How Bangkok’s Chinatown is Evolving

Few neighborhoods in Bangkok have managed to keep their souls like Chinatown, with its lit-up shop signs, street food carts, centuries-old shophouses and temples. Smoke from frying pans and incense sticks fills the air, while chatter from vendors and visitors compete with the sounds of moving traffic.

It is one of the largest Chinatowns anywhere, founded at the same time as the Thai capital itself more than 200 years ago. As the country with the world’s biggest overseas ethnic Chinese community — nearly 15% of Thailand’s 69 million people are considered ethnically Chinese — it’s an important focal point for culture and trade. It is also rapidly changing.

Even before the pandemic, e-commerce and enterprises such as hostels and trendy cafes were displacing some traditional shops, and a new subway line was bringing change to parts of the neighborhood. With the Covid-led downturn in tourism — which made up about a fifth of the national economy in 2019 — that evolution has accelerated, with more businesses shuttered and squeezed out.

At the same time, developers are betting on a post-pandemic future in which the area — with its high urban density, access to rail transit and proximity to business districts and the historic Old Town area — will provide a good return on investment.

“The key question that we have to answer is: What’s the identity of Chinatown?” said Somchai Kwangtongpanich, a community historian and Chinatown expert, who has lived in the area for nearly six decades and owns a rope store. “We have to be selective in preserving what makes this area unique.”

But having no master plan for development “leaves the issue in the hands of commercial interests,” he said. “There’s a lesson here for other Chinatowns.”

Two large projects show how different tactics are playing out in the neighborhood.

On Chinatown’s main drag, a historic community of shophouses is being turned into a mixed-use development with hotels, residences, a pagoda adorned with Buddhist artifacts and a five-and-a-half-floor underground shopping mall. Thailand’s richest man, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, controls the company behind the project, Asset World Corp. And at 17 billion baht ($523 million), it is the biggest ever investment in the neighborhood. Like millions of Thais, the tycoon’s ancestors migrated from China, and Charoen helped out with his father’s oyster omelet business in Chinatown before he became an alcohol distributor. Decades later his family’s business empire now ranges from beers and beverages to retail and resorts.

“We’re preserving the architecture and history of the area, and developing real estate that integrates homes, offices and retail space, in a similar style to shophouses,” said Wallapa Traisorat, Asset World’s chief executive officer and Charoen’s daughter. “We believe that we can create long-term value for the company, the community and future generations, and make this a new landmark for Chinatown, Bangkok and Thailand.”

Nearby, other property owners are trying a more grassroots approach in order to rehabilitate some 230 shophouses. More than 100 residents of the Luenrit community banded together to set up a company, negotiating an extension of the land contract with the Crown Property Bureau to avoid displacement.

The group consulted academics and studied the area’s history to inform designs for two-story units that preserve traditional construction elements, such as the slope of the roofs and the pattern on the building blocks. While the units’ exteriors make a nod to history, interiors have been designed for modern use, for instance by adding extra space under the attic. The project has taken about 10 years in total, but Luenrit is expected to open as early as the end of this year.

“This could be a model that can be adopted by other historic communities to keep the residents. People are a key part of the identity,” said Surain Thapanangkun, a hardware store owner and Luenrit committee member, who has lived in the area for five decades. “But there’s no right or wrong way.”

Some observers note the dangers of failing to properly regulate development in historic areas like Bangkok’s Chinatown.

There’s a tension between the financial value of an investment and its societal or environmental value, said Yongtanit Pimonsathean, a conservation expert who’s worked with the Luenrit community and who was also consulted by Asset World. But when there’s a lack of rules and regulations to protect the latter, the focus often lands on profits, he said. Risks include land banking, displacing communities, and demolishing historic buildings or constructing new ones at odds with the area’s character, Yongtanit added.

But where legislation is weak, community-based organizations can help manage a neighborhood’s evolution and ensure developers and investors are subject to some scrutiny.

For most residents, the goal is managing change rather than preventing it.

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