ประวัติศาสตร์ชาติพันธุ์จีนและการสร้างอัตลักษณ์ของเมืองแม่สอด ตั้งแต่ พ.ศ.2510 ถึง พ.ศ.2554

Abstract

This thesis aims to study “History of the Chinese Ethnic in Mueang Maesod and the Construction of Mueang Maesod’s Identity from 1970 to 2011”. It reveals how the Chinese in Mueang Maesod, a border town between Thailand and Myanmar, accumulated their capitals; how they became local economic, political, and social elites; and their roles in transforming the town identity to “economic zone” in the changing international politico-economic context. The research shows that, during the 1970 to 1977s, Mueang Maesod was “black market border town”. The Chinese in Maesod accumulated their capital from illicit trade in black market by establishing networks with influential Karen in the border area. The helped facilitate their trading in Myanmar. Since the 1987s, Thai government has pursued “changing battle field to commercial field” policy. It allowed the Chinese in Maesod to involve in cross-border trade legally. However, “legal trade” has been continuing in parallel with “illicit trade”. At the same time, the Chinese in Maesod also tried to transform the town identity from “undeveloped risky area” to “economic zone”. They did so to attract the development from Thai government which has helped increase the towns competitive potentiality against Myanmar’s towns increasingly attracting foreign investment since the 1997s