The Chinese Émigrés of Thailand in the Twentieth Century By Disa ...

Focus of the study

The Skinnerian Paradigm

Because a large part of this book is devoted to testing the Skinnerian paradigm, it is essential to introduce the basic tenets of G. William Skinner’s (1957) arguments. Skinner was one of the first authors to write a scholarly work on the overseas Chinese in Thailand. As a result, many scholars in this field refer to his works. This study tests whether Skinner’s findings are still valid today. Much of the existing research on the topic of overseas Chinese in Thailand suggests that they have tended to assimilate into Thai society rather than resist this pressure. Skinner hypothesizes that a majority of the descendants of Chinese emigrants in each successive generation would merge with Thai society such that the next generation would eventually become indistinguishable from the indigenous population. The Skinnerian paradigm projects that by the fourth generation, ethnic Chinese would completely assimilate and identify themselves as Thai. He claims that the Chinese in Thailand have been assimilating at a steady rate over the past century and a half (1800–1950), and that assimilation has occurred at a rate comparable to the Europeans in the United States.¹⁸

Skinner asserts that the similarity of the Chinese and Thai cultures makes it easier for the Chinese in Thailand to assimilate into Thai society over other groups. The findings of this book support Skinner’s argument and elaborate upon it by discussing the differences between the Chinese and Muslim experience in assimilation in Thailand. Skinner points out that similarity in food, physical appearance, and religion are the advantages that the Chinese have had in assimilating into Thai society.¹⁹ Thailand is primarily Hinayana Buddhist, and the state, throughout the past seven centuries, has based certain policies and regulations on Buddhist beliefs and philosophy.