The Teochew Store Blog / people
Teochew through the eyes of its visitors: Han Yu, the genius who discovered one of life's greatest joys
Have you ever wondered how did our forefathers live 100 years ago, 200 years ago, or even 1,000 years ago?
Our ancestors were a lot of things. Merchants, traders, seafarers, fishermen, agriculturalists, tea connoisseurs, culinary experts, artisans, builders, artists, musicians, poets, etc. But somehow there was not a historian among them. They spent their lives and energies in pursuit of happiness in many ways that today endow us with a rich cultural heritage and identity. Yet, it did not occur to them to document themselves or the world they lived in.
Fortunately, the Teochew region had over the centuries its fair share of visitors, of whom a few were both keen observers and skilled writers.
We begin a new series of articles telling the history and people of Teochew through the eyes of these men and women, with Han Yu (韓愈), a literary genius from the Tang dynasty, who came to Teochew more than 1000 years ago and not only escaped death here, but also discovered here one of the life's greatest joys.
Remembering the 1922 Swatow Typhoon 百年善纪——纪念潮汕八二风灾100周年
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.
Teochews in America
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》。
Canada - An Unlikely Teochew Gathering Point
Escaping Cambodia with five children in the 1970s, a Teochew couple were cruelly separated on the Thailand border. Yet they were miraculously reunited in Canada five years later and after much hard work, eventually came to own a supermarket. Notwithstanding its great distance from Asia, Canada is a gathering point for Teochews who resettled from Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong and China. Let’s watch this video where several of them share their stories and aspirations.
一對潮州夫妻在上世紀七十年代離開柬埔寨逃往泰國，在邊境走散，不知生死。五年後，他們奇蹟地在加拿大團聚。為了生活，他們刻苦耐勞，最終成功經營自己的超市。在離亞洲數千里的加拿大是許多來自越南、柬埔寨、香港和中國潮人移民的集中地。在這片土地上，他們與我們一起分享自己的故事和夢想。
Teochews in France
For over 200 years till the mid-20th century, Southeast Asia was the primary migration destination for the Teochew people. However, as the result of various wars and upheavals in the 1970s, tens of thousands of Teochew families in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were forced to resettle again in France. Watch this documentary produced by Shantou Television in 1997 to hear the stories of how these Teochews who arrived in a foreign land as refugees courageously re-established their lives in Europe.
直到上世紀中旬，東南亞一直是潮州人主要的移民地。但因二十世紀七十年代的戰亂，數万個原定居在越南、柬埔寨和寮國的潮人家庭被迫二次遷移到法國。請看這部汕頭電視台1997製作的紀錄片，聽聽這群潮州人如何以以難民的身份勇敢地在歐洲找到新生。
The Teochew community in Cambodia's rebirth
Watch how the Teochews living in Cambodia in the 1990s, after surviving the devastations of the brutal Pol Pot regime and years of war, devoted their scarce resources towards the education of the next generation.
Teochews in Singapore 25 years ago
The Teochew Community in Malaysia
你知道嗎？馬來西亞檳城有條汕頭街。一起來觀賞汕頭電視台製作的紀錄片《落地生根 》，關注居住在大馬潮州二十五年前的生活。
A Documentary on Teochews in Thailand from 1997
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》。
1987 Teochew Musical Movie - Sounds of Teochew 《潮人鄉音》
Have you ever watched a Teochew musical movie? Check out this rare classic that showcases a variety of Teochew art forms, including cross talk (相聲), bamboo clapper singing (竹板歌), Teochew classical music (潮州音樂), Teochew opera (潮劇), Teochew narrative songbooks (潮州歌冊), ballads (歌謠), etc.
Teochew Home News - A Publication of Our Own
Teochew Short Film: Uncle Goose Waits for A Phone Call 潮州話短片: 《斷捨離》
本片風趣幽默，天馬行空，是一部關於等待的故事。希望大家看了《斷捨離》，對待生活灑脫樂觀，活在當下，且行且珍惜。
注：本片所有對白均為潮州話。
Teochew Movie "Proud of Me" Theme Song: "Father Have You Eaten?" 潮州電影《爸，我一定行的》主题曲： 老父您食未
Where do the Teochew people come from? Teochew, or the Yellow River?
Where do the Teochew people come from? The Teochew region in southern China is the obvious answer.
Yet if one is to run a search on the Internet, he or she would find a string of references stating that our ancestors came hundreds of years ago from the Central Plains in the Yellow River reaches, thousands of miles away.
Click "Read more" to begin our journey of discovery
Heart-warming Swatow in a Cold Winter 汕頭街頭寒冬送暖
Malay loanwords in Teochew language
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.
