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Thailand or Siam? What's in a Name??


SurinBum

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More or less what anyone wants it to be. How many Thais are only 2 or 3 generations removed from China? (Think of most politicians.) I quickly learned not to call anyone from Isaan a Lao. They'll snap back with something like : "We used to be Lao, but now we're Thai!" Okay, if they say so. :dunno:

 

Main problem in Pattani is that many do not say so.

 

 

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So what is 'Thai'....really?

 

 

every region outside Isarn :cool:

Most regions aside from Isaan don't consider themselves Thai/Tai. Seems as the most purist blood line and ancestry is reserved for that limited population of the Central Plain. I know elders in Sukhothai that can't find a true line.

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Bangkok has traditionally been a Chinese city, since the Chinese immigrants tend to be urban dwellers. The government in the 1930s required all shops to post their signs in Thai as well as Chinese, since so many Thais complained when they came to the capital and felt they were in a freign country. The Chinese Thais assimilated (at least superficially), but I've heard many of them gloat over the way they have taken over the country. The Thais say they have never been colonised. Nonsense - the Chinese colonised them.

 

Think Thaksin, Sondhi, Abhisit, Chuan etc etc etc. Who owns the biggest businesses? Who owns the banks? Then think of who drives the taxis, works in bars, who are the labourers and farmers.

 

 

 

 

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