r/TeochewNang

My mom insisted that my grandpa's side is Teochew, but his ancestors had Hokkien surnames

I'm Thai but my mom's side is mixed Thai-Chinese, not much is known about my Chinese side's oral history, other than that they migrated through Laos unlike the majority of Teochew people, who travelled via junks leaving Southern China for destinations like Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Their ancestral surname was "Ooi" or "Sae-ui" in Thai (Sae being a common Chinese surname prefix in Thailand), and this is where the issue came

Ooi is only found in certain dialects of Hokkien, and if it was Teochew, it would've been "Ung" or "Sae-eung", which makes me wonder on what could've lead to this, but i only have a few theories

  1. They were Hoklos that once lived in Chaozhou, hence the confusion that they were Teochew when one of my ancestors migrated on land towards Laos, and eventually Siam (Thailand)

  2. One of my patriarch was Hoklo, and the matriarch adopted his surname, hence the Hokkien surname and not the Teochew one

  3. They were Hoklos but identified themselves as Teochew because of the environment they lived in, as parts of their family (which included my grandpa and his siblings) would later relocate to Bangkok, which is majority Teochew and Cantonese in the community, and to better fit in, identified themselves as Teochew

But i can't really confirm, because my Chinese side of the family was effectively cut off from communication ever since my grandpa died, leaving me to piece everything myself and by what my mom says. However, i'd like to know if it's a common thing or not for an ethnolinguistic group to have the surname of another ethnolinguistic group, and this would be the one closure that i want for now

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u/Tw_izted — 3 days ago
▲ 21 r/TeochewNang+1 crossposts

Language Preservation/Heritage Reconnection App

Hi there! I'm working on a language app that lets people record words or phrases from dying languages in order to preserve the knowledge but also expand people's understanding of what these languages are. I'm a 2nd Gen Teochew-Vietnamese immigrant in the US and noticed that as I got older, my knowledge of Teochew got displaced by English. This app is meant to be an archive of sorts, built by the community to create a modern library of our languages so that we can keep our roots alive.

Right now, I'd just want to know, is this something that sounds interesting to you? If so, what would you like to see from the app?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

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u/Meedar — 7 days ago

teochew people: what do you identify as?

my parents are teochew but born in vietnam, i'm born in canada

i've been immersed in viet culture and been there to see relatives a few times, so i say i'm chinese-viet, but i've never been to china

but i sometimes don't feel enough of both, i can speak teochew but not viet nor canto like my parents

i want to know your experiences and what you identify as

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u/TryingMyBestForLife — 8 days ago