AsiaNews Magazine Jan10-16,2014 ( Jan 1-7,2014) | Page 39

CULTURE

January 10-16, 2014

RAYMOND ZHOU
Beijing
China Daily

Z

hou Bing has lots of friends
in Southeast Asia. When
they have a party, his
friends would use multiple
languages to talk to different
people in the same room. "Many
of them can speak seven languages
and dialects, including Mandarin,
Cantonese, Hakka, Fuzhou dialect,
southern Fujian dialect, Malay
and English. They would keep on
switching from one to another
and sprinkle one language with
words from others," explains
Zhou, a documentary filmmaker.
Zhou spent much of the past
three years visiting nine countries in
Southeast Asia that are collectively
known as "Nanyang" in Chinese.
It was the destination of many
Chinese emigrants in the old days.
Zhou and his team embarked on

THE MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL CELEBRATION PLAYS A BIG ROLE IN THE
LIFE OF ETHNIC CHINESE LIVING IN SINGAPORE.

a mission to chronicle the current
lives of these people as well as
the history of their ancestors.
The result, South of the Ocean,
has been broadcast on the History
Channel in the United States.
That was a two-hour highlight,
and the full-length 10-episode
version will hit the airwaves
on the documentary channel
of China Central Television.
"Nanyang is a mirror, which
can reflect not only China's past,

but its present and future," says
Zhou. "Once you mingle in that
society, you'll know how our
ancestors lived and their customs,
including how they decorated
their homes and worshipped their
gods. Even traditional holidays we
celebrate today are more elaborate
and complicated over there."
Zhou is especially impressed
by the popularity of ancestral
halls that dot urban and rural
landscapes in Nanyang.