Teochew Short Film 潮语微电影: “Yeo Bhue Eng"《杨梅英》
“Yeo Bhue Eng"《杨梅英》is a film about the life of a former Teochew opera adolescent actress who performed by the same name (real name Ang Hui Eng 洪惠英). Sold to an opera troupe at the age of 7, she became famous by 15 and was married to a man she loved five years later. However when she was 37, her husband became a victim of the Cultural Revolution and she was left to bring up their five children alone.
My Teochew Family Story Sharing: "My Special Teochew Family 特别的潮州家人" by Harada Ryotaro 原田燎太郎
What Family Meant to the Teochew Forefathers
我们要听您的故事: “My Teochew Family 潮州一家人”
The Teochew Store潮舖一岁啦！
为了庆祝我们的第一周年与答谢各位读者的支持，我们希望邀请您和大家分享您对主题 “My Teochew Family 潮州一家人”的故事.
您的故事可以关于您的家人，在您生活里扮演重要角色的潮籍人士，或者是一个让您领悟的“家”的意义的社群。您可以通过以下两种方式参加...
We want to hear your story: “My Teochew Family 潮州一家人”
The Teochew Store is turning ONE!
To celebrate this occasion and to thank all our readers, we would like to open the floor for you to share with all fellow Teochews your story on the theme “My Teochew Family 潮州一家人”.
Your story can be about your own family and relatives, any Teochew person(s) who has influenced your life, or a Teochew community that has helped you understand the meaning of “family”. Entries can be submitted in one of the following two ways...
Watch: Rare video footages of early 1990s Teochew 八千里路云和月 潮州
Taiwanese travel programme featuring rare footages of early 1990s Teochew 潮州. In Mandarin, with some interviews in Teochew and English subtitles.
Poll of the Month: Should all Teochews be called "Teoswa-nang" 潮汕人 as currently in mainland China, instead of "Teochew-nang" 潮州人?
We Are What We Eat – what our favourite plate of Teochew or-luak tells us about our history
The great joy of being a Teochew is the buffet of delicious food that we get to eat. Teochew plain porridge served with pickled vegetable, chai-poh eggs etc etc, char kway teow, braised goose (or duck), steam promfret, pork trotter jelly, all kinds of kuehs… our taste buds are spoilt for choice.
A popular dish for Teochews both in Swatow and overseas is the traditional Teochew oyster omelette or-luak 蠔烙 (literally “pan-fried oysters”). It is simple to prepare, delightful to eat, and certainly needs no introduction. But well, here is anyway a video about a famous or-luak stall in Swatow with 50 years of history:
For anyone inspired to try to serve up a plate yourself, here’s the recipe from allreceipes-Asia :
Ingredients Serves: 4
-
4 eggs
-
2 teaspoons fish or soya sauce
-
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
-
1 tablespoon rice flour
-
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-
2 cloves garlic, chopped
-
1 teaspoon chilli paste
-
6 to 8 large fresh oysters
-
salt and pepper
-
coriander sprigs
Directions
Prep:10min › Cook:15min › Ready in:25min
-
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with fish sauce and set aside.
-
Mix the tapioca flour, rice flour and a pinch of salt in 125ml water to make a very thin batter. In a large wok, heat 1 teaspoon oil until smoking hot. Pour in the batter and let it set.
-
Pour the eggs over and when it is almost set, mix everything together. Make a well in the centre by pushing the egg and batter mixture to the sides of the wok. Add the remaining oil and stir in the garlic until fragrant. Add the chilli paste and oysters. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss until heated through.
-
Turn onto a serving platter and garnish with coriander sprigs. Serve with bottled chilli sauce mixed with vinegar to taste.
Variations of the or-luak are found in neighbouring southern Fujian (where the Hokkien people live), and the dish is a symbol of the importance of the sea to the lives of the Teochew and Hokkien populations in coastal Southeast China. When the renowned Confucius scholar Han Yu was banished in the 9th century from the Chinese Central Plain by the emperor to become governor of Teochew (at that time a frontier region of the Tang empire), he discovered the Teochew diet of oysters and other exotic seafood and was so fascinated that he composed the poem “Helpful Verses for Yuan Shiba Introducing Food in the South” 《初南食貽元十八協律》to inform his friend Yuan Shiba about them. In what was the prolific poet’s first and only poem with food as the subject, he noted how the Teochews enjoyed food prepared with salty and sour condiments, and dipped in pepper salt, pepper oil and orange sauce (but made him burst into sweat and turned his face red), and confessed that apart from the snake, everything they ate were new to him. For the Teochew people however, the appearance of oysters in our diet traces back even much further.
