Abstract:
This Article studied about the representation of Sun Yat-sen, which was represented or stand for by the Government of Siam, from the Sun Yat-sen’s first travel in 1903 to Siam until the end of King Chulalongkorn’s Reign at 1910. This study aimed to analyze the perspective of Siamese government to find origins of meaning and ideology behind the representation, with representation theory. The research question of this study are how did the government of Siam stand for Sun Yat-sen, with any ideology and political context? and how did his representation affect to overseas Chinese in Siam? This study is research based on the analysis of text on government document that related to Sun Yat-sen during the reign of King Chulalongkorn. Using representation theory to represent the process of creating representations and results of representations created by the Siamese government, which communicated through language in the form of words and phrases, including political policy and practice. From Ro.5 To.21/10 Chinese Sun Yat-sen [ร.5 ต.21/10 จีน ซัน ยัด เซน] in National Archives of Thailand. The result found that the Siamese government defined Sun Yat-sen as “Reformer”, by using the classification of persons based on political ideology and movement. Thus, Sun Yat-sen to be an unwanted person and he was segregated from the Chinese who came to rely on the King, because Sun Yat-sen's Republican ideology didn’t match or benefit the absolute monarchy of the Siamese government, may lead to turmoil the kingdom. When the political contexts of Siam have been changed, with the Chinese Nationalism in Siam was blooming. The overseas Chinese in Siam supported the Sun Yat-sen's political activities, which was influenced Sun Yat-sen's representation as political threat to the state, and challenged the ideology of absolute monarchy which was the heart of the Siamese government. The perspective of the Siamese government to the overseas Chinese in Siam was changed, and lead to the creation of "the Other within" to the overseas Chinese in Siam during the reign of King Vajiravudh.