TV viewers welcome Hakka Guests into homes

["Dixie" <Dixie@singnet.com.sg>]

TV viewers welcome Hakka Guests into homes  
  
CHIN SOO FANG 
 
 
STUDENT Juleen Ho, 17, used to feel embarrassed about being a Hakka.
"Hakkas 
are generally said to be stingy and calculating," she explained.  
 
But her opinion of her dialect group has changed since she started watching

The Guest People, the on-going Channel 8 serial on the Hakka community.  
 
"I am now proud to have been born a Hakka, especially since the serial
showed 
that the Hakka women do more work than the men!"  
 
Indeed, she said that watching the prime-time show has made her feel closer
to 
her forefathers. "I learnt little details like how 300 or more Hakkas would

build circular homes resembling mushrooms in the same plot of land," she
said, 
adding that the serial revealed how the group's cohesiveness and
industrious 
outlook enabled it to turn adversity to advantage.  
 
>From interviews with 10 people, it appears that the Television Corporation
of 
Singapore's 30-parter has found a large following among Chinese viewers, 
especially among the Hakkas.  
 
The serial focuses on the lives of four Hakka youths who venture out of
China 
to Southeast Asia during the '30s, and also showcases the patriotic and 
entrepreneurial spirit of the dialect group.  
 
It stars Christopher Lee, Chen Hanwei, Xie Shaoguang and Jason Oh as four 
friends who spend their carefree childhood in a Hakka communal building in 
China, but end up enemies later. Ann Kok, Chen Huihui and Jacelyn Tay play 
Hakka girls with different destinies.  
 
The serial was filmed on location in Ipoh, the tin-mining town where many 
Hakkas first became prosperous, and Fujian and Guangdong provinces.  
 
Mr Chan Liang Choy, the president of the Nanyang Khek Community Guild,
which 
was set up in 1928 to serve the Hakka community here and in Malaya, is
among 
those who have caught the drama.  
 
He said in Mandarin: "It's not too bad, especially since beautiful scenes
of 
our homeland are shown."  
 
Mr Chan, who is in his 70s and is group chairman of travel agency Chan 
Brothers Holdings, added: "Of course there is some dramatisation here and 
there, as is necessary in drama serials."  
 
Businessman William Chong, 51, one of the guild's committee members who
helped 
TCS establish contacts in China for the filming of the serial, liked the 
serial so far. "It shows how the Hakkas emphasised a lot on education. They

set up schools which offered free education to all," he said.  
 
"It also portrays Hakka women as strong and sacrificial. They were willing
to 
take care of the family and housework while the men taught or travelled far
in 
search of a better life."  
 
But it is not just the Hakkas who have been glued to the TV set. Miss
Rebecca 
Tan, a 23-year-old trainee teacher who is a Hokkien, said: "I am no fan of
TCS 
serials. But this is different because the focus is on the culture and 
tradition of a group of people. It is very educational."  
 
She added that she was also attracted to the strong mix of different 
characters.  
 
The response to the show is encouraging, in light of how TCS's earlier
dialect 
group-themed serial, Teochew Family, caused unhappiness among many Teochews

when it was screened two years ago.  
 
Miss Ho recalled how the serial, which starred Zoe Tay, Chew Chor Meng and 
Zeng Huifen, was "more dramatic than educational" compared to The Guest 
People.  
 
Teochew Family told the tale of three generations of the Cai family who 
migrated to Singapore from Guangdong province.  
 
Some grassroots leaders said that the portrayal of the Teochew community
not 
only lacked authenticity, but also gave a wrong impression of the dialect 
group. For example, Kenneth Tsang Kong's character, who turned to smuggling
to 
get rich in his early days, was thought to give the Teochews a bad name.  
 
So did actor Chen Shucheng's role as a rice store assistant who broke with 
tradition by marrying into his wife's family. Many also said there was
nothing 
particularly Teochew beyond the setting.  
 
But The Guest People is not without its detractors. Madam Sally Lo, a 
49-year-old part-time bank teller, a Teochew, felt that the Teochew Family
was 
a more exciting show.  
 
Mrs Jasmine Chua, 35, a babysitter who is Hokkien, said in Mandarin: "I
find 
it boring and slow. But old people like my mother find this and other sagas

about immigrants very heartwarming." 
 
The Guest People is on from Mondays to Fridays over Channel 8 at 9 pm.