HONG KONG - When someone says they are going to Phuket, a reel in your head starts playing images of beautiful beaches, seawater so clear you can see your toes, that gorgeous bay with the limestone karsts whose name you cannot recall, and humans of all shapes and colours laid out in the sand.
We steered clear of all that on a recent weekend in Phuket. Instead, we explored the island's Old Town, which I have long known about but never visited.
For visitors from Malaysia and Singapore, Phuket Old Town looks very much like home with its rows of shophouses and townhouses that feature the "five-foot way", the street-facing, sheltered walkway essential for the tropical climate of Southeast Asia, and ubiquitous in the two countries.
Also familiar is Phuket's Chinese Peranakan, or Baba Nyonya, cuisine, albeit with a touch of southern Thailand. We had a few delicious Baba Nyonya meals at a couple of beautifully appointed restaurants, the highlight of which was moo hong, a soy-sauce-braised pork belly dish that is similar, if not identical, to Singapore and Malaysia's babi pongteh.
For many, Singapore, Malacca and Penang, the main constituents of the former British colony of the Straits Settlements, are the centres of Chinese Peranakan communities, the descendants of early Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia who assimilated - through intermarriage or acculturation - with the local population.
Not many are aware that Phuket, located roughly 325 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of Penang, is also home to a vibrant Baba Nyonya community that shares many similarities with its cousins down south.
The walking street in the Old Town area in central Phuket, Thailand, is clogged with visitors on weekends. (Photo: Achadtaya Chuenniran)
The assimilation of early Chinese settlers into Southeast Asian society, which resulted in the hybrid Baba Nyonya culture with certain recognisable Chinese features, is a well-studied socio-historical phenomenon. But China, the source of countless migrants to Southeast Asia and beyond, was also a receiver of foreign immigrants in the distant past, whose descendants have since assimilated into Chinese society.
Not counting the non-Han Chinese peoples within the country, there were three main processes through which foreigners entered and settled in China.
There were foreigners, especially from the oasis kingdoms and city states in Central Asia, who fled to China from their homelands because of war or other calamities.
Others were civilian prisoners-of-war who were taken back to China, such as Koreans from the kingdoms of Goguryeo and Baekje, following their defeat in the seventh century by the combined armed forces of the Tang dynasty and Silla, another Korean kingdom.
The third, and most common, way was through trade. During periods when China was peaceful and prosperous, merchants arrived from all parts of Asia by land and sea.
Many of them chose to remain in China. Mirroring the Chinese Peranakan experience in Southeast Asia, the first settlers married Chinese women and started families. They and their descendants adopted Chinese names and customs and became proficient in Chinese to the extent of losing their native languages.
After many generations, most had become physically and culturally indistinguishable from the Han Chinese majority, with certain family names providing the only clues to their original foreign ancestries.
Some retained their original religions. In the case of Muslims, their descendants form part of the Hui ethnic minority today. Others, like the Zoroastrians and Manicheans from Persia, lost their faiths. The famous Jewish community of Kaifeng used to practise a rudimentary, almost unrecognisable, form of Judaism.
Vendors serve customers snacks at a market stall in the Chinatown area of Singapore. (File photo: Bloomberg)
Today, many in the ethnic Chinese communities of countries such as Singapore and Malaysia are wringing their hands over younger people losing aspects of their heritage. The descendants of ancient Arabs, Jews, Persians and so on, who travelled and settled in China, lost theirs, but still managed to live presumably fulfilling lives.
More recently, the example of the Chinese Peranakan communities in Southeast Asia is proof that something new and beautiful could emerge even as many things are lost.So, what if young Chinese Singaporeans or Malaysians cannot speak Chinese? Keep calm and eat babi pongteh.
