Celebrating our own people
Teochew people in the news, on screen, and on your feed. Articles, videos and TikToks from people sharing their heritage, and a running list of notable gaginang. Seen something we should add? Send it in.
What changed this year
The handful of stories that moved things: laws, the film, the people. Everything else is below, by month.
Dear You opens in more than 160 North American theatres
Lan Hongchun's Teochew-language film opened on September 4 through Well Go USA in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Houston, Toronto and Vancouver, the cities of the diaspora. It has passed 2 billion yuan in mainland China.
Singapore lifts its cap on dialect film screenings after Teochew Singaporeans sold out Dear You
At the National Day Rally, PM Lawrence Wong lifted the limit on dialect film screenings (a Mandarin-dubbed version must exist) and scrapped pay-TV dialect quotas. The trigger: Dear You's eight Teochew screenings sold out in hours in June while the Mandarin dub played wide, and the argument reached Parliament. First real loosening of the 1979 Speak Mandarin rules.
By month
September 2026
A hundred yingge troupes open the 2026 league tournament in Shantou
Around 100 yingge (英歌) troupes began a five-round league at the Chaoshan Sports Arena in Shantou on September 12 to 14, with youth, women's and traditional categories. The Nigou troupe revived a routine unperformed for over 40 years. Finals are in late November.
Chen Pingyuan on why Chaoshan culture is breaking out now
Peking University professor Chen Pingyuan, founding director of Jinan University's Chaoshan Culture Research Institute, argues that thirty years of Chaoxue scholarship prepared audiences for Dear You, and points to the central role of grandmothers in households where the men worked overseas. In Chinese.
Yoon's Social Kitchen: Teochew kueh made by women getting a second chance
Qara Yoon and Talia Lee run a Teochew kueh kitchen in Tai Seng, Singapore (png kueh, soon kueh, cikak kueh, seven kinds daily) that employs women who are former drug offenders. The recipes are Qara's mother's.
Exhibition and talk on Teochew vernacular architecture
Singapore. The most active English-language Teochew publication keeps going.
Dear You: a box office dark horse built on sincerity
A review of China's second highest grossing film of 2026 that credits its success to sincerity over polish, notes the nine-month search for non-professional Teochew actors, and looks at how it portrays women's resilience within Teochew tradition.
Dear You opens in more than 160 North American theatres
Lan Hongchun's Teochew-language film opened on September 4 through Well Go USA in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Houston, Toronto and Vancouver, the cities of the diaspora. It has passed 2 billion yuan in mainland China.
Can Dear You conquer the US box office?
Dear You opened on 86 screens across 23 US states and two Canadian locations. Analysts projected around US$2 million, small next to its nearly US$300 million mainland gross; the question is whether a dialect film about qiaopi and migration can travel beyond the diaspora.
Three and a half stars for Dear You
Critic Simon Abrams calls the film's focus on Teochew-speaking characters rare in mainstream Chinese cinema, praises the small details of émigré life and the qiaopi letters, and likens Lan Hongchun's approach to Ann Hui's period dramas.
Dear You opens wide across North America
The Teochew-language sleeper hit gets a wide US and Canada release after its New York Asian Film Festival premiere.
August 2026
Dear You is great melodrama, but it will not fix China's soft power problem
A sceptical take: the film's Teochew specificity drove its Southeast Asian success, especially in Singapore where about a fifth of the Chinese population is Teochew, but only around US$6 million of its US$291 million came from outside China. The reviewer doubts a wave of dialect films will follow.
Restoran New Teo Chew: Teochew bak kut teh and kuih in Damansara Jaya
A family kitchen in Petaling Jaya that began in 1983 as a market stall. Light, herb-scented Teochew bak kut teh, hometown-style fish and orh nee, and a matriarch who still hand-makes png kueh and cai kueh in small batches.
Singapore lifts its cap on dialect film screenings after Teochew Singaporeans sold out Dear You
At the National Day Rally, PM Lawrence Wong lifted the limit on dialect film screenings (a Mandarin-dubbed version must exist) and scrapped pay-TV dialect quotas. The trigger: Dear You's eight Teochew screenings sold out in hours in June while the Mandarin dub played wide, and the argument reached Parliament. First real loosening of the 1979 Speak Mandarin rules.
Teochew language exhibition at Hougang Mall, Singapore
A public exhibition on the language in one of Singapore's most Teochew neighborhoods.
June 2026
May 2026
The family keeping Teochew iron-rod puppetry in motion
Sin Ee Lye Heng, Singapore's Teochew iron-rod puppet troupe, is in its third generation under 28-year-old Christine Ang. Clay and porcelain puppets on three metal rods, three-hour shows at temple festivals for the gods.
How Lan Hongchun's Teochew film turned a forgotten postal tradition into China's unlikely hit
"Dialect is never going to be a liability as long as you have great ideas."
How Teochew people spread from China, and their outsize influence from Hong Kong to Thailand
A good mainstream primer on the diaspora.
Nothing under that tag yet.
People of Teochew descent
Every name links to a source. Documented Chaoshan ancestry only. For living public figures we list people who have spoken about their Teochew roots themselves or whose family origin is a matter of record. Missing someone? Tell us, with a source.