Local autonomy : Chinese community in Songkhla during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

This thesis aims to re-examines the major hypothesis about the local Chinese communities in Songkhla, southern Thailand. As a problematic previous study failed to recognise the influential roles ofthe Chinese migrant's roles in Songkhla, therefore, this study contributes a new perspective about the overseas Chinese and their autonomy of power during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Wu family was a group who had pulled out the dramatic transformation of the ethnic Muslim control to be the Chinese lord's control instead. The Wu family has a major role of this transformation. In addition, Chinese communities in Songkhla continually are still in the power of economic up to the 21st century, with a wider interaction from different Chinese families, who mostly have connection with the Wu family. The body of knowledge of Songkhla history in the past was mostly perceived by the perspective of the central government since Thonburi through Ratanakosin period. However, there was no insight study of a crucial local factor such the Wu (in Mandarin, and Hao in Fukieneses) or Na Songkhla (in Thai), which I investigate on to explain the local history in the regional context before. As many literature have touched upon the influence of Songkhla and its rulers that played an important part of the transformation of local and regional history, particular the Southeast Asian history within the period of maritime trade. My main interest is to see how the power of local autonomy had plotted the transformation of Southeast Asian history during the maritime trade during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I therefore address an important town of Songkhla, of the Malay peninsular to demonstrate about this. In addition, this thesis is trying to show the history of that period by using both resources from the ruler class to the local record, in particular, to represent a functional equivalence of intrinsic local authority with a boarder understanding of local movement and context.