One day in the late 1950s, an archaeological team from the Guangdong Administrative Committee for Cultural Heritage made an unexpected finding when they chanced upon a shell mound in the remote village of Chenqiao (陳橋), some two kilometres west of Teochew city. Composed of tens of thousands of marine shells, including oyster and clam, it stood at a fairly remarkable height of 1.4 metres. The villagers did not think much of the derelict heap, but for the trained archaeologists this was a treasure trove. Found in many parts of the world near coastlines, lagoons, tidewater flats, rivers and streams, shell middens are not random formations but cultural deposits created by our human forefathers during their transition from the hunter-gathering to sedentary lifestyle 4,000 to 10,000 years ago. As they adapted to living in more confined spaces, their diet was diversified to encompass all everything edible within reach, and shellfish that can be easily collected from shallow waters became an important food source.
And right on cue, investigations at the Chenqiao site unearthed more skeletal remains of cow, pig, deer, fish and turtle (i.e. prehistoric dinner leftovers), and a range of man-made stone and bone tools such as adzes, hatchets, choppers, hammers, pries (for opening the oyster shells) and pottery shards. Even more exciting was the discovery of the fossilised remains of ten human beings, dubbed later by local archaeologists as the “Chenqiao people”. Unfortunately little information has been published about them. Apart from the estimation of their age to be 5,500 and 6,000 years old, it is also reported they included male and female, and young and old, suggesting they were members of a family.
So the next time when you pick up a pair of chopsticks to eat a plate of or-luak, know that you are not indulging in good food, but also continuing a tradition, the Teochew family tradition.
"Like" our Facebook page to stay updated with The Teochew Store.
Who is a Teochew? (Importance of the Teochew language)
But what if we are asked to give the definition of a “Teochew”? It is not every day that we get asked something this difficult, but a kid, your kid, might just be curious enough to do so. Or who is a “pure” Teochew? Don’t sniggle. I have come across several comments on Facebook by “pure-blood” Teochews finding out, with considerable pride, how many are like themselves? Recently I came across another Facebook post by a person who half-jokingly announced himself as a “more real” Teochew than others because he was born in Teochew city itself and not overseas.
In a way, these boasts are not invalid. Although Teochew people have been trading with Southeast Asia since at least the Song dynasty (from the 10th century), and tens of thousands became labourers in different parts of the region after the late 17th century, these emigrants were almost exclusively male, and those who could afford, always returned to their home village to retire. On a survey of Swatow in 1858, Lord Elgin reported of a habit amongst the “Chinamen” seeking work in Singapore (presumably referring to Teochew men) who sometimes brought home with them their Malay wives, leaving them in place of ancestry, and returning to Singapore without them. Accordingly children at that time who were not of “pure-blood” were rare, and even many of them were brought up in Teochew.
Of course things have changed greatly since about a century ago when the advent of steam shipping, civil wars and Japanese invasion led to the migration of Teochew women in significant numbers and many Teochew people setting up families abroad permanently. Due to economic and political factors, the majority of their overseas-born children and grandchildren have never gone back to Teochew and with time, grew up and embraced ways of life different from their forefathers. It was once taboo for a Teochew should marry a non-Teochew, not even another Chinese, inter-racial marriages is now a largely acceptable norm amongst members of the diaspora. Therein lies the question – do you still count as a Teochew even if you are of partial Teochew descent?
By Teochew tradition this is determined solely by your paternal lineage. But of course reality is always more complicated. Some time ago, I came across again on Facebook the spirited defence of a Teochew lady of her “non pure blood” daughters’ heritage. She revealed that she is married to a black man, but while her girls do not look like her, they speak the Teochew language even better than some of their cousins. Rather succinctly, she pointed out that she has always been proud of being Teochew because “our culture has gone through so many dark time (sic) in history, and our strength is based on an open spirit that has allowed us to adapt ourselves wherever we are, and to absorb the qualities of any country we live in.”
It is interesting that this proud mother should stress her daughters’ fluency in our language. I know a girl in Swatow who speaks Teochew daily at home, but told me that her grandfather was actually a Hakka – a language that she has no knowledge of. She sees herself as a Swatow native, and in manners and customs, she is no different from her neighbours or friends. Do such assimilated members of the society count as Teochews as well?
Eminent French sociologist Emile Durkheim noted that kinship through common ancestry (either real or perceived) and marriage does not ensure the cohesion of a community in the long-run. Instead individuals see themselves as one people when they share values, beliefs, customs and a way of life lifestyle fostered. Unlike the modern consumer “culture” that extends its influence through the media and the internet, a traditional culture like the Teochew one thrives on the intimate interaction and primarily oral communication between its members, which creates a collective consciousness. It is this consciousness that is both unique and exclusive, which gives us our enduring identity.
