Hi All:
Just some sharing not related to language study of Hokkien. I just came back from Kuala Lumpur yesterday. I went down with my drama team (Yes, I am a part-time stage actor) to attend the ADA Drama Award, the only Chinese award ceremony that recognises pure drama performances held in Malaysia.
Any Chinese play in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien or other "dialects" can be registered. There's 1 pure Penang Hokkien play nominated for several awards this year. <Big Head and Potato Head> is the play I mentioned to you all previously.
During the ceremony, Mandarin was not the only language used by emcees as there were 3 teams from Penang travelled down. Emcees spoke in Hokkien (one of them was Penangite and another one from Klang) very naturally when they greeted Penang teams.
<Big Head and Potato Head> won a few awards at the end, among those were Best Script, Best Actor and Actress in leading role. The winner of Best Actress delivered her speech in Hokkien. I felt so proud that the play director who used to produce only English plays messaged that, 2011, no English play will be made, everything will be Hokkien plays.
He was born in Kulim and grew up in Penang, an English educated Eurasian who managed to ascend through Chinese plays, and produced the only Hokkien play among all that were Mandarin. I think, this is a good sign. Without knowing Mandarin, one still can make good Chinese plays, in Hokkien !
Another Way Out
Re: Another Way Out
Hi aokh,
Thanks a lot for posting this very heart-warming piece of news. Simply great to hear: just the plain fact of the existence of the play, and the details about the awards, the speech in Hokkien, etc.
I must apologise, as I don't remember reading about "Big Head and Potato Head" in an earlier posting? Did you yourself play in it? What was the Hokkien title? Is there a script that we can buy / get hold of? Was it written in POJ or TLJ?
My last question is: are there any clips of either the play or the speech, which could be put onto youtube? The power of youtube/the internet is that we can reach thousands more with this sort of positive information, so it would be fabulous if something like that were available. If there are no clips, even an audio recording of either would be great. If there isn't one of the play itself, would your group be willing to make one (it seems to me that that would demand very little resources - just the cast sitting around a microphone, and "acting" out the play just once)?
Thanks a lot for posting this very heart-warming piece of news. Simply great to hear: just the plain fact of the existence of the play, and the details about the awards, the speech in Hokkien, etc.
I must apologise, as I don't remember reading about "Big Head and Potato Head" in an earlier posting? Did you yourself play in it? What was the Hokkien title? Is there a script that we can buy / get hold of? Was it written in POJ or TLJ?
My last question is: are there any clips of either the play or the speech, which could be put onto youtube? The power of youtube/the internet is that we can reach thousands more with this sort of positive information, so it would be fabulous if something like that were available. If there are no clips, even an audio recording of either would be great. If there isn't one of the play itself, would your group be willing to make one (it seems to me that that would demand very little resources - just the cast sitting around a microphone, and "acting" out the play just once)?
Last edited by SimL on Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Another Way Out
Hi SimL:
The title is <Tuā-Thâu Ka Huan-Tsû-Thâu>. You can refer to this link for the synopsis.
http://www.visionkl.com/event/tuah-thou ... otato-head
The script was written in English. Actors and actresses use their own way to remember each line. They went through every line with director verbally. I did not act in the play, but I made the announcement in Hokkien. Mark Yong went to watch it in Kuala Lumpur. It was the very 1st time my recorded voice was played telling audience when the play would start, when the hall would be opened, simple rules / theatre manner that audience should understand.
There was no recording. I keep encouraging the director to bring the play to Penang some time this year. I hope they manage to do it because they're now scheduling another Hokkien play in March !
The title is <Tuā-Thâu Ka Huan-Tsû-Thâu>. You can refer to this link for the synopsis.
http://www.visionkl.com/event/tuah-thou ... otato-head
The script was written in English. Actors and actresses use their own way to remember each line. They went through every line with director verbally. I did not act in the play, but I made the announcement in Hokkien. Mark Yong went to watch it in Kuala Lumpur. It was the very 1st time my recorded voice was played telling audience when the play would start, when the hall would be opened, simple rules / theatre manner that audience should understand.
There was no recording. I keep encouraging the director to bring the play to Penang some time this year. I hope they manage to do it because they're now scheduling another Hokkien play in March !
Re: Another Way Out
Hi aokh,
Thanks for the link, and the additional info.
"She too has a plan of her own, and she enlists the help of her neighborhood sweetheart; Ah Huat, the 4-ekor man(4-D)."
Haha! You can't get a more typically Penang Hokkien name than "Ah Huat"! A close schoolmate of mine, and an uncle, both had this name. Lovely, to capture "local colour" in this way. In the same way, I think "Ah Keat" (I think that's "阿吉") is also *so* typically Penang Hokkien.
I *thought* the title would have been "tua-thau ka huan-cu-thau", but then I hesitated to say that in my initial reply, because (I believe) "huan-cu" is *officially* the "*sweet* potato". I had a bit of a discussion with my mother about this once, because in my usage, I just call ("Western") potatoes "huan-cu", but she said that officially, it's only used for "sweet potato". IIRC, she said the official term for ("Western") potato is "ho-lan cu".
That "huan-cu" is officially "sweet potato" seems to be confirmed by the two Wikipedia articles:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato
and
- http://zh-min-nan.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han-ch%C3%AE
which link to one another.
That's not to say of course that in everyday usage, "huan-cu" hasn't come to mean ("Western") potato. [http://zh-min-nan.wikipedia.org/wiki/M% ... g-ch%C3%AE confirms "ho-lan cu" as an acceptable term for ("Western") potato, in any case.]
Also interesting to note that the ban-lam-gu article transcribes this as "han-cu", not "huan-cu".
Thanks for the link, and the additional info.
