The Images of Chinese and Westerners in Literary Works of King Rama VI

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate images of Chinese and Westerners in the literature of King Rama VI and to examine the relation between Chinese and Westerner characters and the social context considering ten literature consisted of Chinese and Westerners. The finding revealed the different images between Chinese and Western characters in the literature of King Rama VI: the appeared Chinese’s images were selfish, crafty, alien, ludicrous, undignified and uncivilized; the appeared Westerner’s images were friendly, civilized, hostile and military authoritative. The Chinese and Western characters in the literature reflected the social context associating with the foreigner in the reign of King Rama VI. King Rama VI used the literature to communicate the images of Chinese and Westerners when Chinese influenced on the social context in terms of economy, society and politics and during the World War I period: Thailand encountered in which the influences of Chinese and Westerners were a threat to national security. Consequently, Chinese characters were determined the inferior status than Thais and created bothersome trivial issues for other characters. However, the westerners were constructed to emphasize the alteration of allied Chinese in Thai people’s perspective encouraging his policy to partake in World War I. Nevertheless, even though the images of Westerners advocated participating with the Allies, people in the country should be aware of the image of having military authority.