The Teochew Store Blog

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。

Read more →

Learn Teochew - an Online Guide for Heritage Speakers

"... so I hope that young people today who have difficulty communicating with their elder relatives will recognise that they can actively do something about it..."

The Teochew Store caught up with Brandon Seah of Learn Teochew (learn-teochew.github.io), an extensive online guide for “heritage speakers”, who have “learned some of the language from their family but who have never studied it formally, and who want to improve their understanding of the language”.

Read more →

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. 

看看在上世紀九十年代,經歷過多年紅色高棉暴政和戰亂的柬埔寨潮州人如何把有限的資源投入在下一代的教育上。
Read more →

Teochew animation film: Persimmon Tree 潮語動畫片:《柿子樹》

Because we will always be her child. To all mothers, Happy Mother's Day.
因為我們是她永遠疼愛的孩子。祝天下每一位媽媽,母親節日快樂!


Read more →

Teochews in Singapore 25 years ago

The 20th century produced many successful overseas Teochew businessmen, who always devoted their energy and wealth towards the education and other fields of philanthropy. Watch the late Lien Ying Chow of Overseas Union Bank and other Teochews in Singapore share their stories and the philosophy behind their selfless contributions towards the larger society in this documentary produced by Shantou Television in 1997.
在二十世紀,誕生了不少成功的潮籍商人。他們熱心貢獻於教育和其他慈善領域。請觀看這部汕頭電視台1997年製作的紀錄片《獅城不只一座塑像》,聽聽已故大華銀行創辦人連瀛洲和其他新加坡潮州人講述他們的故事,以及對貢獻社會的理念。

Read more →

The Teochew Community in Malaysia

Do you know that the city of Penang in Malaysia has a “Swatow Street”? (It is officially known as Lebuh Kimberley.)Let’s watch this documentary produced by Shantou Television to find out more interesting facts about the lives of Teochews living in Malaysia 25 years ago.

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。

Read more →

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》。

Read more →

11 Maps of Teochew region dated 1949

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

Read more →

Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series (Part III)

Here’s the third and final group of our flashcard videos for English speakers. Teochew audio taken from 汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").

We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 

The Teochew Store has newly opened a Telegram channel. Subscribe to get our latest updates: https://t.me/theteochewstore
Read more →

Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series (Part II)

Here’s the second group of our flashcard videos for English speakers. Teochew audio taken from 汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").


We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 

The Teochew Store has newly opened a Telegram channel. Subscribe to get our latest updates: https://t.me/theteochewstore
Read more →

The Teochew Store Telegram Channel

The Teochew Store has newly opened a Telegram channel.
Subscribe to get our latest updates: https://t.me/theteochewstore
We are also on:
Read more →

Basic Teochew Vocabulary Flashcard Video Series

The Teochew Store has produced a series of flashcard videos for English speakers to pick up some basic Teochew vocabulary. The Teochew audio is taken from a late 1990s source 《汕頭話音檔》 ("Archive of the Swatow vernacular").

There is a total of 15 videos, 5 of which have been uploaded on our YouTube channel (shown below). The other videos will be uploaded progressively over the next two weeks.

We wish to hear from you if you find such a learning method (video flashcard with picture + English/Chinese text + English/Teochew audio) useful. Do give us your feedback in the YouTube video comments. 🙂

Read more →

Teochew Vernacular Expressions 潮州方言”土話“

Teochew is a language full of rich expressions. How many of the Teochew vernacular terms (土話) in this video do you know?

Read more →

Learn Diosua Ue with Juyee 和如意學潮汕話

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!

Read more →

Let's Test Your Teochew (6) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (六)

How did you fare in the previous rounds? This is the 6th and final challenge!



 

Read more →

Let's Test Your Teochew (5) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (五)

Are you getting better at this?

 

Read more →

Inspiring One Another

One Teochew project inspiring another. This is a story by itself.
The Teochew Letters website (https://www.teochewletters.org/) was built 10 years ago by student project team from the Shantou University (STU) Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication to publicise the submission of the “Qiaopi and Yinxin Correspondence and Remittance Documents from Overseas Chinese” as a documentary heritage in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
Little did we know that the film we produced, Letters of A Family On Two Shores 《彼岸家書》, would one day inspire a Teochew in France to create an animation film in Teochew language, "The Forest of Miss Tang" 《陳小姐的森林》, that portrays a Teochew family over six generations in Swatow, China, from the 19th century to the present. The film is in the final stages of production and will be broadcast on television by Arte, a European public service channel.
The fundraising for "The Forest of Miss Tang" is in its final three days. Do give the film director Denis Do (杜来顺)and his team your support if you can. Gaginang!
More on the film and how to contribute here: https://www.ulule.com/la-foret-de-mademoiselle-tang/
Read more →

1997 Publicity Video: Affection of Chaozhou 1997 年潮語宣傳片《情系潮州》 - 走向新輝煌

Publicity Video: Affection of Chaozhou - On the Path of Glory. This is a video of Chaozhou (Teochew) City (comprising the old Teo-Ann and Jao-peng counties) from a publicity series produced in the mid-1990s. 

