Where are the Teochews?

[ang teck gie]

selamat buat niuc ......how lucky we are,lan lang pi pi ba gan lang (we are same hometown) u r very right .i lived southern of baa teocew complex but not now, because that's not safe,many teocews move to the centre town and other town,u and me same interested in bps data,bps web is not full complete ,i got those data from lots of books.among them like KEPENDUDUKAN TIONGHOA DI HINDIA BELANDA karya pramudya ananto toer,this book is forbidden for the public of soeharto regime,because inside we know all about chinese, i must clap my hands for u for ur carier,my question for u,what formal language among chinese s'porean? once i was said by singaporean,"u r chinese indonesian u r huan kia(nativepeople) u cannot talk and understand mandarin,u r huankid bou lou yong(useless) but recently i found out why chinese singaporean speak english among them,r they huankia,chaukau kia,angmou kia?s'pore government banned chinese dialects to be an english ?but here jakarta no hokkien no business, i know s'porean indian race only +-250,000 of total 3,300,000 have tamil180,000, and 70,000 others like hindi,telugu,urdu,bengali,malayalam can beone of a formal language . just imagine hokkien speakers 1,109,000 and teocew 560,000 of all chinese2,590,000 or 53% of total population had to be banned, tamil only 180,000 has been a formal how crazy... ok cueklah orang negrinya,apa boleh buat....by the way in jkt where do u live?

[niucls]

Hi Teck Gie

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately our hometown now is not as safe as it was, mainly due to the opening of access road to Dumai

I am still a "coolie" here, not really a thing worth of hand claps. Yet I would say that overall I like Singapore and am grateful working here.

The Singaporean you mentioned was kind of ignorant. Many Indonesian had no opportunity to learn Chinese and if they couldn't speak Chinese, they shouldn't be the one to be blamed. Interestingly, many - not all - Singaporean Chinese (especially youngsters) don't like to study Mandarin. Apart from their ignorance, it's also due to too much stress put on their shoulders by the education system. The government is introducing a new way in Mandarin teaching that will be more interesting and easier to learn.

Here the language we use when talking to strangers usualy is English, regardless of race. Many Chinese use English and some even solely English in their families and circle of friends. There are also many that use Mandarin. Other Chinese languages - so called "dialects" here, including Hokkien - are diminishing, especially among younger generations. In office, English is the formal language but other languages are often heard - particularly Mandarin.

If you read through threads in this forum, you can find quite a lot of discussions about suppression of "dialects" by Singapore government. Many of us - including me - feel the same way as you do. By number of speakers, Hokkien is the number one mother tongue here but it's forbidden. The problem lies on how the government defines mother tongue. It defines that the mother tongue of all Chinese is Mandarin ^fullstop^. It doesn't want to know that the differences between Mandarin and Hokkien (or Teochew etc) are bigger than that of Skandinavian languages, Spanish and Portuguese, etc. It's indeed so true that a language is a dialect with army.

And to repeat what we all know: of course all Chinese support Mandarin as the lingua franca / common language (as the name "Putonghua" means). Mandarin has high economic values, no body doubts it. But it doesn't mean that "dialects" should be banished. In this sense, those who choose to focus on English instead of Mandarin actually are applying the very same theory: since Mandarin has more economic values than Hokkien, then we learn Mandarin; since English has more economic values than Mandarin, then surely we should focus more on English. To solve this dilemma, there should be balance. Hopefully all Chinese & their governments will come to realize it.

In Jakarta we live in Citra III. Where do you live?

[%sig%]

[ang teck gie]

hello... niucs....... thanks a lot for your comment and info, in jakarta i live in villa kapuk mas, i think and i agree that mandarin is for all chinese all over the world as an international language for chinese etnic. btw... niucs please take a look and give some your comments to our hometown web... www.rokanhilir.go.id...just select "buku tamu" that is all about bagan news. okay, have a nice day....gong zuo yi kuai......

