Teochew-Dialect Chinese Film 'Dear You' Gains Popularity in Southeast Asia
A Chinese film titled ‘Dear You’, which uses the Teochew dialect, has gained popularity during its screening in Southeast Asian countries. The Teochew language is a variety of Chinese originating from the Chaoshan region in southern Guangdong Province. This language is also widely used by Chinese communities in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.
‘The Teochew dialect used by the grandmother character in this film is very similar to the Teochew we use, so it really hits home. Many viewers cried while watching the film, and quite a few young people came with their parents or grandparents,’ said Jiang Wenmei, CEO of the Golden Village cinema chain in Singapore, in a written statement received in Beijing on Tuesday.
The film, whose Mandarin title translates literally to ‘A Love Letter to Grandma’, began screening in cinemas in Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau on 18 June, following its mainland China premiere on 30 April 2026. In Singapore, within a week of its release, the film grossed S$7.3 million, making it one of the highest-grossing Mandarin-language films in the country in recent years. In Malaysia, it was screened in over 100 cinemas with more than 550 showtimes per day, earning RM5.8 million.
‘There were even elderly people who had not been to the cinema in years who finally came to watch this film, because it successfully brought to the big screen the stories that our grandparents’ generation used to tell,’ said Toh Jin Jiang, Executive Director of Mega Films Distribution, the film’s distributor in Malaysia.
The story follows a Teochew grandmother named Ye Shurou, who spends most of her life waiting for news from her husband, who migrated to Thailand. Her granddaughter, Xiaowei, travels to Thailand to search for her grandfather, Zheng Musheng. Upon arriving in Thailand, Xiaowei discovers that for decades, the person corresponding with her grandmother was not her grandfather, but a stranger named Xie Nanzhi, as Zheng Musheng had long since passed away. Zheng Musheng had originally gone to Thailand to earn a living and regularly sent letters and money home to his family in China. Unfortunately, he met with misfortune and died in 1960. Afterwards, Nanzhi, the daughter of the innkeeper where Musheng stayed in Thailand and whose life he had once saved, continued the practice of writing letters and sending money to Shurou. After decades, the family finally learns the truth about Musheng’s death thanks to the granddaughter’s efforts, and the two elderly women, who never knew each other but were connected through letters, finally meet.
The tradition of Chinese migrants sending letters and money back to their hometowns, particularly from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, is known as the ‘Qiaopi’ culture. These remittances were typically sent through unofficial, trust-based channels rather than the post office or banks. They often contained family letters, short messages and records of money sent. Of the approximately 170,000 Qiaopi documents still preserved today, around 160,000 originate from Guangdong, with over 100,000 specifically from the Teochew region. In 2013, the Qiaopi archives were inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, recognised as part of the world’s documentary heritage. The oldest Qiaopi discovered by collectors was sent on 26 May 1859 by Wen Xinde, a Chinese migrant in Indonesia. The letter was sent from Batavia to Meixian in Guangdong province and is currently stored at the Hakka Museum of China in Meizhou, Guangdong. The shortest Qiaopi found contains only a single Chinese character, ‘难’ (nán), meaning ‘difficult’, written by Chen Junrui, a Chinese migrant in Indonesia, and is now kept at the Qiaopi Cultural Relics Museum in Shantou, Guangdong.
In China, the film has already grossed over 1.8 billion yuan, securing the second spot in the country’s 2026 box office rankings. Despite its regional success, there are currently no plans to screen ‘Dear You’ in Indonesia.