The Teochew Store Blog / roots-finding

Mid-Autumn Festival Celebrations at the Singapore Teo Ann Huay Kuan 潮安會館. A night when families and traditions came alive for the young and the not-so-old ❤️❤️

From the Terence Tan postcard collection.

More old postcards of early 20th century Teochew are available in Memories of Old Swatow 汕頭舊影.

Homecoming,  似水流年 (“Years flowed by like water”) in Chinese, swept a total of six awards at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1985, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Newcomer, Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction.

Stilll remembered as the best Hong Kong film produced in the 1980s, Homecoming was shot mainly in location in Tah-gang village of Gek-yor (揭陽塔崗乡) in Teochew.

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”.

Mr Terence Tan was a Teochew collector from Singapore and an accomplished researcher of Teochew modern history. The mere mention of his name draws praise from people with a keen interest in Teochew cultural history. He collected and organised extensive volumes of documents, music records, and old photographs related to Teochew. He also edited a book titled Memories of Old Swatow and enthusiastically supported other researchers in publishing their work, including articles, books, and magazines. His contributions to the research and dissemination of Teochew cultural history were immense. 

Even until the last days of his life in 2021, Terence was busy organising the materials he had on his computer to share with friends in various countries. In the blink of an eye, we approach the third anniversary of Terence’s passing. The Teochew Store reached out to his family and close friends, collecting documentary materials to revisit his acquaintance and contributions to Teochew cultural history through different perspectives.

 陈传忠先生是新加坡潮籍收藏家、也是研究潮州近代史的资深学者。只要一提起他，许多关注潮州文史的人士就肃然起敬，赞不绝口。他收藏整理了大量与潮州相关的文献、唱片及老照片，编著出版了《汕头旧影》一书，并热心协助其他研究人士出版文章、书籍和杂志，对潮州文史的研究和传播做出了卓越的贡献。

2021年，在陈传忠生命中的最后几天，他将多年收藏并整理的电子版文史资料毫不保留地分享给各地的同行。转眼，陈传忠先生逝世即将满三周年。潮舗特别连线了他的家人及生前好友，并收集了一些文献资料，希望能从不同角度拼凑、还原他与潮州文史的渊源和贡献。

8th March is International Women’s Day. On this special day, we share Adele M. Fielde’s insightful observations, as an American Baptist Christian missionary, on the lives of women in Teochew 145 years ago. It is to the sacrifices of many of these women whom we owe what we have today.

Karl Gützlaff went to Bangkok in 1828 to distribute Christian literature to the Chinese settlers and traders. Three years later, he found himself on a Teochew junk sailing to China, enabling him to record up-close observations of the Teochews who left their homes to become migrants and traders in Siam. 

We also share an undercover Qing official's report on King Taksin, a Teochew who became the king of Siam in 1767.

The Forest of Miss Tang (陳小姐的森林) is a 40-minute Teochew language animation film produced in France. It tells the story of a Teochew family over six generations in Swatow, China, asking the question, to leave or to stay? The Forest of Miss Tang is the first Teochew language film to be produced in the West. It was broadcast on ARTE channel in Europe on 10 June 2023 and it has since been screened in a number of film festivals around the world.

The Teochew Store managed to speak with the film's director Denis Do, a Paris-born Teochew, to find out more about his feelings towards the Teochew identity and the creation of his film.

《陳小姐的森林》是一部在法国制作的潮语动画电影，它讲述了从十九世纪至今，一个汕头家庭绵延六代人的故事。它抛出了一个问题：“在社会剧烈变迁的背景下，我们是离开还是继续留在自己的家乡？”这部时长40分钟的动画电影已于2023年6月10日在ARTE（德法公共电视台）首映，这是潮语电影首次登陆欧洲。也在全球多个电影节的银幕上亮相，在各国的潮州社群中收获了不少好评和讨论。

潮舗特别连线本片的导演杜来顺（Denis Do），一位法国巴黎出生并成长的潮州青年,聊聊他对潮州人身份认同的经过，并运用于电影创作的过程。

Xu Xuanguan and Yang Lianguan were the captain and vice-captain of a Chinese junk that sailed from Siam for Japan in June 1693. However, adverse winds at sea forced them to divert to Teochew prefecture, where they spent the winter. They finally reached Nagasaki port a year after their original departure and gave testimony to a secret that even the Emperor of China was kept hidden from.

Have you ever noticed that our Teochew numbers 1 to 10 sound different, but yet somewhat similar, to the numbers in Cantonese? 

What's the story behind? Let's find out!

Teochew Gasig  (潮州教室) is an Instagram and Facebook platform that teaches and explains daily Teochew words and phrases in English, Indonesian and Mandarin. Since its inception in 2021, it has built a strong following among young Teochews from many countries.

The founder of Teochew Gasig is Vivian Lee, who lives on Batam Island. What made this member of Generation Z want to promote our ageless and charming Teochew language to other youngsters on social media? Recently The Teochew Store has had the privilege to chat with Vivian to find out about her journey in running Teochew GaSig.

