Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

KHAW SIM BEE AND MODERN PHUKET
In the movement to revive the old town, a considerable
amount of Thai-language materials which promote
Phuket town’s Sino-Portuguese architecture and Baba
heritage, are being produced. These materials are targeted
at Thais and Sino-Thais in particular. Khaw Sim Bee is
prominently featured as the founder of the old town and the
official picture of this portly gentleman with decorations
from the King is usually shown. Prince Damrong’s
historical narratives featuring Khaw Sim Bee as one of
the “great personalities” of Thailand helps readers make the
link with Thai history. A Thai guidebook summarizes his
personality as “an exemplary administrator who steered
Phuket toward prosperity”.
Khaw Sim Bee is upheld as a Renaissance man and a
role model for Phuket people in the era of tourism and
globlization. As Chaiyos Prindabrab, editor of Phuket
Bulletin put it, “Khaw Sim Bee was an overseas Chinese,
yet he knew how to make the Siamese King, the foreigner,
and his own people happy. He managed to draw power
from Bangkok, technology and capital from the
foreigner, and hard work from the Chinese—the best
of Thai, European and Chinese culture is a very strong
combination indeed to lay the foundation of Phuket”.
Chaiyos is promoting Khaw Sim Bee as a local hero because
“without a local hero, the city will not awaken”.
PHUKET, PENANG AND BANGKOK
The year 1913, when Khaw Sim Bee died, was the year
when the Chinese in Thailand had to register Thai
names. Initially, many local-born Baba still registered
themselves as Chinese to avoid conscription as Siamese
into the police force.
Tin-mining in Phuket was in the hands of the
Hokkien Chinese. The wealthiest of them earned titles
for public contributions such as temples, schools and
other public infrastructure. Most Phuket aristocrats of
that period were Hokkien Chinese who happened to
have the surname Tan. The Phuket “aristocracy” was
sealed after the 1933 constitutional reforms.
Unlike the Teochew jao sua or prominent merchant
families in Bangkok, they did not intermarry with Thai
nobles and hardly cultivated Thai-style cultural
refinements. Instead, they built lavish villas around
Phuket town and styled themselves in a Western fashion,
like their cousins in Penang. Their children were
flamboyant in a modern way. To quote Pranee
Sakulpipatana, “If you read Thai novels, the hero of the
story is usually a Thai noble or a rich Phuket tin-miner’s
son with a flashy lifestyle.”
HERITAGE, IDENTITY, CHANGE AND CONFLICT
The source of Phuket’s modernity was Penang. Due to
relatively shorter travelling distances, the development of
Phuket was more strongly influenced by Penang than by
Bangkok. Land travel even to Haadyai was discouraged
by bad roads through bandit-ridden country. About
fifty years ago, Phuket people still preferred to take
a steamship to Penang in order to get on the train to
Bangkok; Penang was Phuket’s gateway to the world.
Phuket Chinese continually renewed their cultural
relationship to Penang through arranged marriages
with Penang families and by sending their children
to schools like St. Xavier’s Institution, Convent Light
Street and Chung Ling in Penang. Phuket businessmen
frequently went to Penang on business trips while their
wives indulged in shopping sprees at the department
store “Whiteaways”.
Phuket sent tin and rubber to Penang for re-export
while importing machinery, spare parts and consumer
items. This relationship lasted until Penang lost its free
port status in 1969; at that time Phuket’s connections
with Bangkok were well-established. The last
manifestation of the old relationship is the Nganthawee
family business empire which straddles Penang and
Phuket. (Wong, 2003)
During and immediately after the war, Thai Teochew
merchants took the opportunity to extend their trading
networks into the south.
State tolerance of Chinese culture was often measured
by its policy towards Chinese language education. Hua
Boon, a Chinese school established in 1911, was the
precursor of Thai Hua School, the oldest Chinese school
in Thailand today. Mandarin and Thai language were
taught using the Hokkien vernacular as the medium
of instruction. Hua Boon was forced to close down in
1942 but later re-emerged as Chong Hwa, amalgamating
two other local Chinese schools, Seong Teik and Yok
Eng. Around 1953, to appease Thai fears of the spread
of Communism, the school was forced to change its
name to Thai Hua School to demonstrate their loyalty
to Thailand.
Chinese migration to Thailand ceased in 1949 and the
tin-mining labor force was filled by Isan people from
the poverty-stricken north eastern region of Thailand.
Retrospective estimates put the proportion of Chinese
in Phuket, before the arrival of the Isan, as high as 70%
of Chinese descent including 10% China-born. In the
late 1950s, about two-fifths of miners were Hokkien
speakers, while Thai participation was increasing. [Skinner:
1962 (1957), 351]
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
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