Hearts were broken when the Property Management of Chulalongkorn University (PMCU) greenlit the decision to raze Scala Cinema, the last stand-alone cinema in Bangkok, in 2020 despite opposition from activists who attempted to save the cinema's irreplaceable art deco architecture.
Questions were directed to the university's property management arm who later leased the prominent real estate lot to retail and property developer Central Pattana Plc (CPN) in 2021.
Fast forward to 2025, the cinema has been completely demolished and the foundation for a new commercial building has been laid. Nonetheless, no answers have been provided to the public as to why Scala Cinema could not have been preserved amid development in Siam Square.
Now many have raised a new question to the PMCU -- is Chao Mae Thab Thim Shrine the next Scala Cinema?
Five years ago, a then-Chulalongkorn University student and activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal initiated a campaign against the demolition of the Chinese shrine surreptitiously approved by the PMCU. At the time, Chao Mae Thab Thim Shrine was not as widely known as other famous Chinese landmarks in Bangkok. However, Netiwit and his team successfully brought the small shrine's name to light.
"When I first initiated my campaign to save the shrine, I honestly did not expect that it would change the decision [to demolish] made by the PMCU. I only wanted it to be educating for the younger generation to learn the importance of resilience," Netiwit revealed.
With Chinatown sprawling across inner Bangkok during late the 1800s to early 1900s, many Chinese people came to the Sam Yan and Saphan Leung area to settle and establish businesses. In 1957, Chulalongkorn University secured the Sam Yan neighbourhood and has taken the role of landlord ever since.
The Chao Mae Thab Thim Shrine used to be the heart of the Chinese community who had lived in the area for over a century. The shrine houses a sculpture of Mazu, the Chinese sea goddess who is widely worshipped by Chinese descendants overseas. Moreover, the shrine's Teochew-style architecture exhibits its culturally rich heritage and religious importance in Bangkok.
However, the community that once animated the whole area with affordable food stalls, auto parts businesses and small grocery stores is almost completely erased due to gentrification by the university's property management body.
People who had lived here for generations were bound to move out of the Sam Yan area because of soaring annual rents, a recurring pattern seen across major capitals. When urban sprawl increases the property value, evicting communities and commercialising an area becomes the primary practice to optimise real estate opportunity.
Now the shrine is being squashed by towering metal panels placed to build the "Thirty-Tree" project -- a 50-storey condominium -- that covers the entire block where the shrine is located. It turns out the high-rise residential building is a part of Sam Yan Smart City, a large-scale gentrification project developed by the PMCU. On its website, the university's property arm claims that the smart city plan will combine the historical area of Suan Luang and Sam Yan with innovations to create a sustainable city for everyone in the community.
Unfortunately, the shrine is not included in the Sam Yan Smart City's master plan despite its time-honoured bond to the area. According to the Thirty-Tree condominium floor plan, the PMCU will replace the shrine with a garden designed for residents of the complex.
In 2020, the PMCU sent an eviction order to the shrine's long-time caretaker, Penprapa Ployseesuay, forcing her and her family to move out before the condominium construction began. The caretaker did not comply with the court order and the university brought another legal case against them, demanding 122 million baht in damages.
"The shrine can coexist with the condominium. It can coexist with gentrification," said Netiwit.
Netiwit and the shrine committee have tirelessly publicised not only the importance of the shrine, but also the underlying problem of gentrification by Chulalongkorn University that has erased a community and culture that once surrounded its campus. In 2023, the group released the documentary The Last Breath Of Sam Yan telling the story of how the shrine committee and caretaker did not surrender to the fate brought to them by the PMCU. It won in the Best Documentary category at the Subannahongsa Awards, the Thai film industry's most prestigious honours, last year.
"Even when I was producing the documentary, I thought that the shrine would have been demolished by the time production was completed. I thought that my work would be evidence of what once was," Netiwit said.
After years of perseverance, he revealed to the Bangkok Post that the PMCU has been more understanding of their plea to preserve the shrine. Their contact with the shrine committee has become friendlier, however, it is still unclear if the university will save the shrine or sacrifice the plot to build the condominium's garden.
"There are thousands of people who visit Chao Mae Thab Thim shrine on weekends. Netizens are asking what would have happened if the PMCU had not wiped out Scala Cinema. Had the university preserved the cinema, the historical value of it would have been recognised the same way the shrine is now," Netiwit added.
He pointed out that the executives of PMCU and the university board would be endlessly praised by the public if they agreed to preserve the shrine. They would be remembered as the people who saved history.
The activist believes that it is still possible to make adjustments to the condominium's floor plan in order to include the shrine. He claimed that the idea was deemed attainable by the condominium's development team.
"The shrine also hosts a Chinese opera one or two times a year. The noise from the performance would not be a problem. It has also reduced the use of incense to avoid pollution. The shrine is willing to adapt, to live with the condominium's residents," Netiwit explained.
In December last year, Netiwit and the shrine committee launched a petition against the PMCU's mission to demolish the landmark. Within three weeks, over 50,000 people signed their names in support, with 80% of them being women and over 50% of them aged between 21-30.
Looking at the stats, it is striking that Gen Z and late Millennials are those who are vocal about preserving this traditional Chinese shrine and critical of how gentrification can easily remove traces of history and culture perpetuated by communities who are harmed by commercial real estate development. Thousands of netizens posted on X, using the hashtag #SaveChaoMaeThabThimShrine, to voice their concerns that the shrine must not face the same tragic end as the Scala Cinema.
Netiwit said that the campaign received increasing support from Chulalongkorn University students and also the public, who agree that the sense of community does not have to surrender to gentrification. Five years ago, Chao Mae Thab Thim Shrine might not have been familiar to Chulalongkorn students or to netizens. Now, thanks to continuous advocacy from the shrine committee, it has become not only a symbol of unyielding social movement but also a re-emerging cultural icon popularised on social media such as TikTok.
Hundreds of new videos have been posted on TikTok by users who share their experience at the shrine. Many have explained how their wishes had been reciprocated by Mazu, who blessed them with luck and fortune, and encouraged viewers to visit the shrine for auspicious reasons. The shrine's rising popularity highlights its highly revered status and also the foot traffic it brings to the Sam Yan community.
Assoc Prof Wasana Wongsurawat, a history lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, pointed out that the cultural distinction of the Sam Yan community was unfortunately wiped out by the PMCU's ongoing real estate development projects.
"What Chulalongkorn University has done to the Siam Square, Sam Yan and Suan Luang neighbourhoods is a classic example of gentrification, where they build shopping malls and condominiums to increase the property value, followed by rising rents so that locals can no long live there," she said.
In one way, the newly gentrified Sam Yan area has become an Instagram-worthy location where the price of food has reached levels that university staff and students can hardly afford. Assoc Prof Wasana said the PMCU has driven out the community and designed the new smart city to cater to tourists and people with higher purchasing power.
"We always need low-income labour to work in various sections in society, whether it's cleaning staff, security guards or retailers. Now we are pushing them away from what used to be their homes and forcing them to live in distant suburbs because the lucrative real estate in the city should only be reserved for the rich," she said.
Amid the attempts to modernise Bangkok and its old neighbourhoods, it is true gentrification gives the city a more polished, cleaner look, but ultimately scrubs off the history and culture that establish a city's uniqueness.
"Chao Mae Thab Thim Shrine is the last living heritage of the community's unique history. If it is demolished, there would be no distinct landmark left in the Sam Yan area. Then Sam Yan will end up looking similar to other gentrified areas in other parts of the world," the lecturer added.
