From War Refugees to Immigrants: The Case of the KMT Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand

Chang, Wen-Chin

doi:10.1111/j.1747-7379.2001.tb00053.x

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…They and their descendants formed distinct villages, intermarried with non-Chinese, and generally fit into the pattern of “hill tribes.” Yet they attained greater prosperity and soon became models for agricultural innovation for the surrounding areas on account of their “obviously superior way of life” (Mote 1967: 518). In the early years, Kuomintang generals acted as the de facto rulers of Yunnanese Chinese and their family members, about ninety thousand people in all (Chang 2001). They appointed village headmen, maintained armies, and served as patrons of the opium, arms, and gems trades across the Burma-Thailand border.…”

Section: A Genealogy Of Special Zonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enclaves of Improvement: Sovereignty and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands

Nyíri

2012

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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The highlands of mainland Southeast Asia have famously been the locus of “Zomia,” polities resistant to control by lowland nation-states, but this relative resilience has been due to their marginality. However, as even remote borderlands connect to the market economies of what has been labeled the “Greater Mekong Subregion,” these semi-independent polities are trying to transform themselves from isolated drug enclaves into regional paragons of economic modernity labeled “Special Economic Zones.” The main actors in this transformation are ethnic Chinese migrant capitalists who embrace the economic rhetoric of mainland China's “growth model” to create respectability and to evoke images of a cosmopolitan future as they build casinos in the rainforest. The zones’ claim to be the vanguard of modernity rests on two mutually contradictory sets of symbols: a mimicry of Chinese state paraphernalia designed to conjure up the efficacy of a strong developmental state, and the discourse of freedom from state control. This article examines the transformation of zones of political and criminal resistance into zones of economic development from a historical perspective of changing practices of sovereignty and shifting understandings of development.

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Section: A Genealogy Of Special Zonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enclaves of Improvement: Sovereignty and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands

Nyíri

2012

Comp Stud Soc Hist

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“…Even up to 1960 the GDP per capita in Myanmar was estimated as double that of Thailand (Barta, 2012). Some examples of conflict inspired movements across the border would have been Nationalist Chinese KMT forces and smaller ethnic groups who had taken up arms against the central Rangoon government at the time (Wen-Chin Chang, 2001;Kanchana Prakatuttisan [กาญจนะ ประกาศวุ ฒิ สาร], 2003;South, 2008). Yet, even during this period, a small contingent of economically motivated movements would have continued along centuries-old caravan routes into Thailand at the same time as a pattern of highvolume, short-timespan mobility of the KMT was taking place (Wen-Chin Chang, 2009;Wang, 2008).…”

Section: Burmese Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Refugee-Migrant Binary? Refugee Camp Residency Along the Myanmar-Thailand Border

Rhoden

2018

Int. Migration & Integration

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Processes of mixed migration beyond the reified Brefugee-migrant binary^of migration studies are an empirical reality along the Myanmar-Thailand border. Utilizing a survey of 3874 mobile individuals from Myanmar in Thailand as a case study, this paper examines the impact of past experiences of migrants on the likelihood that any one of them will reside inside a refugee camp instead of outside of one in Thailand. A dataset is constructed that specifically intersects Brefugee^communities with Blabor migrant^communities in order to measure the importance of factors of socioeconomic, self-identity, past persecution, and social network considerations. Though indicators like religion, ethnicity, and the fear to return are salient in the likelihood of living inside a camp, family location is the strongest single predictor variable for whether or not an individual from Myanmar will inhabit a refugee camp. Future research may benefit by researching across migrant communities normally considered disparate.

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“…10 Hall 1990 In his doctoral dissertation on the overland interactions between the Chinese Ming court (1368-1644) and upper mainland Southeast Asia, Sun attributes this neglect to a "maritime mentality" connected to the western colonial legacy (Sun 2000). Other relevant and interesting studies include Kuo 1941, Xia 1948, Yegar 1966, Stargardt 1971, Soonthornpasuch 1977, Forbes 1986, 1987, Forbes and Henley 1997, Prasertkul 1990, Shen 1994, Sun 2000, Chang 2001, 2004, and Wu 2002. Among them, Forbes examines Yunnanese Muslim caravan traders; Prasertkul reconstructs a socio-geographic entity based on the socio-economic ties between Yunnan and its surrounding area; Shen investigates cross-boundary interrelations between southwestern China and its neighboring countries; and Sun presents a detailed historical study on the vibrant overland interactions between Yunnan and neighboring political entities during the Ming period.…”

Section: From Hill's Merchants and Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14 Hill 1982. 15 Hill 1998 16 For research on this subject, see McCoy 1991, Lintner 1994 and my recent works (Chang 2001(Chang , 2002(Chang , 2004.…”

Section: From Hill's Merchants and Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More significantly, the Korean War in 1950 pushed the Truman government to finance the KMT guerrillas in order to restrain the Chinese Communist forces from the south. For a detailed history of the KMT guerrilla forces in Burma, see Union ofBurma, Ministry of Information 1953; Republic of China, Ministry of Defense 1964;Young 1970, Taylor 1973, Chang 2001, Qin 2002 31Zolberg et al 1986.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Home Away From Home: Migrant Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand

Chang

2006

International Journal of Asian Studies

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In the face of a complex external situation, the migrant Yunnanese in northern Thailand have undergone repeated moves since the 1950s, and the narratives of their lived experiences disclose an ongoing negotiation of their inner self with the external social world across time and space. The feeling of “dwelling in displacement” is the fundamental basis of their narrated stories and this constructs particular discourses on “home away from home”. The primary aim of this paper is to analyze their conceptualizations of home and the intertwining of their various migration patterns. It seeks to see how they are shaped by external structural forces on the one hand, and their reaction to them with their interstitial agency on the other. Moreover, by probing their diasporic consciousness linked to the longue durée of Yunnanese mobility, the paper attempts to accentuate the different layers of their perceptions of time and place, and to illuminate their interplay.

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From War Refugees to Immigrants: The Case of the KMT Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand

Cited by 24 publications

References 11 publications

Enclaves of Improvement: Sovereignty and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands

Enclaves of Improvement: Sovereignty and Developmentalism in the Special Zones of the China-Lao Borderlands

Beyond the Refugee-Migrant Binary? Refugee Camp Residency Along the Myanmar-Thailand Border

Home Away From Home: Migrant Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand

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