Meeting Shantounese in Oxford
There is a mid-age Chinese lady working in my restaurant. I saw her on my first day at work but didn’t talk to her until last week. After a little greeting, she asked me where am I from in China, I said Shantou, then she went on and asked the name of the road near my house. I was a bit surprised but then she told me her husband is also from Shantou and she go there almost every year. Her family is living in Oxford now and her husband is working at the Chinese medicine shop in city center. I was so excited when I heard that, because it’s very rare to meet people from my hometown abroad. I know a few friends from Shantou and studying in UK now, but I have never meet Shantounese randomly like this.
So after work, I went to her husband’s shop right away. While I was living in Oxford three years ago, I walked past that shop many times but I had never thought the doctor inside is just from my hometown, how weird is that! I remember I even spoke to him once when I tried to ask for a part-time job, but that was in Mandarin so I couldn’t tell he is Shantounese.
Anyway, he was very friendly. His wife already introduced me to him before and went, so he talked to me in Shantou dialect straight away. It’s so strange to speak Shantou dialect outside Shantou. For those who don’t know about Shantou dialect, it’s a language that completely different to Mandarin or Cantonese. It’s kind of similar to Fukien, but still a lot differences. In short, it’s one of the Chinese dialects but only people from Shantou area could understand. I only speak to my parents in our weekly phone call or when I went home, other than I haven’t got a chance to use it at all. That’s why I felt so strange. And he, I should call him Dr. He (not English “he”, it’s Chinese family name “He”), was like me. Since he has been living in England for many years, it’s harder for him to speak Shantou dialect. However, we still tried to speak even though it would be way easier if just speak Mandarin.
Both of us were very happy to meet each other on that day, and a few days ago he introduced another Shantou student Ke to me. Ke is currently doing a MA in Oxford Brookes University and also the vice-president of Chinese student community in Oxford. He is an excel and smart guy.
It seems like a cultural sense that people from Shantou (or say Chaoshan area) are very united when they are abroad. There are a lot of stories about Shantou people united together and achieve great success in their overseas lives. Live examples would be those successful businessmen in South East Asia countries like Singapore or Thailand, most of the richest people there are originally from Shantou area. And Li Ka Shing, wealthiest person in Hong Kong and East Asia, is Shantounese too.
I am pound of being a shantounese, and wish I could be one of those successful ones in future.
Richard.H posted on July 24th, 2006 under: Shantouer | Tag: culture, people |
Actually there are quite alot of us overseas. The reason we can hardly find one is we are good with both canto and mando and speak them on a daily basis so we are simply assumed we are either ethnic mando or canto.
On another note, our language is catogarised under the umbrella term Fujian dialect and in fact is mutually intelligible with Hokkien, the language they speak in southern Fujian. Other Fujian languages, for instance Fuzhou hua, is totally foreign to us. I have a friend from Fuqing of Fuzhou. I’m like wth when he speaks his language on the phone.
Maybe I should write all I wanna write in one message instead of 3. lol Sorry about the mess. You may do a bit editing. Did you take the photos of Shantou yourself? Nice work. Grown up in St myself never realised it was so amazingly beautiful before seeing these pics. j/k I like that place.
Always nice to make the connection in random places round the world! Shantou’s countryside is beautiful, if you know how to get there, and the city has well-constructed parts too.
Hi Feng
Thanks for your reply. It looks fine like this, I am going to just leave it. About the language part, to be honest I don’t know much about it, but I just found it’s kinda similar between Shantou dialect and Fujian. And in your first comment, what’s “canto and mando”?
These pics are mostly from mine. Shantou is nice, indeed! I miss the food there!!!
To Maggie,
Maybe you should take me to some nice country side when I am back, haha.
Canto and mando are spelling variations of Cantonese and Mandarin respectively. I just start wikipediaing. Please contribute to the Shantou page if you have time. I’m terrible with this html thing. I wanna put pics on the site but dunno how to. And it’s funny how Maggie knows of many more places in st especially those mysterious fun ones than I do. I was an antisocial kid when I was in st. Never really had been anywhere. My life was pretty much about home and school. Therefore I’m really interested in people sharing their experience in st. Ciao.
Tch, you locals, don’t appreciate what’s under your noses. Lovely green countryside all over the place. Take you any time, Richard. I’d contribute to Wikipedia but all entrances appear blocked at time of writing. Richard is the one to speak to about pics, contributions welcome
Can I have the permission to use your Shantou pics? I will put them on the wicki site. Originally wanted to use the pics I randomly found on the net. But wicki required me to acknowledge the source. Jeez, I want too if I can. But those pics are just so generally shared on the net. How can I know the author and stuff? Aiyaaa.
Feng, Please feel free to use the pic here. If you need some bigger size ones or whatever plz contact me frhong at gmail.com
I tried to edit wiki pages before too, but the one about Shantou is locked I think. But I suppose if you contact the author s/he will let you do it.
To Maggie,
I think most ppl have this problem - you always want to go somewhere else for travelling, because hometown and own country is there and you always thought you can go anytime in future. This is what I have anyway. I didn’t travel a lot when I was in Shantou, nor here in England, but I am rather keen about going to Euro. Bad!
Dear Feng
Well, I must go to Oxford and find this Medicine shop. I have been in the UK for 30 years and I have never met any Diosua people who can speak Diojiu or Suatou ue well! I am so excited to hear about this Suatao doctor in Oxfore. Well, when I go to Oxford to see my dentist, I must find this Chinese medicine shop. What is the name of street in Oxford?
I imagine that you can read Peng-Im!!
Juyi
Hi Juyi
Sorry for the late reply, I was travelling. The address is “Dr & Herbs Unit 9A Clarendon Shopping Centre”.
There are quite a few Diosua people in UK, but not quite a community yet.
hey,
i am from hong kong, but my parents are originally from Shantou …
so i know the language and it’s a nice place to get out from the city , and nxt yr i am gonna study in the US / hehee, to be honest , i miss Shantou alot , the food the street …