Baba is usually known as a category of localized Chinese immigrants who originally settled in the... more Baba is usually known as a category of localized Chinese immigrants who originally settled in the Malay Peninsula during the colonial times. However, Baba communities are also found in Thailand, which is a country with no experience of colonization. Here arises a question concerning the very definition of Baba. In Thailand, as well as in Malaysia, cultural mixture of Baba is often narrated in terms of intermarriage of Chinese men and local women, which has created a language shift of offspring to local tongues. Although this hypothesis is not supported by historical studies of the former Straits Settlements, the legacy of mixed blood is stressed even among the locals themselves. This paper examines these two determinants of Baba, namely mixed blood and cultural localization, by focusing on epitaphs of a Baba cemetery in Phuket. Research results show that cultural localization in terms of language used on the gravestones and cremation practice have occurred as an effect of the assimilationist policy of the Phibun administration in the 1940s, and the majority of the couples buried were Chinese men and Chinese women. These findings lead us to conclude that the Baba category in Thailand is a matter of cultural import rather than mixture. No. .
Baba is usually known as a category of localized Chinese immigrants who originally settled in the... more Baba is usually known as a category of localized Chinese immigrants who originally settled in the Malay Peninsula during the colonial times. However, Baba communities are also found in Thailand, which is a country with no experience of colonization. Here arises a question concerning the very definition of Baba. In Thailand, as well as in Malaysia, cultural mixture of Baba is often narrated in terms of intermarriage of Chinese men and local women, which has created a language shift of offspring to local tongues. Although this hypothesis is not supported by historical studies of the former Straits Settlements, the legacy of mixed blood is stressed even among the locals themselves. This paper examines these two determinants of Baba, namely mixed blood and cultural localization, by focusing on epitaphs of a Baba cemetery in Phuket. Research results show that cultural localization in terms of language used on the gravestones and cremation practice have occurred as an effect of the assimilationist policy of the Phibun administration in the 1940s, and the majority of the couples buried were Chinese men and Chinese women. These findings lead us to conclude that the Baba category in Thailand is a matter of cultural import rather than mixture. No. .
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