailand reported the death of Yanyong Jiranakorn (ยรรยง จิระนคร) aged 89, a well-known professor on Thai-Chinese cultural relations and Tai-speaking people especially Daizu in Xishuangbanna.[1] If Yanyong had been an ordinary Thai citizen who lived and died in Thailand, his passing might not have been particularly noteworthy. However, Yanyong–known by his Chinese name in Hakka as Cheah Yanchong, aka Xie Yuanzhang (谢元章) in Mandarin–was a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a retired professor of Yunnan University who passed away peacefully in Kunming.
From Chinese perspective, Xie would be categorized as returned overseas Chinese (归侨Guiqiao). However, as a matter of fact, Xie was also a Thai citizen by birth as he was born in Thailand to a Thai family of Chinese ancestry. Although Xie saw himself as a Thai of Chinese ancestry and Thai academia also recognized him as such. So, which is the right identification for Xie?; should he be identified as returned overseas Chinese who patriotically returned to ancestral land to help build the People’s Republic of China? or should he be identified as Thai who by the turn of fate was forced to spend his life in China? Identification is problematic especially if identification implies centripetal unity based on the fictive homogeneous notion of culture and national identity, be they Chinese or Thai, emanating from and authorized by the nation-state.[2]
The Overseas Chinese and (trans)national work in China-Thailand relations
Stuck in China during the Cold War, Thai-born returned overseas Chinese engaged such as Xie engaged in Chinese nation-building through the production of knowledge and practice. With knowledge of Thai language and culture, they became a value asset in conducting ethnic work in Tai-speaking areas of Yunnan supporting the classification of the Daizu (傣族) as a member of Chinese nation–a project that was significant to the newly established PRC in the Cold War. Simultaneously, many of these individuals involved in laying the groundwork for Thai studies in the PRC and engaged in diplomatic work relating to China-Thailand relations.
Yet, their roles are marginalized and voices silent from the studies of China-Thailand relations.
During the Cold War, when tensions between the PRC and Thailand were high, Thai official history emphasized a link between the Dai people in Yunnan and the Thai people in Thailand, presenting the Dai as the ancestors of the Thais. This narrative complicated the PRC’s efforts to integrate the Dai into the Chinese nation, as it suggested Thailand’s historical sovereignty over part of China’s territory and people. The work of scholars like Xie helped include the Dai in the Chinese national narrative by emphasizing their historical ties to Chinese civilization. This narrative was also used in Thailand to reduce the perception of a Chinese communist threat, reframing Chinese civilization as an influential but benign force in Thai history. When translated and exported to Thailand, the narrative also helped pacify the Thais from the specter of Chinese communist threat as it insists on the historical influence of Chinese civilization deriving from cordial relations. In the 1980s, these knowledge from China would be utilized by Thai scholars in reorientation of Thainess to include the Chinese labeled as the Other into a part of Thai nation.
Beyond ethnic work and knowledge production in Yunnan, returned Overseas Chinese from Thailand were encouraged by the PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study Thai at the university level, as China lacked trained personnel capable of engaging with Thailand. Upon graduation, these individuals became the pioneering home grow Thai language instructors at leading Chinese universities and engaged in diplomatic work relating to Thailand. They also played roles in producing Chinese-Thai dictionary and the translation of Chinese publication into Thai and vice versa. These works were a valuable source for China in knowing Thailand and even supporting Chinese operation towards Thailand. In other words, their work significantly lay foundation that would shapes China’s Thailand perception. Those who engaged in this line of work include Xiao Shaoyun (萧少云), a Thai-born returned overseas Chinese who served as Thai interpreter to Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, and the leading member of Chinese-Thai dictionary production team.
Epilogue
Straddling the borders between Thailand and China, the overseas Chinese are agents who bring these two nearby geocultural domains into contact. Through dissemination, circulation and interpretation of knowledge back and forth between China and Thailand, the overseas Chinese played significant roles in transferring knowledge that shape both China’s and Thailand’s nation-formation.
When giving a lecture in 2013, Xie who saw himself as both Thai and Chinese insisted on the significance of the Thai of Chinese ancestry to the development of Thai nation.[3] In a similar manner, Xiao declared in his memoir: “from the depths of my heart, I see Thailand as motherland, China as fatherland”.[4] Identification based on the hegemony of national identity imposed upon individuals by the state is problematic. Bringing back voices of the marginals and the silent others at the frontier of the nation, like these overseas Chinese, is a way to reveal the reality of identities represented by multiplicity of interests and positionings. At the same time, it helps us gain a deeper understanding of transnational connection that shape both Thailand and China.
Sittithep Eaksittipong, Assistant Professor
Director, Humanities Academic Service Center, and Integrative Center for Humanities Innovation, Faculty of Humanities, Chiang Mai University.
[1] “Sin so Cheah Yanchong phuchieochan Thai suksa andap ton khong lok wong wichakan sunsia khrang yai” [Cheah Yanchong, World Leading Tai specialist passed away, A Huge lost to Academia], Matichon, July 13, 2019, https://www.matichon.co.th/education/news_1580338 (accessed on November 29, 2019); “Funeral Rite Held in China for Yanyong”, Bangkok Post, July 15,2019, p.2.
[2] For the problematization of Chineseness, Chinese ethnicity and Chinese national identity, see Allen Chun, “Fuck Chineseness: On the Ambiguities of Ethnicity as Culture as Identity,” Boundary 2 23, no. 2 (1996): 111-38.
[3] Yanyong Jiranakhorn, “Sipsongpanna lae khwaamruammeu thang wichakan,” [Xishuangbanna and academic cooperation] in Nakkhit sattrachan Yanyong Jiranakhorn: thotbotrian khwamkhit chiwit lae prasopkan [Professor Yangyong Jiranakron, the Scholar: Lesson learned from his thoughts, life and experience], ed. Yuwadi khatkanklai (Pathum Thani: Klangpanya Institute for National Strategies, 2014), pp. 95-96.
[4] Siu Siuwan and Niphatphon Phengkaeo, Yiklep Mangkon: khwam songcham kho̜ong Siu Siuwan lam Chin – Thai yuk nayok Zhou Enlai [Pinching the Dragon’s nails: Memoirs of Siu Siuwan, Thai-Chinese interpreter in the period of Premier Zhou Enlai] (Bangkok: Suanngoen mima, 2020), p. 147.