Abstract

Until recently, the ethnic Chinese often have been depicted as having assimilated well into Thai society. The adaptation of the Chinese Thai was seen as a “natural” progressive process. It was assumed that, as time passed, their “Chineseness” would diminish (Skinner 1973a; 1973b; 1964; 1958; 1957). However, drawing upon my research among Chinese Thai in Bangkok, Thailand, and the San Francisco Bay Area in the USA, I demonstrate that identity is flexible, inconsistent, and multiple rather than fixed, evolutionary, and singular. By situating the Chinese Thai in a time-specific political, economic, and cultural context, and by paying special attention to agency and structural constraints, I map out their transnational migration and identity formation in relation to learning the Chinese language and everyday gendered practices.