Accordingly, fluency in the Teochew language not only allows us to bond with the elder members of our family, but also serves as a key to unlock knowledge to the treasures of our heritage. Of course, this is not to say that the Teochew identity is exclusive to those who speak the language well, or language competency is the sole measure to the level of our “Teochewness”. Many aspects of our fine culture can be expressed in another language (as we do so on this site) or even in non-verbal forms – such as cooking. But it is also true that we lose a great proportion of ourselves as a community if we forsake our mother tongue. With a diminished proficiency and vocabulary, our ability to pass on what we know to the next generation is compromised.
Being Teochew is a birthright, an exclusive privilege. At the same time, being Teochew is knowing and embracing an appreciation of life shaped by wisdom and experiences accumulated and passed on from generation to generation. The heritage we have cannot be taken for granted. Whether “pure blood” or otherwise, we hold a torch in our hands that we need to pass on to our children to keep the flame burning.
"Like" our Facebook page to stay updated with The Teochew Store.
40 Teochew Bedtime Stories
Stories, who doesn't enjoy hearing them? Especially bedtime stories when we were kids (or perhaps even till now)... How about some stories out of Teochew - the very same ones told to our great grandparents when they were little? Here's one:
THE MISTAKE OF THE APES
A thriftless man, who had a scolding wife, resorted to the woods to hang himself; but after he had tied the noose his courage failed, and he went home. His wife, on seeing him, said he had been gone so long that she had begun to hope he would never come back. This so wounded his feelings that he declared his intention of ending his life, and again betook himself to the forest. There he passed from tree to tree and deferred the act from hour to hour, till he entered a strange gorge, and sat down in the attitude of a musing Buddha under a branch on which he decided to fix his rope.
Being exhausted by fasting and fatigue, he fell into a deep sleep, and was presently discovered by a wandering ape, who reported to his tribe that he had found their ancestor. A council of the elders was then called around the sleeping man, and after due inspection they unanimously decided that he was indeed their ancestor, and should be their king. So they carried him to their stronghold in a wooded glen, enthroned him in an arbor, and surrounded him with offerings of fruits and nuts. When he awoke he found his wants so provided for and his servants so deferential that he thought he might greatly enjoy life among the apes. They continued to bring as tribute to him the best of their gleanings in the neighborhood and all the treasures they collected in their excursions to distant regions. He saw where they had stowed the valuable articles accumulated during past years, and at his leisure he examined and assorted them.
One day when the apes were away he took all their portable wealth and made his way out of the forest and back to his own door. His wife, seeing him more shabby than ever, poured reproaches upon him, but he silenced her by putting a piece of gold in her hand. Having enough to live comfortably upon for many years, the woman became companionable. She soon told her intimate friend that her husband went away to kill himself and came back rich, and this friend urged her own husband to do likewise. He in turn importuned his lucky neighbor to disclose to him the method by which he got his fortune. Having promised secrecy and a share of the plunder, he was intrusted with the story of election to headship among the apes, and was given direction how to reach their retreat. He then set off, followed the same route, sat in the same attitude under the same tree, and awaited the arrival of the scout who should call the tribe to carry their returned chief into their fastnesses.
The apes had meantime deliberated, and had concluded that a being who had deserted them, taking with him their goods, was neither their sire nor sovereign. So when a young ape foraging for provisions saw this second man under the tree he returned home and notified the tribe, whereupon the apes, moved to indignation and anger, surrounded him in force and tore him in pieces.
-oOo-
You love it? So did I. Well there's another 39 more Teochew folktales collected from Swatow by American missionary AM Fielde in the 1880s in Chinese Nights' Entertainment: Forty Stories told by Almond-Eyed Folk Actors in the Romance of The Strayed Arrow.
Happy reading. =)
"Like" our Facebook page to stay updated with The Teochew Store.
Village People - incorporating a comprehensive list of Teochew Facebook groups
Almost every tourist in Teochew would have visited the ancient prefectural city of the same name. The reconstructed Ming-era Guangzi city gate 廣濟門, Siangze bridge 湘子橋 and the Memorial Arches Street 牌坊街 bring us back to times when the place ranked alongside Guangzhou and Quanzhou as the grand centres of economy and culture on the southern Chinese coastal.