[Hau]

Hallo! I'm from Pontianak, West Borneo (Kalimantan Barat)

Pontianak Information : http://www.pontianak-online.com/
But the information is in Bahasa Indonesia.

Races in West Kalimantan Barat:
1. Dayak
2. Malay
3. Chinese
4. Javanese, Bugis, etc.

The Chinese Dialect in Pontianak:
1. Tio Ciu
2. Hakka (Khek)

Majorly the people speak Tio Ciu in Pontianak City. But in some cities like Sungai Pinyuh, Singkawang (Sambas) and Ngabang. They are speaking Hakka. Singkawang, the "amoy" city, have their own Hakka dialect. Their Hakka dialect is different with in Pontianak.

But, the people in Pontianak can understand (pasive and active) the Hakka and Tio Ciu Language. And the chinese dialect is a trading dialect. So,some non-Chinese people can understand the dialects too.

[Guest]

Hallo! I'm from Pontianak, West Borneo (Kalimantan Barat)

Pontianak Information : http://www.pontianak-online.com/
But the information is in Bahasa Indonesia.

Races in West Kalimantan Barat:
1. Dayak
2. Malay
3. Chinese
4. Javanese, Bugis, etc.

The Chinese Dialect in Pontianak:
1. Tio Ciu
2. Hakka (Khek)

Majorly the people speak Tio Ciu in Pontianak City. But in some cities like Sungai Pinyuh, Singkawang (Sambas) and Ngabang. They are speaking <B style="color:black;background-color:#ffff66">Hakka. Singkawang</B>, the "amoy" city, have their own Hakka dialect. Their Hakka dialect is different with in Pontianak.

But, the people in Pontianak can understand (pasive and active) the Hakka and Tio Ciu Language. And the chinese dialect is a trading dialect. So,some non-Chinese people can understand the dialects too.

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[loic]

If Lazarus can be ressurrected, I don't see why this thread shouldn't.

Hi all. I am technically a Hainanese, but I feel a stronger sense of affinity with the Teochews. I am able to speak it better than Hainanese which is pretty much non-existent to begin with. Furthermore, I am of the opinion that Teochew is the prettiest tongue among the southern Chinese dialects. Naturally, this is my bias and I do not hesitate to express my prejudices freely. I apologise if I've inadvertently caused any offence.

The Teochew community aren't just as adept in retaining their language compared to the rather more boisterous Cantonese or the ebullient Hokkiens in Singapore. Both groups derive their strength from numbers.

However, it appears premature to pronounce the deathknell of dialects in general and Teochew in particular in the Singaporean context. I am in the midst of serving my national service and I can assure you that Hokkien, albeit a much watered down variety, is still the common lingo among the more uneducated segments of the conscripts. It is the de facto lingo among the regulars in the warrant officers and specialist ranks.

It's true that not many people my age is able to speak Teochew. I myself am not able to speak it fluently although I consider my command of the dialect passable enough to hold a conversation with any native speaker from China. In fact, we still have relatives over in the 'old country' - the Haiyang/Po-leng region and despite the gulf in standards, I was able to make myself understood. Not too bad an achivement for a lad whose main language is English, I feel.

So, do we have anymore Teochews here?

[loverpolite]

I believe that there's a significant number of Teochew people living in San Francisco, if I'm not mistaken; I know many relatives there who speak the language, and there is also an amount of them in LA.

[yellow_munky]

there are actually quite a lot of teochews that reside in california, especially in southern california. the ones that i have met originally came from either vietnam or cambodia, such as my family for example. there are of course more outside of cailfornia, such as in illinois, texas, etc.

oh and from what i know, my parents' friends and some relatives of mine reside in cambodia, australia, japan, vietnam, or france.

we teochews are apparently everywhere.

[SimL]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum.

we teochews are apparently everywhere

That's good to hear. One important question for me though, is, do they continue speaking Teochew and having a strong sense of Teochew identity?