MIA in 2013

Daige ho - Various things have kept me from updating this blog, but I suppose I felt a little nostalgic for Teochew things, so here is another assemblage of videos:

First two travel videos from Thailand. The first "Spirit of Asia" a 25 minute show (pretty high production value I might add!), brings us to Sua:tao where they visit a family with Teochew-Thai folks with relatives in Sua:tao. In Thai (ซัวเถา), the tao in Sua:tao seems to be pronounced with a rising tone. There are English subtitles starting around the 5 minute mark. The second is the narrator's introduction/reflection about the history of Teochews emigrating from Sua:tao to Thailand. His Thai is quite clear! (I'm learning Thai!)





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From Singapore is  the YouTube use "TeochewGaginang" who for a while now has been producing some decent videos about basic Teochew. She speaks in English and teaches the fundamentals from greetings to countings, and colors and what not. This particular video is about being sick.


And lastly a video from China. It's actually taken from a radio program about Teochew phrases. Pretty cool stuff, if not hard to understand because they speak in fast Teochew radio voices. Hope everyone enjoys all these new videos.

Teochew Medicinal Herbs in Tàigok

Fellow Gaginanger and staff member Du gave me a heads up on an article in the Bangkok Times about Teochew folks in Yaowarat (Bangkok's Chinatown) selling medicinal greens/herbs. The article is great because they specifically mention Teochew language, have the names of the herbs in Teochew, and have pictures of the Teochew woman who sells them. I've never heard of these in Teochew, but I've probably seen some of these before... like the Jui Dek Chao (probably 水竹草) looks awfully like Wandering Jew (Purple Heart). Also seems like a lot of these are just edibles that happen to have medicinal properties... awesomeness! If you ever wind up in Bangkok, you really have to go to Yaowarat - its huge, sprawling, and filled with Teochew people - you'll hear it being spoken especially amongst the older folks... me thinks the writer for this article must be Teochew heh heh.

I've tried to provide characters and English for the list they have at the end, can anyone help me finish it?

• JUI TEK CHAO (水竹草?)  - lit. Water bamboo grass
• JING JU CHAI (真珠菜)  - lit. Pearl greens
• EAH MOR CHAO (羊毛菜)  - lit. Wool greens
• KAO KI CHAI (枸杞菜) - Wolfberry/Gojiberry Plant  
• SAI EAH CHAI (西洋菜) - Watercress  - lit. Western ocean greens
• HUA SIA TAO CHAO (?)  - Pennywort, rau ma
• HUE CHAI CHAO (?)  
• POW TI KIM (?)  
• TAO CHI CHAO (?)  
• POR EAH (?)  
• JIA TAE CHAO (?)

Teochew Opera in Thailand

I have to be honest. I don't like Teochew Opera, and among younger Teochew people, I don't think I'm alone. I've seen a couple of performances, but it just seems so not-real-to-life, like of a different age. Perhaps if they took the same stories but put modern twists to them it would be more appealing. Also, there is certainly a language barrier - the Teochew used is quite chim (deep), not colloquial at all. A couple of years back Gaginangers volunteered with the local Teochew Opera Association down in Southern California, and it was great to get exposure to it. I was even asked if I wanted to train in it - alas, it's not my cup of dē.

This video report is from CCTV (China), and done in English. It's a nice little encapsulation of the dying art in Bangkok. I hear that many of the actors aren't even Teochew anymore, but Thais or others from rural areas - I guess they just memorize the Teochew. Perhaps some of the operas are put in Thai as well. Also, I posted a Thai serial drama that has Teochew Opera as one if its main devices, you can find that here.

The Last Peony Petal (Thai Drama about the Teochew Experience)

Botan is a famous author from Thailand who wrote the wonderful "Letters From Thailand" (1969) a novel about the Teochew-Thai experience. I discovered this book by chance at my local library back in 2005 and after reading the book (more than 3 times now), I've always wanted to find the movie adaptation of it. Thai people love their lakorn (ละคร) or serial dramas, so I thought I would search for it online. Low and behold I just found, "The Last Peony Petal", which, according to online sources, is based on another novel by Botan (perhaps originally a book?). Amazingly the gracious Wishboniko has provided not only the whole series on YouTube, but also with English subtitles! Awesome stuff. It's all in Thai, but with a good smattering of Teochew (people's names, pronouns, occasional phrases). Enjoy! Here is the playlist so you don't go crazy looking for all the different episodes and parts of episodes. There are 13 episodes in total.

Note: The video shows the opening theme, with the beginning of episode 1 at the end. Oh and I realized of course that Botan's name is actually 牡丹 Bhóudang, or Peony.

Update (3/2/11): I have finished watching the first episode, and the story seems to be moving along quickly and focusing on the young adults. It's pretty funny - and even more Teochew spoken than I thought.