Perceptions of urban signage in an emerging Chinatown: reading xinyimin’s visibility and urban governance in Huai Khwang, Bangkok

Abstract

Research on new migrants from the People’s Republic of China, commonly called xinyimin has expanded, yet much of it still prioritises economic impacts over how migration reshapes urban semiotic space and how such transformations are interpreted by local publics. This study adopts a linguistic landscape approach to examine a commercially driven Chinatown in Bangkok’s Huai Khwang district. We combine quantitative mapping of 204 public signs with thematic analysis of 14 semi-structured interviews with xinyimin, Thai residents, and local officials. Findings show language patterns organised by business sector: Thai-Chinese combinations predominate in food and beverage outlets, with English concentrated in tourism-facing and higher-end businesses. Thai speaking participants often read Chinese-dominant signage as evidence of the displacement of commercial space and potential non-compliance with business and signage regulations, whereas xinyimin treat the same linguistic features as practical resources for organising economic and social networks within Bangkok. Meanwhile, xinyimin in this study emphasise mobility and ties to the People’s Republic of China, but resist being labelled as ‘migrants’, while Thai residents describe xinyimin as economically useful yet not fully incorporated. This study shows how linguistic landscape analysis can specify the mechanisms through which migrant visibility is produced, read, and governed in selectively regulated urban contexts.