Read more →

Let's Test Your Teochew 來!來!考考你的潮州話 - 2 More Videos

Here are our two latest videos for your Teochew language challenge! 

Read more →

International Women's Day: "My Teochew Mother" 我的潮汕妈妈 short film

Today is International Women's Day. This film featuring a day in the life of a devoted Teochew mother is dedicated to all the wondrous women in our big family. (dialogue in Teochew with Chinese subtitles). 💗
今天是三八國際婦女節。潮州姿娘歷來賢良淑德,勤儉持家,謹以此片獻給特別的你們。
Read more →

Let's Test Your Teochew (2) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (二)

Are you game for one more round? 想挑戰多一輪嗎?

Read more →

Let's Test Your Teochew (1) 來!來!考考你的潮州話 (一)

How well can you speak Teochew? 你的潮州話說的怎麼樣?
Read more →

1997 Teochew Publicity Video: Today's Jieyang 1997年潮語宣傳片: 《今日揭陽》

Gek-yor (or Kityang or Jieyang) was one of the Teochew prefecture's 8 counties and today the area's third largest city. Take a look at how this historical settlement looked like in the mid-1990s. (video dialogue in Teochew with Chinese and English subtitles)
揭陽是古潮州府的八邑之一,今日是潮汕地區的第三大城市。一起來看看上世紀九十代中揭陽的面貌。
Read more →

5 Teochew Sentimental Songs You Will Love 五首動聽潮語情感歌曲

❤️[CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW VIDEO]❤️
Read more →

The Last Day of the Chinese New Year

Today is the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year. Also called Tsap Ngou Meh 十五暝 or Nguang Siao Zoih 元宵節. 

Teochews mark this day with prayers for the family, more feasting, riddle guessing games and open lantern parades. Because this day provided a rare opportunity for single young men and women to meet publicly in the past, it has also been compared as the "Chinese Valentine's Day".

On this beautiful note, we leave you with this wonderful Teochew language remix of Zhou Xuan's famous 1940 classic "Full Moon Blooming Flower" (月圓花好).

Read more →

“The Forest of Miss Tang" - An Upcoming Teochew Animation Film Needs Your Help

An animation film telling the history of the Teochew people, directed by a Teochew and dubbed entirely in Teochew language by 3 generations of Teochews living in France. How can you not be EXCITED?!

“The Forest of Miss Tang" (陳小姐的森林) is in an advanced stage of production and it needs funding support to be complete. The project has so far raised over €20,000 through crowd funding, but more support is still needed for it to be better.

The Teochew Store is lending our voice to this fund raising campaign as we believe this is a much worthy cause.

Watch the introduction video of the film by director Denis Do below (in French with English subtitles). To back the production of "The Forest of Miss Tang", click here for the project fundraising page

Read more →

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.

Read more →

5 Songs For Gaginangs No Matter Where You Live 潮州人 家己人

When you need a Gaginang "rush" in this coming Chinese New Year
很燃的潮州家己人歌曲串烧,热热闹闹迎新春!🧧🧧
[CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW VIDEO]
Read more →

"Morning Sun Shining On Ghua Bhe Lou" 《晨光照入外馬路》- Teochew Movie "Back to Love" soundtrack 潮州電影《帶你去見我媽》插曲.

Bet you haven't watched an MV like this 😜
相信你沒看過這樣的MV吧?
Read more →

Teochew for English Speakers – a Grandfather’s Effort to Pass on Our Language Heritage

Meet Mr Tan Peng Boon, a 78-year-old grandfather in Singapore. He is a Teochew and nine years ago he created a website with the goal of enabling English-speakers to pick up the Teochew language. Remarkably, the retiree took upon himself to learn how to build a website in order to realise this.

The Teochew Store recently spoke with Mr Tan to find out the story behind his passion to keep alive his Teochew heritage and his “Teochew for English Speakers” website.

“Teochew for English Speakers” can be accessed from http://gateways.sg/~TeochewEnglish/index.asp.

Video of Mr. Tan's grandsons doing a lively recitation of Teochew nursery rhyme “A Pear Tree on the Hilltop”):

Read more →