潮州教室（Teochew GaSig ）是一个用英语、印尼语及华语来教授及解释日常潮州词语及短语的Instagram、Facebook账号。自2021年创办至今，深受各国年轻潮州人的欢迎。

居住在印尼巴淡岛的李佳纹小姐是潮州教室的创办人。究竟是什么原因让作为Z世代的她，开始在社交媒体向年轻人推广潮州话这门历史悠久、别具魅力的语言？近日，潮舖The Teochew Store特别连线佳纹，请她与我们分享创办“潮州教室”的心路历程。

A Teochew language short film about a Teochew who left for Siam, returning home after many years.

本作品围绕过番习俗，以艺术拍摄手法和原创动画制作形式表达潮州人在盛行出国谋生的“过番”年代，“番客”与家人之间的离别相思之情。

Three words that strike fear in every Teochew child: pah ka-ceng 拍尻倉!

Did you know that this was once also a punishment meted out to adults in China? A Jesuit Father, Adriano de las Cortes, learned this shuddering fact, and more, when a shipwreck made him an accidental visitor to the Teochew region 400 years ago.

A thousand years ago our ancestors in Teochew lived together with giants. Giants that weighed four tons, neared three metres in height, had two floppy ears, a trunk and a mammoth appetite.

An entry in the History of Song (宋史), dated 1171, reported that farmers in the Teochew prefecture had to set up pit traps in their fields after hundreds of wild elephants ate their crops. The cause of the conflict was quite imaginably the expansion of human settlements and agricultural activities into the animals’ habitats and stomping grounds. However, the elephants did not withdraw into the forests as a result. Instead, they organised themselves into herds and waited on the roads to ambush any passing cart or horse, which they encircled until the humans collected grain to feed them. To live with nature rather than conquer it was a wisdom our forefathers understood well.

History has a funny old way of repeating itself.

Chen Yaozuo (陳堯佐) was a prime minister and grand tutor of the crown prince of the Song dynasty (960–1279) in the 11th century. Coming from a family of officials, he was a rising star at the start of his career, until he bravely, or some might say foolishly, answered a call of Emperor Zhenzong for open criticisms by submitting a memorial that spelt out the ills of the times, including matters that no one else dared to speak about. As a result, Chen Yaozuo was banished and demoted to become an assistant prefect in the Teochew prefecture. This happened in 998, almost 180 years after Han Yu of the Tang dynasty suffered a similar fate.

Watch 《百年善纪——纪念潮汕八二风灾100周年》， a four-part documentary produced by Shantou Television to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1922 Swatow Typhoon. 

Commentary in Mandarin, with interviews in Teochew and Chinese subtitles.

“When the tidal wave came, the most vulnerable died tragically: some parents who carried several children were forced to let go the daughters to save themselves from drowning. Some mothers carried the babies with them and floated in the water, but the husbands took away the babies in order to save their wives. Some elderly parents could not swim and their sons did not abandon them, and they were all drowned. Some parents could not hold too many children together and they griped the children’s hair and little arms, but when they reached the high grounds, the younger ones had already died. Some elderly parents did not want to burden their adult children and they drowned themselves in order to save the family line. There were couples tied themselves together with strings but they were drowned. After the disaster, some people could not bear the deaths of their loved ones and they committed suicide.”

~ Chen Yuan (陳沅), magistrate of Jaopeng county

Today's Teochew presence in the United States was largely established after a wave of migration in the 1970s and 1980s. However, do you know that historical shipping records show that about 40,000 coolies were shipped from Swatow to the country between 1852 to 1858, and some of them might have formed their own fishing settlements on the West Coast? Learn about this and various stories of success achieved by the Teochews in America in this documentary produced by Shantou Television 22 years ago. 

二十世紀七、八十年代的一波移民潮形成了今日的美國潮人社群。其實船運記錄顯示，在一八五二年和一八五八年之間有大概四萬民“豬仔”從汕頭港被運到美國，而且他們有可能在美國西岸形成了自己的漁村。定居美國的潮人如何在這片大陸上成功立足？請看看這部由汕頭電視台在2000年攝製的記錄片，《美國潮人》。

Thailand has the largest Teochew diaspora in the world, with the size of the community estimated at 5 million in the mid-1990s. This documentary from 1997 by Shantou Television gives a glimpse of the lives of the Teochews in Thailand. (Audio in Mandarin, with some interviews in Teochew).

海外潮州人在泰国居多。根据上世纪90年代的统计，泰国的潮州社群约有五百万人。想了解潮州人在泰国过去的生活情况，请观看汕头电视台1997年制作的纪录片《佛國潮踪》。

The following 11 maps of the Teochew region and its counties are taken from the covers from the Volume Four issues of Teochew Home News (《潮州鄉訊》) magazine that were published between February and August 1949.

Map of all counties in Teochew 潮州各縣圖

A fellow Teochew in the UK is running a blog, Learn Diosua Ue with Juyee 和如意學潮汕話, since 2013 to help English speakers learn and appreciate our mother tongue. Her name, you guessed it, is Juyee 如意.

Juyee's blog is at learnteochewwithjuyee.blogspot.com

Juyee grew up speaking English and picked up Teochew, both speaking, reading, writing only as an adult. The Teochew Store recently spoke with her to find out more about her blog and her personal experiences in becoming fluent in our language, a formidable task for many of us!