Who are the Teochew (Chaoshan) people?
The Teochew, also written Teochiu or Chaoshan people, are the community defined by speaking the Teochew language in the Chaozhou–Shantou area of eastern Guangdong. Their culture took shape through large-scale migration from southern Fujian after the Song and Yuan dynasties, and by the nineteenth century they were a major migrant group across Southeast Asia.
What does "Teochew culture" mean?
- DocumentedHuang Ting's introduction to The Origins of Chaoshan Culture defines Chaoshan culture as a regional sub-type of Han culture, with the Teochew-speaking community as its bearer.
- DocumentedThe same introduction says the pre-Qin culture types found by archaeology differ in kind from later Chaoshan culture and should not be treated as one line of descent.
- DocumentedIt adds that this regional form of Han culture depended on large-scale migration from southern Fujian after the Song and Yuan.
Where did the Teochew people come from?
- DocumentedHuang Ting's periodisation of Chaoshan history, from a 2025 interview, puts the Han Yu exile to Chaozhou (819) in the second period as a start of state orthodox culture reaching the locality, and a large increase in southward migration in the tenth to sixteenth centuries.
- DocumentedThe Qianlong Chaozhou Gazetteer says the local dialect is mostly the same as that of Fujian, which fits the Fujian migration account.
- Inference"Arrival in Chaoshan" in general histories mostly means this large Song–Yuan settlement, not that nobody lived there before.
- Genealogy claimClan genealogies trace founding ancestors to Putian in Fujian with precise years. Those dates are genealogy claims, not confirmed settlement dates; see the Chinese page on 潮阳郑氏族谱三系.
How did the Teochew spread overseas?
- DocumentedPhilip Kuhn's Chinese Among Others treats the Teochiu as one of several dialect groups of Chinese migrants, alongside Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka, often tied to occupational specialisation. The period of mass migration runs from about the mid-nineteenth century to the 1920s.
- DocumentedMelissa Macauley's Distant Shores describes Teochew merchants as among the leading commercial groups around the South China Sea, held together by family, associations and business ties rather than formal authority.
- DocumentedA British consul arrived at Shantou (Swatow) on 6 July 1860 to announce the treaty port open; one review stresses that the rice, sugar, bean-cake and opium trades were already held by established Teochew merchant communities.
- DocumentedAbout six million labourers are said to have left through Shantou between 1869 and 1948. This is a figure from a book review citing Macauley, so cite it with that layer attached.
- DocumentedFor Thailand, Lin Lunlun describes a first wave from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, when red-head ships left Zhanglin to buy rice in Siam, and a second wave from the late nineteenth century to the eve of the war, peaking around 1921–1932.
What are qiaopi?
DocumentedQiaopi (侨批) are the letters and remittances that overseas Chinese sent home. In the Teochew case they moved through firms that Chen Liyuan calls qiaopi bureaus, linked by family ties, shared capital and native-place business networks: in a 1936 sample about 68% of bureaus had at least one family-linked branch. A database of about 30,000 items, opened on 3 May 2018 by Sun Yat-sen University and a Chaoshan research centre, requires registration. Details are on the Chinese page 侨批是什么.
InferenceQiaopi show how a transnational society was kept running day to day. They do not prove that a village and an overseas group share a founding ancestor.
What are Teochew associations?
DocumentedTeochew associations (会馆, huiguan) grew in the destination countries. Three dates from official or published sources:
| Association | Founded |
|---|---|
| Singapore Teochew Eight-County Association (潮州八邑会馆) | 4 September 1929 |
| Malaysia Teochew Associations Federation (马潮联) | 17 August 1934, at the Han Jiang Ancestral Temple, Penang |
| Teochew Association of Thailand (泰国潮州会馆) | 14 February 1938 |
The English names above are informal translations. More on each is on the Chinese page 潮州会馆.
What are Yingge and the deity procession?
DocumentedYingge (英歌舞) is a Chaoshan folk dance in which dancers carry a pair of mallets and move to gongs and drums. It was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in 2006 and often appears inside village deity processions. See 潮汕英歌舞是什么 and 游神（营老爷）是什么.
What this page does not cover
UnverifiedThe Teochew language itself, Teochew food and Teochew opera are not covered: the research behind this archive has not reached them. The sources below were read as prefaces, reviews and public pages, not as full books.
Sources
- Princeton UP, Distant Shores: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691213484/distant-shores
- Asian Review of Books review: https://asianreviewofbooks.com/distant-shores-colonial-encounters-on-chinas-maritime-frontier-by-melissa-macauley/
- H-Net review of Kuhn: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30226
- Huang Ting, introduction to The Origins of Chaoshan Culture: https://www.chxw.net/cs/cs/9.htm
- Southern Daily interview with Huang Ting (2025-02-27): https://epaper.nfnews.com/nfdaily/html/202502/27/content_10127925.html
- Qianlong Chaozhou Gazetteer, vol. 12: https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/NA02649/chapter/1kv3iijhezmsl
- Lin Lunlun on the Thai route: https://ysln.ycwb.com/content/2024-08/24/content_52885045.html
- Chen Liyuan, HKUST: https://schina-publication.hkust.edu.hk/en/node/1260; qiaopi database: https://ha.sysu.edu.cn/article/194
- Singapore: https://teochew.sg/; Malaysia: https://teochew-malaysia.org/about-us/
- China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network on Yingge: https://www.ihchina.cn/project_details/26621