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Galloping Chinese
Chinese people came to Thailand many years ago now they are all Thai citizens and their cultures are also seem part of Thai's cultures as well./div> |
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Aside from Bangkok’s Yaowarat district, there is no place in Thailand that more resembles China than Mae Salong. This place is the biggest Chinese-Thai village of northern Thailand; an expansive tea-growing community lied down on a hill about an hour northeast of the main city of Chiang Rai. As with all Chinese villages, it is perched on the border, a mere mountain pass away from Myanmar; one of the old battlegrounds.
Many people every day and night come to this place for buy things or to eat |
Chinatown in Bangkok, Yaowarat, famous for goods and food |
Mae Salong is also known for its fresh mushroom, herbs and tea and many visitors,
Thai and foreign alike, depart with large amounts of these delights. The village is renowned as a starting point for treks and is next door to a number of hill tribe villages. The villagers, especially the Akha tribe, travel in and out of the town and there is a Muslim influence to be seen. The daily call to prayer issues forth from the mosque directly below the mountaintop Buddhist temple. A mix of culture is not only seen in the people, but in the animal kingdom as well. Both pack mules and horses are common in the area, a rare sight for Thailand.
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The history of these Chinese villages is a living, breathing lesson in Southeast Asian history and speaks to the major movement of populations over decades and of freedom hard fought for - in this case freedom won from the People's Republic of China. Like the scamp island of Taiwan, Mae Salong and these other villages exist as a testament to the struggles of the years just after World War II.
Many of the people are descendants of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), which fled China in 1949, following the Communist takeover. The KMT, specifically the 93rd regiment, first travelled to Myanmar, fought for many years against the Burmese army before finally moving into Thailand, in the early 1960's. Isolated and helpless, these refugees built up their second homeland on this foreign soil. The King of Thailand offered the refugees assistance and pictures of his visits to Mae Salong are given a prominent position by the Villa's restaurant door.
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Today, 40-odd refugee villages are found in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son, bordering Burma and Laos. These villages vary in population, ranging from several hundred people to 3,000. According to one estimate, Chinese refugees in Thailand total about 60,000. Another famous Chinese village, in Mae Hong Son, is known as Ban Rak Thai (literally the Thai-loving village). Ban Rak Thai shares the mountain aspect of Mae Salong, but surrounds a mountain reservoir and is smaller and quieter, a hushed community wrapped in pine forest.
Mae Salong is the Chinese name for this biggest town and is the most commonly used, but it has an official Thai name called Santikhiri (Hill of Peace). This is just one of the several efforts to incorporate the refugees into mainstream Thai society, along with Thai language schools, and seems to have had mixed results. Many people speak Thai, but there is no doubt about the cultural influence, which is trumpeted loud and clear through symbols, language and decoration. Looking east over the mountains from town, one can see two giant, almost garish, Chinese teapot sculptures; a recent addition to the landscape by a tea plantation owner.
There is much rumoured movement back and forth across the border, although official figures are hard to come by and are probably not known. The Shan United Army operates drug factories in Myanmar and there are often stories in the newspaper about drug pills (Yaa-Baa) being transited through certain border villages. Khun Sa, the opium warlord, once called nearby Ban Theuat Thai home.
Along with Thai language courses and crop substitution, in a further effort to separate the area from its old image as an opium fiefdom.
Today the town feels very Chinese, helped along by the hand-painted Chinese character scrolls around doorways, the sight of old men with wispy beards smoking tobacco in immense bamboo water pipes and the crisp climate. It is not unusual for hotels and restaurants in Mae Salong to boast satellite reception of three channels from China and three from Hong Kong. Although the Yunnanese dialect of Chinese remains the lingua franca, the new generation of young people looks more to Bangkok than Taipei for their social and cultural inspirations. Many have left for greater educational and career opportunities.
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