13-03-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
‘Chinese, Western, Thai and Malay all mixed, that is our Phuket culture,' hotelier says
Growing up in Phuket, Pichakorn Phanichwong did not think she had a different upbringing than anyone else.
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Born and bred on the biggest island in Thailand, she felt she grew up in a typical Chinese Thai, or Phuket Baba, household.
'My grandmother would observe most of the major Chinese holidays,' she says. 'All of them involved a large meal that was arranged on our best tableware in front of the pictures of our ancestors, then we'd pray to bless the food and we'd have a large family gathering.'
What Pichakorn – who uses the name Peach online – describes seems like a household version of the blessing of offerings to ancestors and deities commonly observed in rural China. That comes as no surprise, as she is a Peranakan Chinese of Hokkien descent; merchants from southeast China began trading in Southeast Asia in the 6th century.
A typical Phuket Peranakan family feast at home for Pichakorn Phanichwong. Photo: handout
The term Peranakan is used primarily in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, where it refers to a native-born person of Chinese or mixed Chinese and Malay descent.
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When Penang in present day Malaysia was established as a trading post by British naval officer Captain Francis Light in 1786, it attracted Hokkien merchants who were already in the region and looking for financial security and business opportunities.
