| Seng Sae Khu | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 丘春盛 | ||||||||||
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| Thai name | |||||||||||
| Thai | เส็งแซ่คู | ||||||||||
| RTGS | Sengsaekhu | ||||||||||
Seng Sae Khu or Khu Chun Seng (Thai: เส็งแซ่คู; Chinese: 丘春盛; pinyin: Qiū Chūnshèng) was a great-great-grandfather of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Khu was a Hakka Chinese immigrant from Fengshun, Meizhou, Guangdong. He arrived in Siam in the 1860s. In 1908, he settled in Chiang Mai. He married a Thai woman named Sangdi (most Thais did not have family names before 1918). His eldest son, Chiang Sae Khu, was born in Chanthaburi in 1890, and also married a Thai, Saeng Somna. Chiang's eldest son, Sak, adopted the Thai surname Shinawatra ("does good routinely") in 1938 during the Phibun regime's anti-Chinese campaigns. The rest of the family soon adopted it, including Loet, Thaksin's father, who was born in Chiang Mai in 1919. Loet married Yindi Ramingwong, who is also of Hakka Chinese descent.[1][2]
Seng Sae Khu made his fortune through tax farming. The Khu/Shinawatra later founded Shinawatra Silks and moved into finance, construction and property development.