Green Star over Thailand: Esperanto and Leftist Internationalism in the Thai Chinese Community during the 1930s

This article examines the Esperanto movement within the Thai Chinese community during the 1930s as a prism through which to explore the early formation of leftist internationalism in Thailand. Drawing on a diverse corpus of primary sources, this study reconstructs how a small but committed group of intellectuals mobilized Esperanto as both a practical tool for transnational communication and a symbolic vehicle for articulating a vision of leftist internationalism grounded in the specific realities of China’s anti-Japanese resistance. The article argues that the Esperanto movement was a transnational leftist cultural network that mediated the interplay between internationalism, nationalism, and communism—three forces that collectively shaped the political consciousness of Thai Chinese. The movement’s trajectory reveals both the possibilities and vulnerabilities of such transnational projects. While ultimately crushed by the rise of Thai state nationalism under the Phibun Songkhram regime, the movement’s radical ideas and networks survived through clandestine channels. By tracing how Esperantists adapted internationalist discourse to serve China’s national salvation, this article illuminates a neglected chapter in Thai radicalism and contributes to broader efforts to decenter Eurocentric narratives of leftist internationalism by attending to the experiences of Southeast Asian diasporic communities.