RE-ENCODING TEOCHEW PEOPLE IN CINEMA: REGIONAL TRADITIONS AND MODERN NARRATIVE IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v7i4.1160Keywords:
Teochew people, Chinese cinema, dialect film, encoding theoryAbstract
This study examines the historical transformation of Teochew people’s cinematic representation across more than a century of Chinese-language cinema, with particular attention to the relationship between regional traditions, cultural identity, and changing narrative strategies. Grounded in Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding theory, the study analyzes explicit and implicit cultural codes embedded in film texts to explore how Teochew identity has been constructed, negotiated, and re-encoded within different historical and sociocultural contexts. The analysis traces four major stages of representation: the Teochew as spokespersons of tradition from the 1910s to the 1950s; overseas resisters during the 1960s and 1970s; the cultural “Other” positioned beyond modern civilization in the 1980s and 1990s; and narrators of local stories from the early twenty-first century to the present. Findings demonstrate that Teochew cinematic images have shifted from externally constructed representations characterized by tradition, migration, resistance, marginality, and cultural stereotyping toward increasingly self-conscious forms of local cultural expression. Contemporary Teochew-themed films, particularly those created by local filmmakers, increasingly foreground regional landscapes, dialects, folk beliefs, family relationships, and everyday experiences while critically reflecting on cultural conservatism and social transformation. This development signifies a transition from passive representation toward active cultural self-representation and identity construction. The study concludes that revitalizing Teochew cinema requires deeper engagement with multilayered cultural codes, diversified narrative forms, and effective communication of regional cultural values. Such efforts can strengthen shared cultural identity while expanding the significance of regional cinema within contemporary Chinese-language film discourse.
References
[1] Baker, W. (2022): From intercultural to transcultural communication. – Language and Intercultural Communication 22(3): 280-293.
[2] Ball, L. (2023): Legend of The Chinese Boxer: Jimmy Wang Yu’s cosmopolitan wuxia pian. – Asian Cinema 34(1): 21-38.
[3] Calabi, C., Huemer, W., Santambrogio, M. (2022): Mirrors, windows, and paintings. – Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics LIX/XV(1): 22-32.
[4] Chahdi, C. (2024): Challenging stereotypes: Examining Arab womanhood in “The Negotiator.” – Contemporary Review of the Middle East 11(2): 192-206.
[5] Chen, X. (2019): 万人空巷争看“苏六娘” [Crowds fill the streets to watch Su Liuniang]. – Guangdong Teochew Opera Theatre Web Portal 1p.
[6] Chen, X.X. (2019b) The Teochew opera film “The Flower Girl and the Top Scholar”: “The Crab Song” and “Lianluo Tune.” – Shantou Daily Web Portal 1p.
[7] Chen, Y. (2022): The Confucian moral community of the clan association in the Chinese diaspora: A case study of the Lung Kong Tin Yee Association. – Religions 13(1): 14p.
[8] Chen, Z., Ma, W., Guo, W., Chen, Y. (2022): A Chinese tale of three regions: A century of China in thousands of films. – Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9: 12p.
[9] Cheng, L.Y. (2012): Cross-media and cultural study of music in Hong Kong film and Cantonese opera. – University of Liverpool, Liverpool 226p.
[10] Flusberg, S.J., Holmes, K.J., Thibodeau, P.H., Nabi, R.L., Matlock, T. (2024): The psychology of framing: How everyday language shapes the way we think, feel, and act. – Psychological Science in the Public Interest 25(3): 105-161.
[11] Gao, H., Peng, L., Zhang, X. (2024): Media frames and images of Chinese immigrants: Analyzing European newspaper narratives from 2015 to 2022. – Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11: 12p.
[12] Giaccardi, S., Van Valkenburgh, S., Rosenthal, E.L. (2024): Native representation on scripted television: Heightened visibility and its impact on audiences. – USC Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project and IllumiNative, Los Angeles 48p.
[13] Hall, S. (1973): Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. – Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham 19p.
[14] Hall, S. (1980): Race, articulation and societies structured in dominance. – In: UNESCO (ed.): Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism, UNESCO, Paris 41p.
[15] Hall, S. (ed.) (1997): Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. – SAGE Publications, London 400p.
[16] Han, Q. (2015): The portrayal of family in early Chinese melodrama films. – Critical Arts 29(3): 419-436.
[17] Jin, H. (ed.) (2022): Chinese cinemas in translation and dissemination. – Routledge, London 118p.
[18] Kagan, D., Levy, M., Fire, M., Fuhrmann Alpert, G. (2024): Ethnic representation analysis of commercial movie posters. – Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11: 12p.
[19] Kang, L., Peng, F., Anwar, S. (2022): All that glitters is not gold: Do movie quality and contents influence box-office revenues in China? – Journal of Policy Modeling 44(2): 492-510.
[20] Kwok, C.L. (ed.) (2003): Hong Kong filmography volume IV (1953-1959). – Hong Kong Film Archive, Hong Kong 696p.
[21] Lee, K.M., Law, K.Y. (2014): Colonialism, sinicization and ethnic minorities in Hong Kong: Social exclusion and barely citizenship. – In: Vasu, N., Chin, Y., Law, K.Y. (eds.): Nations, National Narratives and Communities in the Asia-Pacific, Routledge, Abingdon 31p.
[22] Li, G. (2024): Reflection on the spread of Chinese popular religion: A case-study of the Han Yu belief in the Chaozhou region. – Religions 15(12): 21p.
[23] Li, S.L. (2001): Kung fu: Negotiating nationalism and modernity. – Cultural Studies 15(3-4): 515-542.
[24] Liu, S. (2024): The South China New Wave: Cinema as Xinxiang (affective-ideational imagery). – In: Schultz, C., Mello, C. (eds.): Chinese Film in the Twenty-First Century: Movements, Genres, Intermedia, Routledge, London 16p.
[25] McFarland, J.R. (2021): Language contact and lexical changes in Khmer and Teochew in Cambodia and beyond. – In: Chia, C., Hoogervorst, T. (eds.): Sinophone Southeast Asia: Sinitic voices across the Southern Seas. Brill, Leiden 38p.
[26] Murji, K. (2022): An interventionist sociologist: Stuart Hall, public engagement and racism. – The Sociological Review 70(5): 901-915.
[27] Ng, W.C. (2015): The rise of Cantonese opera. – Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 288p.
[28] Wu, J. (ed.) (2013): Tracing Teochew-language cinema in Hong Kong. – Hong Kong Film Archive, Hong Kong 276p.
[29] Yang, P. (2017): 梦逐潮声去——“冷战”格局下的潮语戏曲片 [Chasing dreams along the sound of the tide: Teochew opera films under the Cold War pattern]. – Contemporary Cinema 7: 140-143.
[30] Yang, X. (2025): Book review: Transformation of contemporary film genre: The aesthetics of Chinese mainland mainstream cinema. – Global Media and China 10(2): 274-277.
[31] You, Q. (2022): Analysis of the role of sound in the construction of Oriental aesthetics in the film “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” – BCP Social Sciences & Humanities 15: 161-166.
[32] Zhang, B. (2019): Chinese dialect opera among the twentieth-century Southeast Asian diaspora. – The Newsletter 84: 1p.
[33] Zhang, C., Wang, M., Li, K. (2025): A retrospective of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area films in the global context: Evolution of genre, independent representation and documentary shaping. – International Theory and Practice in Humanities and Social Sciences 2(3): 73-87.
[34] Zhuang, G. (2011): Historical changes in the number and distribution of overseas Chinese worldwide. – World History 5: 5-14.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 LI CHONG JING, WAN NORBANI WAN NOORDIN
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
