Later-Life Socialization and Differential Social Assimilation of the Chinese in Urban Thailand

Later-life socialization is as essential as childhood socialization in enabling people to fill their roles, or increasing roles, expected of them by society. In a study of social assimilation of the Chinese in Bangkok, Thailand, employing the societal approach to later-life socialization, it is possible to verify differential social assimilation on the basis of different patterns of social and cultural interaction of a minority with its host society. Compared with childhood socialization, adult or later-life socialization remains a research area largely untapped by social scientists. As Brim and Wheeler (1966) note, much of what is relevant to this field of inquiry usually originated as research on topics other than adult socialization or adult personality development per se. Nevertheless, sociologists have long recognized that socialization is a life-long process and the necessity of later-life socialization in adult personality development and role fulfillment is as great as early socialization (cf. Brim and Wheeler, 1966:3-7; Landy, 1959:7-8; Parsons, 1951:207; Riesman et al., 1950:38). The need for later-life socialization stems from the apparent inadequacy of childhood socialization to prepare a person for all the roles he is ; I am indebted to William J. Klausner, Adul Wichiencharoen, Bernard C. Rosen, and Barton Sensenig, all of whom have rendered more or less tangible help to this project. I alone, of course, bear sole responsibility for it. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Mon, 29 Aug 2016 06:10:32 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Assimilation in Thailand / 233 expected to fill in his adult life.' According to Brim and Wheeler (1966:6-7): As individuals mature, they move through a seqtience of statuses in the life cycle. Even though some of the expectations of society are relatively stable through the life cycle, many others change from one age to the next. We know that society demands that he alter his personality and behavior to make room in his life for newly significant persons such as his family members, his teachers, his employers, and his colleagues at work. Research on personality, specifically adult personality, in relation to society is generally conceived as having two distinct approaches. The first may be termed "individual approach," the second "societal approach." The individual approach concerns itself with the question of how individuals adjust to society and at the same time manage to be individualistic and creative, and even bring about change in society. By contrast, the societal approach asks how society socializes the individual, that is, how it transforms an unsocialized biological being into a socially oriented person and prepares him to perform the task of society assigned to his role, be it a changing or stable role (e.g. Brim and Wheeler, 1966). The societal approach considers as basically important the impact of social forces and social interaction upon the attitude and behavior of adult members of society. Using the societal approach to later-life socialization and based on the data collected in a study of Chinese social assimilation in Bangkok (cf. Punyodyana, 1971), an analysis will be made of the different patterns of social and cultural interaction of three different Chinese groups with Thai people. We will then discuss the impact of these different patterns of interaction on the differential social assimilation of the Chinese into urban Thai society.