Letters from Thailand

BOTAN

Translated by Susan Fulop Kepner

First published in 1969 and awarded the SEATO Prize, Letters from Thailand remains one of the most compelling portraits of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. Told through letters home, the novel follows Tan Suang U, a young migrant who leaves China after World War II to build a life in Bangkok.

From the crowded streets of Chinatown, he writes of ambition, struggle, and survival in a culture that is never fully his own. As his business grows and his family takes root, tensions deepen—between tradition and change, between a father's expectations and children who become unmistakably Thai, and between belonging and isolation.

Sharp, intimate, and often quietly ironic, the novel captures the emotional cost of migration: the drive to succeed, the fear of losing one's identity, and the uneasy feeling of being caught between worlds.

BOTAN (pseudonym of Supa Sirising) was born in Bangkok and is of Chinese heritage. She is a National Artist of Thailand and the author of more than ten novels.

SUSAN FULOP KEPNER is a leading translator of Thai literature who has brought a wide range of modern Thai works to international readers over several decades.