Yet within the Teochew region, the influence of Teochew city did not extend beyond the banks of the Hang-kang 韓江 river by where it stands. The variety of Teochew spoken here, although seen as gentle and refined, and acknowledged as the “high” form of the language (till today it is insisted upon as the performing language for Teochew opera), is never deemed as a standard for all to conform. Instead people in Teochew accept that “whatever language you speak depends on which river water you drink” and the result is a rich spectrum of local accents and vocabularies that change quite literally along the flow of the different rivers. Teochew city has a history of over 1500 years. So why hasn’t the people it governed achieved a homogeneity in speech?
Well, there is firstly no need to and secondly no desire to. By far and large, Teochews are village people. Through close inspection, you will come to find that many parts of Swatow outside the old city district are actually urbanised village clusters populated by their original inhabitants. Many of us who are city dwellers will view dimly of this characterisation. In our minds after all a village is a small, undeveloped and backward place, as opposed to the vibrant modern metropolis that is ever-expanding. But this is a biased view that fails to recognise the true character of a village.
A village is not a primitive, downsized town or city. A city is a centre created for the extension of political and economic control of surrounding areas. It is built by its native rulers and migrants (both willing and unwilling ones), and its wealth is generated by trade or military coercion of neighbours. An imposed system of rewards and punishments govern all activities in the city. A village, on the other hand, is an organic settlement. Its population usually consists of members of a clan or a handful of clans, and increases through births and marriages. Beyond blood and marital ties, the people are united by common economic exploitation of locally available resources, and a heritage defined by collective consciousness. While the pride of a city is its power and wealth, the strength of a village is the resilience of its people’s identity.
Because a village is a small community, the children attend the same school, the women shop at the same marketplace, and the men drinks and chat at the same open spaces. The lives of its members are enriched by close interaction and daily communication. Although this type of lifestyle now eludes those of us who live in cities, social media has allowed the re-creation of the aspect of regular socialisation. Virtually on cue, thousands of Teochews across the world have transcended geographical divide to come together in a growing number of Facebook groups and pages to share memories, information, travel photographs and not a few recipes for our favourite Teochew dishes. Just a few years ago people were saying that Teochew is a dying culture, but you will be surprised (as I am) by the level of Teochew-related activities online.
Many of these online communities are without rulers and builders, but they thrive nonetheless on the basis of our shared identity and dreams just the old villages continue to do so in the land of our forefathers. If you are looking for a “village” to join, here are a few Facebook groups and pages that you may wish to look out for:
Communities
潮人潮语 Closed group: 9,671
柔佛潮州八邑會館 3,994 likes
我是潮汕人 I Am DieSuaNang Public group: 3992 members
im teochew!! Public group: 3885 members
Singapore TeoChew Nang 新加坡潮州人 Closed group: 3278 members
Gaginang Public group: 2215 members
潮州人 ~ TEOCHEW NANG (แต้จิ๋ว Triều Châu) Secret group: 1197 members
潮人在越 ( Người Triều Châu ở VN ) 1,038 likes
民都鲁潮州公会 876 likes
Singapore Teochew 新潮人 Sin Teo Zin Public group: 822 members
新加坡潮州八邑会馆 Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan 706 Likes
Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan Youth Federation (新加坡潮州八邑会馆青年团) 615 Likes
International Teochew - We are Gaginang! Public group: 539 members
潮語大家講！Cùng nhau nói tiếng Tiều! Public group: 525 members
Người Triều Châu - Teochew - 潮州人 Public group: 478 members
潮州人2 ~~ TEOCHEW NANG 2 Secret group: 465 members
柬埔寨潮洲人 423 Likes
潮州自己人 Public group: 349 members
Gaginang UNSW - Teo Chew Student Association (TCSA) Public group: 315 members
潮州人 Public group: 311 members
Teochew Public group: 294 members
Singapore Teochew Lee Clan Association 新加坡潮州陇西李氏公会 267 Likes
Teochew Sibu (诗巫潮州公会) 256 Likes
Teo-Chew Association (TCA) at UCLA 2014-2015 Closed group: 228 members
新加坡潮汕留学生联合会 (Xinchaoliu) 225 likes
吉兰丹 潮青团 197 likes
Teochew Australia - We are Gaginang! Closed group: 194 members
Sydney University Teochew Association (TCA) - 雪梨大學潮州會 Public group: 181 members
Teochew Indonesia - We are Gaginang! Public group: 174 members
Teochew Segamat Closed group: 159 members
Teo-Chew Association (TCA) @ UCI Closed group: 151 members
潮男潮女 128 likes
Teo-Chew Association @ UCSD Public group: 110 members
柔佛哥打丁宜潮州会馆 Public group: 107 members
Teo-Chew Association (TCA) at UW Public group: 106 members
Teo-Chew Association (TCA) at UCLA Public group: 97 members
Teochew New Zealand - We are Gaginang! Cosed group: 79 members
Chaozhou 邦 Cosed group: 73 members
Teochew Kang Hay T'ng 70 Likes
Teo-Chew Association of Southern California | 美國南加州潮州會館 Public group: 64 members
Gaginangs in Germany Public group: 41 members
Special Interest Groups & Pages
潮藝館 （Teochew Puppet & Opera） 1,779 likes
马六甲潮州会馆华乐团 Malacca Teo Chew Association Chinese Orchestra (TCCO) 1,138 likes
Teochew Letters 1041 Likes
金玉楼春潮州木偶剧团 1,009 likes
香港潮商卫视 CSTV 894 Likes
Teochew Language 750 Likes
What Teochew Say? 547 Likes
新新荣和潮剧 Teochew Opera 337 Likes
潮剧珍藏 251 likes
Teochew Opera Fan Club 243 Likes
返乡里去潮州 Go Chaozhou 193 Likes
新加坡揭阳会馆潮乐团 Public group: 187 members
The above listing is not exhaustive and excludes several smaller groups (of less than 50 members) and pages for restaurant and eating places. Last but not least, do “like" and follow our Teochew Store Facebook page if you love our work!
