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The Wikipedia article on TeoChew people leaves the reader confused with various tidbits of trivia. It lacks cohesion as to why people center around this cultural identity. Many of those who even know their ancestral ties belong to this cultural group find it has little to no relevance to who they are now.
If we strip away the material behind culture, what ethos remains?
For America, it's "We the people." The people have sovereignty over their decisions and fate. For the British, it's the beginning of industrialization and being at the forefront of creating a globalist machine. For the sports fan, it's the athlete moves or moves something with the right timing.
I believe the the ethos of TeoChew people revolves around exile and trauma.
Here's some more detail with what I mean through geography and political history.
The word TeoChew(潮州) literally translates to "Tide State." The Chaozhou region is surrounded by high, rocky cliffs. The water flows into many river deltas, which mix with the subtropical humidity creates an inhospitable swamp. Sea water rises and falls and the swamp and ocean encroach on each other's territory. The region has little farmland. One must rely on the ebbs and flows of nature to survive.
Because this region is ideal for alligators, mosquitoes and disease, the Chinese royal court would send unwanted people and ministers, hoping that they would die riddled with disease in the sweltering heat, or at least a typhoon to have a roof collapse on their heads.
One of the most famous political dissidents was Han Yu during the Tang dynasty. He was exiled for arguing against allowing the cremated knuckle bones of the Buddha to enter Chang An. Although he visited the TeoChew region for only a few months and wasn't a native to the TeoChew region, his political satire "Memorial to the Alligator" 祭鱷魚文 was, and still is, a text to embolden the outcast. The text is about how he uses will of the son of heaven to banish the evil alligators. But if one were to read the text more carefully, it's evil people that prey on the people. Once history provided distance to review the life of Han Yu, many saw the exiled man as a courageous dissident.
Many historical figures thereafter used the legacy of HanYu through the TeoChew region as a bastion for the righteous dissident.
Improved seafaring technology allowed TeoChew people to then cross the South China Sea into Southeast Asia.
The modern push for diaspora of TeoChew people was due to the invasion of Japanese imperial troops during WWII and the Chinese civil war. Chinese Republican soldiers were forcing able bodied men to fight, and the Japanese were looting and destroying everything in sight. This was why my grandparents left their homeland.
The second major shuffle occurred with TeoChew Cambodians and Vietnamese during the 1960's and 70's. The Vietnam War and Cambodian genocide occurred only one generation after WWII. Communism in China is at a pique, and TeoChew culture is seen as belonging to the "Four Olds" under the Mao regime.
A curious thing suddenly happens. TeoChew people could not physically return to their native territory, nor were many TeoChew people seen as fully assimilated into the foreign lands they immigrated too. Some decided to cling onto the remains of TeoChew identity, some decided to fully assimilate into their surrounding culture.
A generation after that chaos, we end up back to the present. I am fortunate enough to be one of the few people in my generation who can read Mandarin, read classical Chinese, and be able to watch TeoChew opera. I am also fortunate to know personally people in my parent's and grandparent's generation to identify themselves with this ethnic group.
Still, I'm debating whether this culture is relevant to me. I do not fully identify with it, nor do I have attachment and nostalgia towards it. In fact, I assumed many in my generation were satisfied with the answers already available. But many would still randomly bring up questions. Perhaps with continued dialogue I can help others find answers. Maybe I'll find some answers myself.
