Exploring the accents of Malaysian Chinese

With the aim to discuss the native accent of the local Chinese society, UTAR and China-ASEAN Business Association (CABA) co-organised a webinar titled “Malaysian Chinese Accents Map: The Ancestral Song” on 9 August 2020 via ZOOM meeting. The webinar was conducted in Mandarin and English.

Speaking at the webinar was Folk Archaeologist, Cross-Media Artist and Film Director Chong Keat Aun. It was moderated by CABA Vice President-cum-Chairman of Malaysia Han Culture Centre Dato’ Goh Hin San, who is also the chairman of Malaysia Translation and Creative Writing Association. This webinar saw 100 participants in attendance.

Chong, who has hosted programmes concerning accents in Malaysia, began the webinar by explaining the plans of Folk Archaeology since 2005 that focused on the native languages of Chinese in Malaysia. The main objective of Folk Archaeology, according to Chong, is to build a local Chinese audio-visual, text, and physical database for the local accents of Chinese in Malaysia for the past 15 years including oral literature, songs, private envoys, references, community oral records, records of expectations carried out by older generation and Chinese Quyi music.

Chong also spoke about the cognition of local accent which included the ancestral home, native status and ethnic feelings of the Malaysian Chinese. “Our native identity has been slowly changing with the change of time,” said Chong. He also pointed out the seven major local accents of Malaysian Chinese, namely Sanjiang, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Hainanese and Guangxi. He said, “The language has travelled across the ocean with its identity.”

Chong said the matrix of Chinese native accent also included aspects of life which is family origin, spoken text, living diet, folk beliefs, Quyi music, labour industry, weddings and funerals. He also said that a diversified hometown promotes multiculturalism and must be recorded as a reference for future generations.” One of the industries that can best highlight the relationship of the nationality is the food catering industry,” said Chong. Finally, he encouraged the participants to promote the Chinese cultural heritage as part of Malaysia’s tourism industry while reminding them that it requires corporate investment to do so.

The webinar ended with a brief Q&A session.

The webinar was co-organised by UTAR and CABA

Chong during the webinar

The seven local accents of Malaysian Chinese

Chong explaining the matrix of Chinese’s native accent