Teochew Beyond Teochew
Public Talk × Cultural Memory & Diaspora StudiesProject Type
Public Talk / Cultural Discourse & Community Knowledge Sharing
Time & Location
Singapore
Grassroots Book Room
Host
Grassroots Book Room
Role
Invited Speaker
Cai Boxuan (Boosen Tsai)
Background
Teochew Beyond Teochew is a public talk that examines the mobility and transformation of Teochew culture beyond its geographic origins. Framed through historical migration, maritime trade, and diasporic experience, the programme explores how Teochew culture has been continuously reshaped through movement, adaptation, and cross-cultural encounters.
From the Ming–Qing maritime trade networks to successive waves of migration following the Opium Wars, Teochew communities have long maintained a close relationship with the sea. These movements enabled Teochew culture to take root in regions such as Singapore and Malaysia, where it evolved through processes of acculturation — adapting, transforming, and sustaining itself across generations.
Description
The talk revisited the development of Teochew culture in Singapore, focusing on how traditions were preserved while responding to new social and cultural environments. Rather than treating culture as fixed or place-bound, the discussion framed Teochew identity as a living and mobile practice — shaped by migration, memory, and everyday transmission.
Following the sharing session, intergenerational exchanges emerged organically. Elderly members of the Teochew community remained to ask about the lullaby “Ong Ah Ong”, a song their mothers had once insisted they never forget. In that moment, cultural history surfaced not as abstraction, but as lived memory — intimate, fragile, and deeply resonant.
The programme highlighted how storytelling, oral history, and community dialogue function as vital methods for preserving cultural memory, particularly within diasporic contexts.
今天我们在草根书室相聚，共同探讨“潮州以外的潮州”这一主题，借由历史的潮汐，讨论潮州文化的流动性与转化。
从明清时期的海上贸易网络，到鸦片战争之后一波波迁徙浪潮，潮州人与海的关联始终密不可分。正是这种跨地域的文化迁移，使潮州文化得以传播到新加坡、马来西亚乃至更远的地方。循着这一视角，我们重新回望潮州文化在新加坡的发展历程，看到它如何在文化适应（acculturation）的过程中前行——在融合中创新，在变迁中守护。
衷心感谢 Grassroots Book Room 与叶孝忠先生（Mr. Yap Seow Choong）主办此次活动，并慷慨邀请我分享。讲座结束后，几位年长的潮州乡亲特地停下来问我关于摇篮曲《翁啊翁》（“Ong Ah Ong”）的故事——那是他们母亲曾叮嘱他们绝不能忘记的旋律。那一刻，历史与记忆仿佛近在眼前：朴素、熟悉，却又深深动人。
文化如潮水流转，而记忆可以被记录。愿这次相聚成为一个新的起点，让我们继续探寻、保存并传承这些丰厚而珍贵的传统
Outcomes
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Public talk engaging multi-generational Teochew community members
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Facilitated dialogue on diaspora, memory, and cultural transmission
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Connected historical research with lived, community-based knowledge
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Reinforced the role of independent cultural spaces in sustaining cultural memory
Keywords
Teochew Culture · Diaspora Studies · Cultural Memory · Migration & Acculturation · Oral History · Community Knowledge · Public Discourse