"She too has a plan of her own, and she enlists the help of her neighborhood sweetheart; Ah Huat, the 4-ekor man(4-D)."
Haha! You can't get a more typically Penang Hokkien name than "Ah Huat"! A close schoolmate of mine, and an uncle, both had this name. Lovely, to capture "local colour" in this way. In the same way, I think "Ah Keat" (I think that's "阿吉") is also *so* typically Penang Hokkien.
I *thought* the title would have been "tua-thau ka huan-cu-thau", but then I hesitated to say that in my initial reply, because (I believe) "huan-cu" is *officially* the "*sweet* potato". I had a bit of a discussion with my mother about this once, because in my usage, I just call ("Western") potatoes "huan-cu", but she said that officially, it's only used for "sweet potato". IIRC, she said the official term for ("Western") potato is "ho-lan cu".
That "huan-cu" is officially "sweet potato" seems to be confirmed by the two Wikipedia articles:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato
and
- http://zh-min-nan.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han-ch%C3%AE
which link to one another.
That's not to say of course that in everyday usage, "huan-cu" hasn't come to mean ("Western") potato. [http://zh-min-nan.wikipedia.org/wiki/M% ... g-ch%C3%AE confirms "ho-lan cu" as an acceptable term for ("Western") potato, in any case.]
Also interesting to note that the ban-lam-gu article transcribes this as "han-cu", not "huan-cu".
-
AndrewAndrew
- Posts: 174
- Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:26 am
Re: Another Way Out
Potatoes are normally kan-tang-cu (kentang) in Malaysia, if I'm not mistaken. Huan-cu is indeed normally the sweet potato.
Re: Another Way Out
My greatest wish was for a recording of the play, so it could be transcribed into POJ (by me) and used for the analysis of its grammar and word usage.
I wonder what the sweet potato (in NZ everyone uses the Maori word "kumara") is called in Taiwanese, because in Mandarin they always seem to call it 地瓜 there.
I wonder what the sweet potato (in NZ everyone uses the Maori word "kumara") is called in Taiwanese, because in Mandarin they always seem to call it 地瓜 there.
Re: Another Way Out
Taiwanese tv programs I watched always called sweet potato as 'han1-ci5' (POJ: han-chî). It is 'an1-cy5' in my variant. Not sure why huan1 becomes an1, since it is still huan1 in huan1-cio1 番椒 (chilli in my variant; hiam1-cio1 in Penang?). We call potato 'kan1-tang1'. 
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AndrewAndrew
- Posts: 174
- Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 10:26 am
Re: Another Way Out
No, hiam1-cio1 is what they call it in Singapore. We use huan1-cio1. We normally say luah8 instead of hiam1, because we can distinguish between luah8 and juah8.niuc wrote:Taiwanese tv programs I watched always called sweet potato as 'han1-ci5' (POJ: han-chî). It is 'an1-cy5' in my variant. Not sure why huan1 becomes an1, since it is still huan1 in huan1-cio1 番椒 (chilli in my variant; hiam1-cio1 in Penang?). We call potato 'kan1-tang1'.
A.
Re: Another Way Out
Oh, right! I'd forgotten that term completely (because I always think of potatoes as "huan-cu"). Indeed, that was the "correct" term in my youth. Nice to see that niuc's variant somewhat matches this usage too.AndrewAndrew wrote:Potatoes are normally kan-tang-cu (kentang) in Malaysia, if I'm not mistaken. Huan-cu is indeed normally the sweet potato.
And in "am-hoanna"niuc wrote:Taiwanese tv programs I watched always called sweet potato as 'han1-ci5' (POJ: han-chî). It is 'an1-cy5' in my variant. Not sure why huan1 becomes an1, since it is still huan1 in huan1-cio1 番椒 ...
. [But where have you been lately, amhoanna? I hope you're still reading...]Oh, that would be fabulous! aokh: would you be able to sound the group out on the possibility of making something like this? It would be such a wonderful resource for all of us...Ah-bin wrote:My greatest wish was for a recording of the play, so it could be transcribed into POJ (by me) and used for the analysis of its grammar and word usage.
I'll try and remember to ask my (new) Taiwanese friend.Ah-bin wrote:I wonder what the sweet potato (in NZ everyone uses the Maori word "kumara") is called in Taiwanese, because in Mandarin they always seem to call it 地瓜 there.
Re: Another Way Out
Hi Team:
I will try talk to the director. I have been urging him to bring the play to Penang. Besides, my team will be reproducing our Hokkien play by Dec too. That is 70% in Hokkien with Mandarin, we try to picture the broken gap between generations by the usage of language in the play.
As I left, I talked to the other 2 teams from Penang, that even a KL-based drama team (owned by Penangite though) managed to win awards with a Hokkien speaking play, what would us the "real" Penangites do ? I hope they were inspired to produce more as Hokkien play would be the only thing we could make uniquely. Hope to see more Hokkien plays. We're planning something for children too. I want to make the 1st children play in Hokkien + Teochew + Hainanese + Cantonese + Hakka WITHOUT Mandarin.
I will try talk to the director. I have been urging him to bring the play to Penang. Besides, my team will be reproducing our Hokkien play by Dec too. That is 70% in Hokkien with Mandarin, we try to picture the broken gap between generations by the usage of language in the play.
As I left, I talked to the other 2 teams from Penang, that even a KL-based drama team (owned by Penangite though) managed to win awards with a Hokkien speaking play, what would us the "real" Penangites do ? I hope they were inspired to produce more as Hokkien play would be the only thing we could make uniquely. Hope to see more Hokkien plays. We're planning something for children too. I want to make the 1st children play in Hokkien + Teochew + Hainanese + Cantonese + Hakka WITHOUT Mandarin.