Every now and then, something hits you and makes you realise that an important part of your life is being missed out. I was editing this section in a Wikipedia article on the breakdown of Malaysia's Chinese population by dialect group when I realised that for demographics purposes, I am probably classified as a Teochew speaker, specifically of the Shantou/Swatow sub-group from the Chenghai/Tenghai region.
Honestly speaking, this isn't very true as I don't speak Teochew. I can understand the dialect (at least the Swatow variety) but I just can't speak it. Conversely, I am quite at home with Malay, English, Mandarin Chinese, Hokkien (specifically the Penang Hokkien variety) and Cantonese but Teochew .. nope .. sorry.
As a matter of fact, I wonder how many "official" Teochews like me have absolutely no knowledge of our mother tongue and cultural distinctives. This dialect and its accompanying culture is probably dying a slow death without us even realising it. I think it doesn't help that we don't really have very strong roots and community support. I know there's a Teochew Association somewhere but as far as I am concerned, they never reached out to us younger Teochews and as a result, we don't really care.
That's why I was quite pleased to come across this site; Gaginang.com. In their own words (BTW they spell Teochew as Diojiu):
Gaginang was founded March of 2003 to promote the language, culture, and identity of Diojiu people. We came together to bring awareness and visibility to something that had been ignored for far too long. Many Diojiu people grow up having little or no exposure to their language and culture outside of their homes; Some have lost connections to their roots or have forgotten how to speak their language; Some grow up feeling strange or alienated, speaking a language that seems like no one else knows or cares about. Gaginang connects people interested in Diojiu culture and everything related to what it means to be Diojiu. We are creating a consciousness and visibility for Diojiu people all over the world. We are redefining what it means to be Diojiu.
They provide a lively forum to network Teochews from around the world and also provide multimedia content in the dialect and language lessons. This is definitely something our own local clan and dialect associations can emulate; not to loosen our ties with our nationality; but to enrich the Malaysian cultural landscape with what has definitely evolved into something that has been very contextualised.
Okay .. time for me to go learn how to say "ua si denghai diojiu nang" (我是澄海潮州人) and go get the t-shirt!
If you liked this post, consider buying me some coffee. Suggested price is $1.00 for a cup and $10.00 for a 1 lbs bag (personally I am a big fan of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe).
Categories: Life
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Comments (8)
Steve F. said:
Gaginang bluff gaginang's money. Good old-fashioned capitalism :P
t-shirts, mugs, umbrellas, calendars, underwear, bookmarks, wallpapers, neckties. hahaha.
I know... I'm a confirmed racist.
Posted on May 18, 2007 9:42 AM
jb said:
nice to know you speak Penang hokkien. me 2.
Posted on May 18, 2007 9:58 AM
Sunflower said:
I once asked my dad if he regretted not teaching us Kutien (his variety of Hockchiew) and he said no, because it's not useful. He wanted us to learn Mandarin -- he sent me for Mandarin tuition classes when I was in primary school. But I can see that the Kutien dialect is probably dying out -- for instance, out of all my dad's siblings, only one ended up teaching their children the dialect and speaking Kutien at home. All my other cousins speak English.
Posted on May 18, 2007 10:34 AM
Bob K said:
Steve, how else can I say "BTDT; got the T-Shirt"? :D
JB .. it helps when your mom's Penangite and you come from a town which is kinda like an island of Hokkien speakers in a sea of Cantonese and Hakka speakers.
Sunflower .. Kutien (古田) and Foochow in general is pretty unique. Did you know that they still retain the meanings of a lot of classical Chinese terms that have either fallen out of use or changed their meanings in contemporary Mandarin? Should be interesting for a budding linguist like you :)
And if you really are interested, I found an online primary school textbook for the Foochow dialect here.
Posted on May 18, 2007 12:59 PM
jb said:
Bob & Snflwr, listening to that link brought tears to my eyes! Although I am not foochow, my mother speaks it, and my childhood language synapses needed little filtering to process the sounds! I will be sending the link to my family to see/hear. Being gutian (kutien, 古田) myself, I struggled with whether to teach my kids the dialect, in the end deciding to teach them Mandarin instead. You seem to be a repository of knowledge on Chinese language. Come for lunch 16th! Would love to meet you.
Posted on May 18, 2007 11:47 PM
Sunflower said:
Jb: Bob is a repository of knowledge on a lot of things ;) Talking to him is always an education in itself :)
Kutien is a very difficult dialect to learn if you don't speak it from childhood. It's the most tongue-twisting dialect I know. Mandarin is far easier!
Posted on May 20, 2007 2:16 AM
Threse said:
Hi, I just stumbled onto to this block. Hi, I'm a Teochew from Swatow, too. Which region? I'm not sure. I speak the dialect but my strength in it is half past six. Haha. See you guys.
Posted on June 3, 2007 4:12 PM
Kevin said:
Hi,
There is a teochew hangout place. Please check www.tcfaces.com to find other teochew and let other knows! Unity is Power!
Posted on April 23, 2008 11:41 AM