Speaking of Reason, Reasonableness and Romance of the Teochew people
Ask other Chinese of the reputation of the Teochew people and you will probably get descriptions like hard-nosed businessmen, diligent and thrifty workers, and in the case of Hong Kongers, perhaps even unruly members of clannish gangs. These stereotypes were no doubt true to an extent relevant to our forefathers’ struggle for survival in a difficult stretch of time in history. Yet behind these impressions of being calculating pragmatists, Teochews hold above the authority of reason in the regulation of manners and behaviour.
In any situation of negotiation or conflict, all parties are always urged toda-dau-li 呾道理, to speak “the immutable law of reason”. As Lin Yutang (in My Country and My People) explains, the correctness of this reason is not based just on logical reasoning, but also reasonableness in touch with the human nature. Being reasonable allows situations to be handled with flexibility, understanding and realism. Being reasonable means matters of business are discussed over sessions of tea, and not thrashed out over endless revisions of lengthy proposals and contracts.
In the belief of Teochew people, knowledge of this eternal reason is assumed to be possessed in any civilised person. It is a universal authority higher even than written law. Laws after all were historically prescribed by emperors in faraway imperial capitals. As a 1868 British publication observed, people from Teochew were “noted for their independent and turbulent spirit” and “rank among those who are sparing in their allegiance to the court of Peking, and seldom yield up the quota of revenue justly due to the emperor”. It is thus this invisible hand of reason that keeps order in the whole Teochew society even when centres of political power rise and fall.
One of the lasting memories almost every visitor takes away from Swatow is the disordered state of its traffic. Especially during peak hours, the main road junctions are choked with taxis, public buses, motorcycles, three-wheelers, bicycles and modern sedans that seem out-of-place in the tired-looking city. However amidst the apparently mad jostles for the right of way that the traffic lights and road lanes barely have power to restrain, we see also the magic of reason at work. Like dancers on a stage, motorists and pedestrians move ahead and step sideways in prefect synchrony to allow the movement of everyone without accident or gridlock. Spend enough time in the city and you will appreciate the beauty of spontaneous order.
A society shaped by the reasonableness of its common souls, rather than reasoning from the top, supports the pursuit of happiness for all. True there is no Eiffel Tower and roadside restaurants for dating couples are rare in Swatow, but Teochews are a hopelessly romantic people. This is seen in the love of our older folks for storylines centred on love in the Teochew operas, over plots with patriotic themes that are preferred in northern China. Especially popular are local folktales where the main characters’ true love overcome the rigidities of the ideal Confucian society that stand between them and forever happiness.
Amongst the many Teochew opera plays, none is as well-loved as the tale of Sou Lak-nio 蘇六娘 – the sixth lady of the Sou family – that the troupes also never tire of performing. Set in the Ming dynasty, this equivalent of Romeo and Juliet out of Gek-yor 揭陽 (Jieyang) tells of a love between the young daughter of an esquire and her cousin that was threatened by her father’s agreement to marry her to a scholar from a well-to-do family. Despite his love for his only daughter, Sou Lak-nio’s father refused to heed her protests as the arrangement was made by a senior member of the Sou clan. To allow a girl final say against her family elders’ wishes was considered outrageous and shameful for a respectable family. This forced Sou Lak Nio to attempt to take her own life by jumping into a river on the eve of her wedding. However unlike the Shakespearean version, this story ends on a happy note. Sou Lak-nio’s faithful servant girl Tho-hue桃花 finds her in time and with the aid of an old friendly boatman helped her elope with her cousin. Freedom triumphs in the end over “proper” society with the approving applause of the crowd.
