| In the burgeoning field of Southeast Asian Studies, there is still little research on Laos. This is a result of various factors, such as the country's landlocked position, the inconvenience of communications and its underdeveloped economy, and has led to the neglect of the study of Lao Chinese society in favour of the more widely researched fields of countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The development of this interesting topic of research has also been hampered by the lack of or age of available materials. This research attempts to fill in the blanks concerning the Chinese society in Laos. I visited Laos to interview local Chinese and collect materials and based on the history of Lao Chinese I have made a discussion of Lao Chinese identity. In this research I divide the history of the Chinese in Laos into four discrete periods, according to their characteristics: the period of strong growth from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1950's; the period of peaceful development from the 1950's to 1975; the period of stagnation and shrinkage from 1975 to 1986; the period of rebirth from 1986 until the present. As well as this I have carried out a systematic analysis of the Chinese society in Laos: an investigation of the influence of biological, geographical, societal and cultural elements on the identity of Chinese society, and a detailed description of outer expressions of Chinese society, such as their clothing, food, language use, dwellings, and its inner expressions such as religious beliefs, values, and social relations, comparing them with the rest of Lao society. Based on this and on the pressure to assimilate from Laos I make an analysis of the identity of Lao Chinese. Finally I make an analysis of the distinctive"roots"and"boundaries"of the Lao Chinese society, which has made it a"stable frontier"between China and Laos.
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