The Overseas Spread of Teochew Music Culture and Its Influence on Thai Traditional Music
Abstract
This study examines the mechanisms of musical interaction and cultural integration between Teochew string music and the Thai Khrueang Sai ensemble in the context of Teochew migration to Thailand. Employing an ethnomusicological approach, the research combines documentary analysis, fieldwork, and in-depth interviews with comparative musical analysis of representative pieces, including the Teochew works Liu Qing Niang and Han Ya Xi Shui (Cold Crow Playing in the Water), the Khim solo Pae Huai Phang Song, and the Khrueang Sai ensemble piece Pae Huai Phang Thao Song. The analysis focuses on instrumentation, tuning systems, modal structures, melodic organization, and performance practice. The findings indicate that sustained Teochew migration since the late Southern Song Dynasty has established a stable social foundation for the overseas transmission of Teochew music, and that structural compatibilities between Teochew string music and the Thai Khrueang Sai ensemble particularly in ensemble configuration, tonal systems, modal structures, and melodic elaboration have enabled a gradual process of localization through melodic borrowing, structural adjustment, and ensemble reconstruction. The study contributes to ethnomusicological scholarship on cross-cultural musical interaction and Chinese diaspora music by demonstrating how migrant communities function as active agents of cultural reconstruction, and by revealing how traditional musical languages acquire new artistic forms and cultural meanings in cross-regional and cross-cultural contexts.
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