The Teochew Store Blog / Malaysia

In recent months, a series of short videos about overseas Teochews have gone viral on Douyin (TikTok), Facebook and other popular social media platforms, and captured the attention of Teochew communities in China and abroad. The videos originate from the official accounts of the Teochew cuisine documentary, “Flavours of Teochew from the Four Seas” (四海潮味, unofficial English translation). Featuring humorous and touching live stories of Teochew people living in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and France, the clips take on a refreshing perspective to present the blending of the Teochew identity with a diversity of local cultures.

Tan Wanxuan (陳婉璇), who hails from Teo-ann (潮安) district in Teochew, China, is the external liaison and producer of this documentary, as well as the director and editor of these short videos. Using Teochew food as a medium, “Flavours of Teochew from the Four Seas” describes the culture, customs and emotional longing for home of Teochew people from different corners of the world. How did Wanxuan become part of this documentary? What has she gained from her travels to these countries to interview and document about our Teochew cuisine and people? The Teochew Store was in touch with Wanxuan to learn about her story and “Flavours of Teochew from the Four Seas”.

A gold rush in the 1850s and 1860s brought thousands of Chinese from Guangdong to Australia, including a small number of Teochews. The Land Down Under has today a mix of Teochew immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and China and this documentary produced in 2000 documents their stories. Interestingly, the television crew from Swatow also discovered a place where the Teochew language was widely spoken in Sydney's Cabramatta suburb.

在十九世紀五、六十年代，數千名來自廣東省的華工湧入澳洲採金，其中少數是潮州人。今日的澳洲有分別源於越南、柬埔寨、香港、台灣、新加坡、馬來西亞和中國等地的潮人。這部汕頭電視台2000年攝製的記錄片《騎在羊背上的潮州人》，記錄了他們不同的故事。有趣的是，記錄片的製作團隊竟然在悉尼的卡拉瑪打市郊發現了一個通用潮州話的地方。

In this concluding part of  "The First Teochews in Singapore" series, we find out about the leader of Singapore's pioneer Chinese settlers, whom the Singapore government later appointed as the settlement's first Captain China, as well as the historical links of Wak Hai Cheng Bio (粵海清廟, a.k.a. Yueh Hai Ching Temple) - the oldest Teochew (possibly Chinese) temple here - to two temples in Riau (Bintan) and Bangkok's Chinatown. 

2019 is officially the bicentennial year of Singapore, a former British colony and today one of Asia's wealthiest cities.

The island-state is also home to the second largest Teochew overseas diaspora, after Thailand, and up till the mid-20th century a critical node on a trading and migratory network that connected the principal Teochew port of Swatow with key trading centres such as Hong Kong, Saigon and Bangkok. Teochews from Singapore were responsible for the early economic development of Johor, Malaysia's southernmost state whose capital Johor Bahru was once known as "Little Swatow". 

What has long been forgotten is that more than half a century ago, the Teochews in Singapore held to an oral tradition claiming that their forerunners were settled in Singapore before Sir Stamford Raffles, the Englishman hailed as Singapore's modern founder, even arrived. If true, this assertion will demand a change in the written history of Singapore.

Starting from this week, The Teochew Store will publish in three parts an in-depth research that sheds light into what this oral tradition says and seeks to verify its authenticity and accuracy.

As an overseas Teochew, you probably have at least one, or two, or more favourite Cantonese or Mandarin pop song that grew up with you. And sometimes as the familiar tunes play themselves in your mind, you wonder, why can't we have the same in Teochew? 

The Teochew songs that we had always been exposed to, apart from Teochew opera ones that we may appreciate but cannot understand, were folk ballads that can be cringeworthy, if not downright weird.

Thankfully, things are not all that bad. You see, we Teochews are not only good humoured, our language is rhythmic, we are creative, adaptable and we can sing too.

Click "read more" for a selection of Teochew songs that you'd fall in love with.

Spoken Teochew is both ancient and at the same time evolving, just like any other "live" languages. The Teochews settled in the Malay-speaking world covering Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have absorbed not a small number of native expressions into their daily vocabulary. Here we present a list of over 50 expressions.

A retro-remix of an "oldie" out from Malaysia, entirely appropriate for welcoming the exciting Year of the Rooster!

祝大家新正如意，家庭和諧，事事順利！

Since The Teochew Store was formed, we have received numerous requests for help from fellow Gaginangs to locate their ancestral village. Depending on the leads provided, we were able to assist many, but for others it is more difficult because some places have been renamed or now fall behind a different boundary line, other communities are unlisted on maps or the internet, or even when a place is found, there remains uncertainty if its residents have the same surname.

Fortunately the Shantou University (STU) Library has built a khieu-phue database (僑批數據庫) allowing keyword search for meta-data of some 70,000 pieces of khieu-phue (or "migrants letters", which were correspondences sent together with money remittances by Teochews living in Southeast Asia to their homes in Teochew), receipts and return letters. The site URL is  http://app.lib.stu.edu.cn/qiaopi/index.aspx.