Abstract
The recent influx of Shan migrant workers from Burma into Thailand provided the conditions for Shan ‘migrant public spheres’ to emerge. This chapter focuses on the public spheres that Shan migrants create in the city of Chiang Mai: Radio airwaves, Buddhist temples, and festivities. It discusses Shan migrant public spheres in three important aspects. First, it examines how the Thai state employs migrant public spheres to control its alien population. Second, the chapter introduces another group of Shans in Chiang Mai—the long-term resident Shans. The recent mass migration of Shan migrants into this city creates an interesting relationship between the new arrivals and the long-term residents. Obviously, economic and educational factors as well as citizenship make the long-term resident Shans different from the new arrivals. The former’s cultural capital enables them to become cultural brokers, mediating the interests of Shan migrants with the Thai state. Third, while the Thai state and Shan ethnic brokers may turn Shan public spheres into forms of both consumption and technologies of control, the chapter shows how Shan migrants participate in these public spheres and to what extent they accommodate themselves into the dominant order. Shan migrant public spheres provide examples of how ethnicity is sustained in urban areas as a good business venture, and of how these spheres provide intersecting sites of expression and negotiation of cultural selves and identities.
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Notes
- 1.
The name of the country was known as Burma until 1989. The current military regime changed the name of Burma to Myanmar because of its perceived colonial associations. However, political parties both within and outside Burma refuse to use the new name as the changes were made without consultation with the populace. Instead of “Myanmar,” the term “Burma” will be used throughout this paper. The term “Burman” will be used to refer to the dominant ethnic group while “Burmese” refers to citizens of the nation.
- 2.
Burma is divided into seven States and seven Divisions. While Divisions are predominantly Burmans, States are home to particular ethnic minorities. The seven States are Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Arakan and Shan.
- 3.
In addition to the Shan quarter behind Wat Papao, there is a morning market held every Friday behind Charoenprathet Road, in one of the busiest sectors in the city. This market, used to be called Talad Jin Haw or “Yunnanese market,” has now been taken over by the Shan community. Today it is better known as the “Shan Friday market.”
- 4.
Thua nao or fermented beans is a Shan staple food, generally preserved in a round thin shape and added into many Shan dishes.
- 5.
While traditions and religious beliefs such as Buddhist Lent and Poi Sang Long are not distinctively Shan in the larger perspective, as northern Thais also celebrate such events, what makes them “Shan” in this case lies in the fact that they are celebrated by Shan migrant workers whom recently have become a visible group in this city and they are celebrated at two temples which recently have come to be seen as “Shan” temples.
- 6.
While the annual three-month retreat is also practiced by the Thai, contemporary Thais do not seem to consider the end of the Lent as a big event, and it is not recognized as a public holiday by the Thai state.
- 7.
The Shan use the word “wasana” in a different way from the Thai. While this term in Thai refers to good fortune due to past good deeds or luck, the same term in Shan means natural tendency or personal interest which one pursues outside one’s regular occupation and engages in primarily for pleasure.
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Jirattikorn, A. (2012). Brokers of Nostalgia: Shan Migrant Public Spheres in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In: Plüss, C., Chan, Kb. (eds) Living Intersections: Transnational Migrant Identifications in Asia. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2966-7_11
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