Ho kow boh teng loh
means
Good dogs do not obstruct the way
This saying is that if one is well-trained, one would be useful, just like a well-trained dog would not get in the way of someone.
Chwee tiam tiam, uk buay chark kee kau niam
means
A sweet talker carries a sickle at the back.
This saying is used to refer to someone deceptive, so one has to watch out for this sort of person.
Gu kia um pat ho
means
Young cows do not know the tiger.
The implication is that they should fear the tiger.
Older folks often spoke these phrases, which may sound cryptic to some today, but are very meaningful.
My father was chuckling to himself the whole time Mr Lee was explaining these local Teochew proverbs to me.
Teochew Food
Beyond speaking the dialect, being Teochew could also be about the food. My online friends from Teochew Facebook groups frequently post pictures of the mouth-watering Teochew food they are eating. As I am not a foodie, it is hard for me to describe food. But Teo Cheng Wee can, and he vividly described his childhood experiences:
I had countless meals of Teochew porridge with pickled cucumber, fermented beancurd, and salted egg—a meal combo which still frightens me today.
But the upside was the festive Teochew food my grandmother used to make.
I was only a few years old, but I remember she would toil for hours to make her delicious png kueh (rice cakes), filled with dried shrimp, mushroom, pork and peanuts, from scratch…
I also had to help dor bee , or sift rice grains, whenever the Dragon Boat Festival came around.11
When I read those lines he wrote, I felt really hungry. And my father and many people I interviewed had a love of Teochew cuisine. They seemed really happy when they talked about Teochew food. But most importantly, reminiscing like this helps them feel in touch with their identity most keenly.
Endnotes
1 This section is adapted from Shawn Seah, Seah Eu Chin: His Life and Times (Singapore: Pagesetters, 2019).
2 According to a plaque by the Urban Redevelopment Authority at the Yueh Hai Ching Temple, “Yueh Hai Ching Temple”.
3 Tan Gia Lim, An Introduction to the Culture and History of the Teochews in Singapore, (Singapore: World Scientific, 2018), p.44. She cited several examples, such as William Farquhar’s report to Raffles in 1822 and colonial government records detailing a sale of a plantation land by some planters with names likely of Teochew origin. George Yeo, then-Minister for Trade and Industry, also made a speech which referred to this fact at The Teochew Experience: An Exhibition on the Teochew Community in Singapore, 3 October 2002.
4 Ibid., p.45.
5 These statistics are based on Edmond Lee Eu Fah’s paper, “Profile of the Singapore Chinese Dialect Groups”, which drew from data from the Population Censuses 2000 and 1990. Incidentally, the Cantonese were number three in 2000, numbering 386,000 (in 1990, there were about 324,000).
6 Department of Statistics Singapore, Singapore Census of Population 2010 Statistical Release 1: Demographic Characteristics, Education, Language and Religion (2011).
7 This paragraph is based on Ian Johnson, “In Singapore, Chinese Dialects Revive After Decades of Restrictions”, in The New York Times, 26 August 2017.
8 This section is based on Chui Huay Lim Club, “Introduction”. Source: http://www.chuihuaylimclub.com/introduction.html. Updated 2013. Accessed 10 April 2019.
9 Shawn Seah, as quoted in “Teochew v Teochew: From ‘twin brothers’ to combatants in court”, in The Sunday Times, 10 March 2019, p. A4.
10 This section is based on Teo Cheng Wee, “Growing Teochew Roots”, in The Straits Times, 10 November 2014.
11 Ibid.
Chapter 1
Why Did I Write This Book?
What does the Teochew identity in Singapore have to do with my father’s kampung?
My father Simon Seah Seow Kee was born in 1946, at Lorong Low Koon in Aukang, in the north-east part of Singapore. He, my uncles and aunties, and their friends and neighbours grew up in the area. My father also lived at Jalan Payoh Lai, Jalan Lye Kwee, and Lorong Buangkok for about thirty years, before he moved out of Aukang in 1975.
This part of Singapore is intriguing because Teochews are not the dominant Chinese dialect group in Singapore; Hokkiens are. In the same way, Catholicism is not the dominant religion in Singapore; Buddhism and Taoism are.
Yet, Aukang used to be a Teochew-dominated area, with many Catholic Teochews.
Several reports confirm that at various points in north-eastern Singapore’s history, Teochews at Aukang were either the majority of the Chinese in the area or disproportionate to their overall size in Singapore. For example, in 1986, The Straits Times reported that more than 90 percent of the villagers were Teochews in areas like Kangkar in historical Aukang, with the Teochew dialect the lingua franca of the area.1
According to the 1957 census, more than 56,000 Teochews lived in the administrative area of Serangoon district (this was a much larger area covering not only Serangoon and Punggol, but also areas like Paya Lebar and Seletar), making it the location with the largest concentration of Teochews outside the City of Singapore, where more than 140,000 Teochews resided.2
When the figures are compared to the size of the total Chinese population residing in the area, Serangoon had the highest proportion of Teochews in the whole of Singapore, with more than one-third of the Chinese residents Teochew.3
And even earlier in 1891, when the rural population was much smaller, more than 55 percent of the 900 Chinese in Div 1 (covering north-eastern Singapore, which included areas like Aukang, Kangkar, and Punggol) were Teochews.4
And among the Teochews in Aukang, there were many Catholics. Academic and Hougang resident Bryan Goh used a 1973 parish census and calculated
