The Teochiu: Ethnicity in Urban Hong Kong
DOUGLAS W. SPARKS*
The Teochiu1 are a highly visible ethnic group2 in Hong Kong. They are aggressive, belligerent, likely to be involved in triads or narcotics, highly organized and shrewd businessmen. This is the stereotype of Teochiu that is widely held by non-Teochiu in Hong Kong. Emotional reactions to Teochiu at times seem to approach the vehemence of racist beliefs, although the diacritics signalling identity are not phenotypic but linguistic, cultural (food, emphasis placed on certain rituals rather than others) and most importantly for this article an individual's self-identification as Teochiu and concomitant involvement in largely Teochiu social networks and possibly in Teochiu organizations. It is difficult, however, to explicate the meaning of this identity in that there is tremendous diversity in the Teochiu population of Hong Kong. Some estimates of this population suggest that it is as high as one-fifth of the total population (see below). There is no clear-cut relationship between ethnicity and occupation in urban Hong Kong, much less between ethnicity and class. Teochiu are found in all sectors of the economy and at all socio-economic levels.
* The author is a postgraduate research student from The Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, who recently carried out 18 months field work in Hong Kong. This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Research Grant, for which he expresses his indebtedness and appreciation.
1 The most widely recognized romanization for this ethnic group in Hong Kong is "Chiu Chow" which is the Cantonese pronunciation of the characters 潮州. Newspapers, government publications and even Teochiu associations in Hong Kong use this romanization. “Teochiu" and other variants (Taechew, Tiochew) represent the romanization corresponding to the pronunciation of the characters in the Teochiu language and are widely used by Western scholars in South East Asia.
2 The Teochiu as well as other Chinese ethnic groups in South East Asia and Hong Kong have until recently been labelled "dialect groups" and their languages considered to be dialects of "the" Chinese language. This terminology is inappropriate in that these so-called dialects are quite clearly languages, being for the most part mutually unintelligible. The use of the term "dialect group" not only reflects the lack of interest and possibly the unawareness of the importance of ethnicity as a variable in studies of overseas Chinese, but has also served to obscure and minimize that importance.