The Teochew Store Blog / Singapore

Teochew In English - A Collection of Teochew Language YouTube Videos with English Subtitles

Ever wished that you can watch videos with conversations spoken in fluent Teochew language and actually understand what it means? For many of us born and bred overseas this has been a long-held dream. Thanks to the enthusiasm of a fellow Teochew, this is now possible!
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Full list of Towns & Villages in Theng Hai county (circa 1958) 澄海縣都村列表

Theng Hai (variant: Tenghai) (澄海, in Mandarin: Chenghai), was one of historical Teochew prefecture's eight counties. Occupying the Hang-kang  (韓江) river delta, it was formed from areas carved out of Hai Yor (now Teo Ann) and Gek Yor in 1563. Theng Hai is today administered as a district of the Swatow (汕頭, Shantou) prefectural-level city.

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Teochew Festival in Singapore 新加坡潮州節 2016

Teochew Festival in Singapore, 9 to 18 December 2016. An event to experience and learn about Gaginang culture. For more information please visit the official event website www.teochewfestival.com.

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Roots-Finding: Locating Your Ancestral Village in Teochew (Part 3)

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.

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Teochew Documentary: Letters of A Family On Two Shores - Two-Part Documentary on the Teochew Letters

Watch the true-life stories behind the Teochew Letters in this moving two-part documentary.

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Teochew Letters: The Story of A People, Penned By The People

"... the true value of the Teochew Letters can only be unlocked by the people they are addressed to. Individually, every set of letters tell the stories and struggles of a family in a moment of history. But put together, all of them express the purpose and meaning of life to every common man - to seek the betterment of life for the ones who love us, and to pass this dream to the children after us."

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Rise of the Red Head Junks - When the Teochew Forefathers Overcame the Odds

In 1684 the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty Kangxi (reign 1661-1722) issued a decree to re-open the coastline of China for maritime activities. The decision marked an end restrictions on private overseas trade imposed on the Chinese people since the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and began also the rehabilitation of the southern Chinese coast, which a prolonged war fought between the Manchurian invaders of China and the powerful merchant-pirate in Fujian Zheng Chenggong thoroughly devastated. However for the Teochew region, whose population bore the brunt of the worst savagery committed by the two sides, the road to recovery only commenced with the voyage of its first migrants to Siam (now Thailand) during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng (1723 to 1735). 
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Everyone Loves a Good Storyteller - We Teochews Especially

Ng Chia Keng (黃正經, a play on the expression 唔正經 m-tsia-geng, meaning “improper”) was a household name amongst the Teochew communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Hong Kong from the 1940s to the early 1980s. Several times a week adults and even children glued themselves to their radio sets at homes and in workplaces to listen to the broadcast of his speeches. But the man whose real name was Ng Yong Khern (黄庸根) was neither a political figure nor a wealthy community leader. He was a storyteller.. (more)

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