Chinatown's bloodstained secrets

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

SPECIAL TO THE NATION

 Like other Chinatowns around the world, Yaowaraj has a long history built up by wave after wave of Chinese arrivals. In popular narratives, Thai-Chinese writers have described how their ancestors have lived in harmony side by side with Thais in this area for decades.

 But young historian Wasana Wongsurawat reveals the darker, forgotten history of Yaowaraj and other Chinese communities in the country in her study "From Yaowaraj to Plabplachai: The Overseas Chinese as a Window into Cold War Thailand".

Two tragic incidents took place -- on Yaowaraj Road in 1945 and on Plabplachai Road in 1974 -- but few people, including ethnic Chinese living in the area today, want to recall these bloodstained events in their history, says Wasana, who took her doctoral degree in Chinese History at Oxford.

 "I tried asking older Chinese residents in the area but they said they couldn't remember. Some asked why I was focusing on such a topic."

The incident at Yaowaraj occurred on September 20 and 21, 1945 -- three days after the interim government of MR Seni Pramoj took office.

 "Overseas Chinese had been rehearsing celebrations for China's victory in the war with Japan a month earlier, and Chinese flags were on prominent display," explains Wasana.

The atmosphere turned violent after police said the Chinese flags couldn't be displayed without the accompaniment of the Thai national flag. The police then stepped in to ban the celebrations.

 The resulting stand-off between police and locals escalated into a riot in which 12 Chinese migrants were killed and 18 injured.

Wasana explored the incident through the different perspectives given in Thai, Chinese and English reports of the time.

 Thailand's then interior minister Tavee Boonyaket told Thai and foreign press that only 10 Chinese and two Thais had died. He added that this figure was very small when compared with similar incidents that had occurred in other countries, Wasana said.

 "But newspapers in China described the incident as an "appalling massacre of overseas Chinese" and demanded their foreign minister challenge the Thai government over the matter," said Wasana.

 The historian found several old news reports related to the incident in the Taiwan Archives. "Siamese military and police kill overseas Chinese -- Chinatown blockaded and strafed with machine-guns because Chinese were not allowed to display national flag in celebration of victory", reads one report. Another is even more direct: "Siamese military and police slaughter again! Overseas compatriots in Bangkok continue to be killed and wounded…"

 Thirty years later, in 1974, history repeated itself. This time the fate of the Chinese community was in the hands of the interim government of Sanya Dharmasakti.

The violence broke out at Plabplachai police station close to Yaowaraj Road.

 "On the night of July 3, a taxi driver waiting for a passenger was told to move on by two policemen. The driver resisted then yelled 'police brutality!' as he was being arrested. This caught the attention of passers-by and a crowd soon formed to protest outside Plabplachai police station," Wasana says. The protest turned violent when the mob attempted to storm the police station.

 "The government declared a state of emergency and ordered tanks onto the street. According to the government's version, the riot was caused by Chinatown-based criminal gangs who wanted to take revenge on the police."

 The riots continued for five days and accounted for the deaths of 22 civilians and two police officers as well as more than a hundred people injured.

The Thai media was quick to provide an anti-Chinese perspective on the Plabplachai incident. Wasana cites local newspaper "Chao Thai" which took an anti-Chinese slant in its report by linking Plabplachai back to the Yaowaraj incident in 1945.

 "…think back to when the World War had just ended. The Chinese in Bangkok caused a riot with a hope -- which cannot be understood in any way aside from their lack of awareness of His Majesty's abundant compassion -- and desire to rule our land.

 "The Chinese who caused the riots this time round live in the same area as those who caused the riots back then. They have shown their arrogance even when Thailand has yet to officially recognise the political changes in China."

 But two English-language newspapers -- The Nation and the Bangkok Post - took a different line.

 "The people of the area are mostly of Chinese descent. It is no secret that police, in some areas at least, have been treating people of Chinese descent like dirt…" wrote MR Ayumongol Sonakul in The Nation.

 In the Bangkok Post, Paisal Sricharatchanya wrote: "These are hardworking people. They have lots of anger and hatred towards the police because they have been extorted for so long already…"

 Paisal, a Chinese-Thai, was himself beaten by police after he arrived to report on the riots.

 Today, the Plabplachai incident is no longer talked about. At the time it was put down to the activities of "bad" Chinese in Thailand, Wasana says, an explanation that made it easy to airbrush from the Thai historical record along with the Yaowaraj incident.

 "The history of the overseas Chinese in Siam was distorted by the ideology of Thai nationalism," says Wasana, who is now working on a study called "From Secret Societies to Patriotic Chinese: The Paradox of the Thai State's Relationship with the Overseas Chinese".

 "My work is to rescue history from nation state," she says.

 Wasana Wongsurawat presented her Chinatown paper at a "History Seminar" recently organised by the Department of History, Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Arts.