*Read Helga Werle's excellent act by act narration of the Sou Lak-nio plot in English here (opens PDF file).
Or watch the all-time favourite 1957 movie version of Sou Lak-nio below:
Part 1
Part 2
"Like" our Facebook page to stay updated with The Teochew Store.
Becoming Gaginang
The online Teochew community has been abuzzed in recent weeks with the jingle “Teochew nang 潮州人, Gaginang 家己人, hey-o, hey-o” sung to the tune of Jambalaya. Simple as the lyrics may be, the ear-catcher produced by the Singapore Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan has tugged the heartstrings in many of us.
Gaginang, meaning “(my/our) own people”, is an expression all too familiar for Teochews all over the world. No matter who we are or where we come from, once spoken, it melts away every barrier standing between us and a fellow Teochew. Besides being the name of a popular website dedicated to the promotion Teochew culture, it is said that Gaginang was in the past the “codeword” that gets you out of trouble if you were ever so unfortunate to be caught in one of the fights of the notorious Teochew triad in Hong Kong.
While we may now have a laugh, the Gaginang identity was formed as result of much pain and hardship, revealed in the full maxim “Teochew-nang, Gaginang, pah-si bho-siang-gang 潮州人, 家己人, 拍死無相干". Literally it means “Teochew people, own people, beat (each other) to death and (it) does not matter”. Although this can be interpreted as “we are together as a people, no matter what happens”, there is still plenty to ponder as to why the idea of beating up one another, to death, even crossed the minds of our forefathers?
Surprising as it sounds, the notion of Gaginang is actually fairly recent. Traditionally the Teochew society was divided in tight-knit clans completely protective of its own members, but distrustful of everyone else. Marriages were seldom arranged with families beyond the next adjacent village. This created an explosive environment during the Qing dynasty when imperial oppression and corruption reduced Teochew prefecture to extreme poverty and lawlessness, and turned the clans and alliances of clans against one another. The eye witness account of John Scarth who visited Teochew in 1856 reveals an era of widespread fighting and kidnapping that forced the building of walls sixteen to twenty feet high for defence against neighbouring villages not of a quarter of mile in distant. Some four decades later, John Thomson was even told of a gruesome tale of a prisoner in the clan feud having his heart cut out, boiled and eaten.
The Teochews who ventured to Southeast Asia in search of livelihood on the other hand, could afford no such “luxury”. Away in foreign land and separated from their family network, they could only seek companionship and support from fellow Teochew emigrants, who were the only ones who spoke the same language and understood their needs. In places where even the other groups of Chinese were hostile, unity was the sole key to survival. This common experience of diaspora had a healing effect on the fractious tribe, and by the turn of the 20th century the Teochews overseas had learned to see beyond parochial clan interests.
The Teochew prefecture was struck by a series of natural disasters in the early 1900s, including the Swatow Typhoon that took away more than 100,000 lives in 1922. Overcoming their differences from the past, thousands of Teochews abroad from all districts and social classes pulled together their resources to provide aid and relief to victims in the homeland. In areas where local government officials were incapacitated or simply incompetent, directors of the Teochew association in Shanghai stepped in to provide much needed leadership. The recovery of Swatow was swift. When nations across the globe were embroiled in depression in the 1930s, the city’s port was the path of growth to become the third largest in China, after only Shanghai and Guangzhou. This was the moment in history when the world discovered the strength of the Gaginang spirit – a spirit based on sacrificial giving and caring of all Teochews as one big family, a spirit we will do well to carry on with.
"Like" our Facebook page to stay updated with The Teochew Store.
10 Things You Must Know As A Teochew
#1. The homeland of the Teochew people sits on the Southeast coast of China, near- equidistant between Hong Kong and Taiwan, although through large-scale emigration from early 19th to mid-20th century close to half of all Teochews now live in more than 40 countries and territories overseas. If Teochew is a country, it would through its land area of about 10,000 sq km be the 169th largest in the world (after Lebanon), and through population of approximately 25 million (inclusive of all Teochews worldwide) the 50th biggest (ahead of Australia).
#2. Historically Teochew existed as a prefecture in imperial China that was created in 413 CE. Originally called Ngee Ann ("Righteous Peace") Commandery 義安郡, it was first given the nameTeochew 潮州 (literally the "Tidal Prefecture") in 592 CE. Teochew prefecture became defunct after China became a republic. Its centre of administration was shifted in the latter half of the 20th century from the Teochew prefectural city (listed by its Mandarin name “Chaozhou” on maps) to its port of Swatow 汕頭 (Shantou), causing Teochew to be referred now in mainland China as "Teo-swa".
