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Wee Kek Koon

I recently came across a mooncake fair on the ground floor of a shopping mall. Feeling a bit peckish, I ventured in with the full knowledge that samples would be handed out by the vendors.
There were at least 50 stalls and maybe 10 times as many people in that space, but the air conditioning was strong and the mood was festive.
Shuffling through the crowd, I noticed that as well as the stodgy brown mooncakes that most of us grew up with, almost every other vendor was offering Teochew mooncakes – dome-shaped pastries with sweet fillings and flaky skins.
Teochew mooncakes have always been around, of course, but it seems they are very popular this year, if this mooncake fair is anything to go by.

I sampled a tiny piece and it was delicious. I remembered my friend’s mother is of Teochew ancestry and she might like Teochew mooncakes. I made a mental note to go back to that stall as I continued exploring.
People who identify as Teochew are born in, or trace their ancestry to, a coastal region in eastern Guangdong that borders Fujian province.
The region is called Chaoshan today, but historically the region was called the Chaozhou prefecture and hence, its people call themselves the Chaozhou people, or “Teochew” in the local tongue.
In Hong Kong, they are known as “Chiu Chow” people, the same two ideographs pronounced in Cantonese.
Although the region is in Guangdong province, spoken Teochew is linguistically much closer to Hokkien than to Cantonese.
Linguists consider Teochew a dialect of Hokkien, which is spoken across the provincial border in southern Fujian.
In fact, both tongues are almost mutually intelligible, in the same way that speakers of Spanish and Portuguese can understand each other if both parties speak slowly and articulate their words carefully.
For centuries, the coastal Teochew region was a major source of migrants. Most of them headed for Southeast Asia, and many settled and thrived in places that would form part of the modern nations of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

One even became a king. Taksin the Great, who ruled Siam (modern-day Thailand) from 1767 to 1782, was of Teochew descent. His father was born in Shantou.
There is a sizeable Teochew (or Chiu Chow) community in Hong Kong, whose most famous member is the tycoon Li Ka-shing.
I know two good friends from Hong Kong, who grew up hearing their parents and grandparents speak Teochew at home, but whatever facility they might have had in their mother tongue was bulldozed at a very early age by the relentless dominance of Cantonese.
Teochew cuisine is well-known for meats braised in heavy stock or sauces, and the Teochew like their seafood. Traditionally, they are more amenable to consuming cold or room-temperature dishes than their neighbours like the Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien.

One of my favourite Teochew dishes is the Teochew rice gruel (muay), which can be found in many Southeast Asian cities, such as Bangkok and Singapore. At a muay establishment, diners pick what they want from a vast array of cooked or brined foods, which are served in small plates (think Korean banchan).
These are accompanied by steaming bowls of liquid muay that exude the subtlest, and most delectable, scent of rice.
A Teochew sweet that I like is the or-nee, a paste made of taro, sugar and lard. It is quite a heavy dessert, so is best eaten in moderation. It is also used as a filling for some of the Teochew mooncakes I sampled at that mall.
I ended up buying a box of Teochew mooncakes for my friend’s parents. For my own parents, I bought something we had never seen before – savoury Shanghai mooncakes filled with meat. They are different but very tasty.
Here’s wishing everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!


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Teochew mooncakes. A popular Mid-Autumn Festival treat, they were brought to Hong Kong, along with other food items and their dialect, by Teochew (Chiu Chow) people from southeast China. Photo: Getty Images

People sample mooncakes at a Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival food event. Photo: David Wong

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Tycoon Li Ka-shing is the most famous member of Hong Kong’s Teochew community. Photo: AFP

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Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Mid-Autumn Festival Teochew mooncakes remind us of a Chinese people who moved to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, where a Teochew became king


Eating Teochew mooncakes at Mid-Autumn Festival is a reminder of the Teochew people’s history of migration from China to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.


Mid-Autumn Festival

Chinese culture

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Reflections

Reflections | How Teochew mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival are a reminder of migration in Asia

Mid-Autumn Festival Teochew mooncakes remind us of a Chinese people who moved to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, where a Teochew became king