The role of chinese commercial associations in supporting new Chinese sojourners in Bangkok : a case study of the Thai-Guangxi Commercial Association

Abstract

Thailand has always maintained friendly relations with China throughout long history, which include relationship in the cultural, political, economic, social and tourism areas, among others. In recent decades, especially following the development of the Chinese “one belt, one road” policy, more and more Chinese sojourners have chosen Thailand as their sojourning destination. However, looking back to the history, we will see that most old Chinese immigrants moved from China to Thailand to make a living as businessmen or labor force. During that period, commercial associations needed to be established, so that these Chinese immigrants could help each other, (such an association was then called a chamber of commerce). The original role of these Chinese commercial associations was to help the overseas Chinese people to get together and to provide support for their business activities. But nowadays, Chinese sojourners are from different provinces and occupational fields, and they would like to establish their own hometown commercial association to facilitate communication among themselves. This thesis has chosen the Thai-Guangxi commercial association as a case study. This can be regarded as a typical case of this kind of commercial associations and thus should be studied in detail. It is worth, in particular, to explore the relationship between new Chinese sojourners and this Chinese commercial association, as well as the role of the association in supporting the new Chinese sojourners.