#3. The traditional Teochew society’s basic social unit is the extended family defined by paternal lineage, and not the nuclear family or individual. The head of a household is the grandfather, and accordingly first cousins are considered siblings and addressed as brothers and sisters. Care and protection of members, as well as perpetuation of lineage are held firmly as its core purposes. In order to fulfil these, husband and wife in many families in Teochew adhere strictly even in the present era complementary gender roles, whereby the responsibility of the man is all external engagements, while the woman has complete charge of domestic affairs.
#4. Besides the family clan, the Teochew personal identity is rooted in one’s place of ancestry. This refers to the village, and also the county, where the family clan resides. Teochew prefecture had eight counties during the late Qing period. Accordingly overseas Teochew organisations usually name themselves as the "association of eight counties" (poih ip 八邑), which are namelyHai-yor 海陽 (renamed Teo-an 潮安 in 1914), Gek-yor 揭陽, Teo-yor 潮陽, Jaopeng 饒平, Pholeng 普寧, Huilai 惠来, Thenghai 澄海 and Hongsun 豐順.
#5. The Teochew region has been inhabited by humans since about 8,000 years ago, a period that dates far longer than China’s supposed 5,000 years of history. This is shown by archaeological artefacts comprising stone tools and a pottery shard discovered on the offshore island of Namoa 南澳. A coherent collection of evidences belonging to a series of archaeological cultures dubbed the "Teochew Prehistoric Trilogy”, including the largest prehistoric kiln site ever found in China, reveal the occurrence of indigenous progression from the Neolithic Stone Age to Early Bronze Age between 4,000 and 3,000 years ago.
#6. All the cities, towns and large villages in Teochew are located by the coast, or along the region’s four major rivers, namely Hang-kang 韓江, Iong-kang 榕江, Liēng-kang 練江 and Ng-kang-ho 黃岡河, or their tributaries. This is because more than two-thirds of terrain in Teochew are occupied by undulating mountains and hills and until the previous century water was the main mode of local transport. Communications between Teochew and other parts of China and foreign lands were also conducted primarily by sea.
#7. The Teochew saying “whatever language you speak depends on which river water you drink” aptly depicts the classification of spoken Teochew into several dialect clusters corresponding to the region’s different river catchment areas. However the Teochew vernacular is in essence a single language that is closely related to the native speech of adjacent southern Fujian, known commonly as Hokkien or Taiwanese, or formally as Minnan. The Teochew-Hokkien family of vernaculars is exclusive and not mutually intelligible with other forms of spoken Chinese. It is also observed by linguists to possess ancient elements that pre-date the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). Apart from the vernacular form spoken in daily life, the Teochew language has a classical literary form traced to the 7th to 13th century Tang and Song dynasty era. This can be heard in Teochew opera performances. About half of all Chinese written characters can read differently in Teochew in two or more ways (colloquial and literary). This phenomenon is called dual-reading.
#8. The golden age of Teochew was in the Song dynasty when it was one of the wealthiest areas in China. An agricultural revolution drove a rapid population expansion, while the export of fine porcelain on the Maritime Silk Road transformed its prefectural city into a leading centre of commerce. Even in the early part of this prosperous period, Teochew was lavished with comparison as the home of Confucius and Mencius by the sea (海濱鄒魯), and many aspects of Teochew fine culture, including architecture, wood carving, porcelain craft, embroidery and music, were inspired.
#9. Nothing delights a group of Teochews more than sitting around a table to share a few dishes of Teochew cooking. Seafood and green vegetables are always served, while emphasis on freshness and authentic taste of ingredient, perfect balance of sweetness and saltiness, as well as colour and presentation provide the secrets to achieve the Teochew taste. The touch of the Teochew people to regale the gastronomic senses was already memorialised as early as the Tang dynasty in a poem composed by the eminent poet Han Yu, and till today Teochew food is widely recognised as one of finest representation of Chinese culinary.
#10. Harmony in relationship with nature and man sits at heart of the Teochew understanding of well being. In all things beauty is seen in simple exquisiteness, and not grandeur or opulence. In daily life, this is best exemplified in the Teochew custom of the drinking of kanghu tea 功夫茶. In a plain ceremony, the host prepares and serves the elixir of life in miniature teacups over several rounds, invigorating not only the body and mind of his guests, but washing way also all differences in class and opinions.
"Like" our Facebook page to stay updated with The Teochew Store.