Writing Projects

My main writing project is about Teochew, my birthplace.

Teochew is a place the size of half Wales, where the population exploded by immigration from central China. In Ming (14-17th Century AD) and Qing Dynasty (17-20th Century AD), the contradiction between density of population and scarcity of agricultural areas spurred emigrants towards Southeast Asia.   Simple wooden boats were painted red on the head. People named them “red-head boats”. Brave young men sailed days and nights and arrived in Thailand, Malays, Borneo, Philippines…all the peninsulas and islands in Southeastern Asia.   Starting to lay down their roots in the other lands, their impact became larger and larger on local societies. Two Teochew community leaders even once became kings of two major Southeastern Asia countries, Zheng Xin for Thailand and Lin Feng for the Philippines.   Since then, business and cultural networks have been built for hundred years by Teochew people. 

Melissa Macauley in her newly published academic work “Distant Shores” notes:  “(Teochew people) reaped many of the benefits of an oversea colonial system without establishing formal governing authority. Their power was sustained instead through a mosaic of familial, fraternal, and commercial relationships spread across the ports of Bangkok, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong,Shanghai and Swatow.”

Map of Teochew (Chaozhou) and Southeast Asia   

Thailand became an international hub for Teochew people’s business from the 18th Century. Till today, there are about 10 million Teochew people inhabited there, or 15% of the whole country’s population. Many of the top richest families in Thailand actually came from Teochew.  For international powers which wanted to open up China, Thailand, especially Bangkok, was the best springboard to leap from.   In early 19th Century, missionaries were already sent to Bangkok to aim at entering China.  The American Baptist Mission (ABM), and the English Presbyterian Mission (EPM), both sent missionaries as pioneers. When the missionaries arrived in Bangkok, they found the majority of Chinese they met there, were from Teochew. Deliberately, missionaries tried to hire Teochew people to help them go to their hometown to spread the Gospel. They also introduced chousha as a business to support their missionaries.    

Exploring the diasporic journey of Teochew people is a blend of personal root searching and literary pursuit. Since childhood, I’ve been captivated by the widespread presence of Teochew individuals worldwide. Uncovering connections between my family’s choushabusiness and missionaries from the UK and US a century ago has fueled my creative drive.

My dissertation (15,000 words) based on this story for the Ma Creative Writing (Nonfiction) in University of East Anglia has been awarded as “Distinction.”