China businessmen in Thailand

In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, many Fujian and Guangdong businessmen sailed privately to and from China and Siam for barter trade, regardless of the ban of their own governments. Gradually, some of them stayed in Siam, and some bankrupt farmers like Zheng Xin's father also went to Siam with the ship to make a living. These early overseas Chinese lived in harmony with the Siamese people and made outstanding contributions to the development and defense of Siam.

There are many China armies under Zheng Xin, and some famous China generals have emerged, such as Chen Lian, the commander of Song Jialuo. They made great contributions to the establishment of the Wu Dynasty. Therefore, after Zheng Xin ascended the throne, many China people were appointed as military leaders and local officials, while others became government tax contractors. They gained various privileges in dealing with politics, military affairs and trade. In the southern coastal areas of Siam, the status of Chinese is particularly significant. This created favorable conditions for the trade between China businessmen and Siam and the migration of China immigrants. Coupled with Zheng Xin's preferential policy of exempting overseas Chinese from poll tax, during the period of annexing Wu Li Dynasty, a wave of poor people from the southeast coast of China moved to Siam in large numbers. In particular, Zheng Xin's ancestral home in Chaoshan, Guangdong has the largest proportion of immigrants, and they are called "Royal China people".

On the other side of Wu Li in Bangkok, a Chinese community has formed and developed into a prosperous business district. The arrival of immigrants from China alleviated the difficulty of Siam's labor shortage at that time to some extent, and accelerated the pace of Siam's economic recovery. Therefore, the Bangkok Dynasty, which followed the annexation of Wu Li Dynasty, still inherited Zheng Xin's preferential policies for overseas Chinese, the non-governmental trade between China and Siam continued, and China immigrants flowed to Siam continuously.

Chinese businessmen in Thailand are an important economic pillar in Thailand, and many large local enterprises are run by Chinese businessmen. These Chinese businessmen came to Thailand to make a living as early as the Qing Dynasty and gradually integrated into the local area. Because of what happened after World War II, and Chinese businessmen were good at dancing with long sleeves, they gradually mastered the economic lifeline of Thailand, and local anti-Chinese sentiment began to appear. In order to protect themselves, China people voluntarily gave up their original phonetic surnames in China, and used Thai with the same meaning as the new surnames, or even adopted the local original surnames. This movement was later called "renaming movement".

However, since1990s, the economy of Thailand and four other tiger members began to take off, and the attitude of the masses began to change. The local media even produced programs about the role of Chinese in Thai history, and emphasized that they are all Thais like other races in Thailand.