Материалы чтений памяти Б. Н. Мельниченко и С. Е. Трифонова

107 SOME REMARKS ON THE CHINESE OVERSEAS IN THE HISTORY OF THAILAND IN THE EARLY20 TH CENTURY P. E. Moskalev St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg p.moskalev@spbu.ru Thailand is currently one of the leading countries in Southeast Asia in terms of area size, population density and among the most dynami­ cally developing countries as well. Throughout the centuries a numerous Chinese diaspora has been formed there. The Chinese Overseas have be- come integral members of the local society and have significantly influ- enced the development of various aspects of social life in Thailand. This report is dedicated to the analysis of some aspects of influence that the Chinese Overseas had on Thai society in the early 20 th century. The life of the Chinese community in Siam at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries was greatly influenced by trends in social and politi- cal life in China. The authorities of imperial China in those years began to pay special attention to representatives of the large diaspora, who lived outside the empire. The development of the reform movement led by Kang Youwei (1858–1927), which took place in China in the 1890s, was supported by many Chinese emigrants and gave them hopes, that China can be strengthened and modernized, in addition, most of them had ties with relatives in the country. Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary ac- tivities (1866–1925) were also supported by many overseas Chinese, as many of them did not feel sympathetic with the authorities of the Qing empire. Sun Yat-sen actively sought to involve overseas Chinese in the ac- tivities of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance ‘Tongmenghui’ ( chi. 同盟 会 ) . In 1907, he sent his associate Wang Jingwei to Siam (1883–1944), for him to establish a local ‘Tongmenghui’ cell. Sun Yat-sen himself vis- ited Bangkok in the winter of 1908. Hundreds of overseas Chinese came to greet him at a meeting organized at the headquarters of the Chinese association ‘Zhonghua’. The next day, the Siamese government sent