Chaozhou City and Shantou City
The history of the Teochew people has long been shrouded in mystery and, although there are many theories about their origins, there is still desperately little that is known about where they came from. Known alternatively as the Chaozhou people, they are a sub-group of the Han Chinese ethnic majority that are native to the Chaoshan region, which is largely made up of the cities of Chaozhou, Shantou, and Jieyang in Guangdong province. Nowadays, however, vast contingencies of Teochew people can be found throughout Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. There are even some small communities of Teochew living in places as far-flung as the US, Canada, Australia, and France!
Alongside the Hakka and the Cantonese people, the Teochew are estimated to have lived in the Chaoshan region for hundreds of years. According to the most widely believed theory, their ancestors originally lived in modern-day Henan province, but were forced south when the north was repeatedly invaded and captured by nomadic groups during the Jin Dynasty (265-420). Initially they settled in Fujian province, yet unfortunately it seems tragedy was doomed to follow them! They were uprooted again during the 13th century when Kublai Khan and his Mongol army invaded the area, which is when they finally moved to the sparsely populated Chaoshan region. At first, it seemed they were safe in their new home, but fate had more trouble in store for the Teochew!
After the First Opium War (1839-1842), the coastal regions in which the Teochew lived were ravaged by bandits and plagued with famine. Many Teochew people decided to immigrate abroad via one of the four treaty ports established along the southern coast, so that they could enjoy a better quality of life and send money back home to their families. It is these people that served as the ancestors for the Teochew diaspora that we find throughout the world today. In fact, due to this mass migration, the Teochew people are now the second largest ethnic group in Singapore!
Teochews in Singapore
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.
Singaporean woman on how she found her way back to her Teochew roots
Her then-three-year-old daughter’s fixation on Teochew opera led Eileen Hair on a path to rediscovering her roots
For younger Chinese Singaporeans, joining a clan association is something not many would consider. Especially taking into account that many of us can barely hold a conversation in our dialect.
But for Eileen Hair, who is the section head of the event management course at ITE College Central, joining the Teochew clan association in 2018 was like fulfilling her calling. However, what prompted the 43-year-old’s quest for membership at Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan wasn’t because she was encouraged to do so by her grandparents, nor was it out of a need to network with other businessmen in the clan.
It was her then-three-year-old daughter’s unexpected interest in Teochew opera at the 2016 Teochew Festival that encouraged Hair to dig deeper into her roots.
