The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtap20

Engaging with a Genre in Decline: Teochew Opera

in Western Sydney

Nicholas Ng

To cite this article: Nicholas Ng (2021) Engaging with a Genre in Decline: Teochew
Opera in Western Sydney, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 22:2-3, 162-183, DOI:
10.1080/14442213.2021.1923794

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2021.1923794

Published online: 10 Jun 2021.

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The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2021
Vol. 22, Nos. 2–3, pp. 162–183, https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2021.1923794

Engaging with a Genre in Decline:

Teochew Opera in Western Sydney
Nicholas Ng *

Located in the heart of western Sydney, the Australian Chinese Teo Chew Association
(ACTCA) is a meeting place for diasporic Chinese who identify as Teochew
(Chaozhou), a cultural–linguistic group originating in the locality of Teoswa
(Chaoshan), Guangdong province. Since 1988, the Teochew community has gathered
to celebrate a common ethno-specific identity through culturally bonding activities
such as Teochew opera. Arias and instrumental suites from various operatic classics
are regularly rehearsed by a group of elderly musicians. Although a transnational
signifier of ‘Teochewness’ that remains popular in most diasporic communities, this
art form is steadily losing currency in western Sydney, particularly amongst the
younger generation, and might only survive for as long as the current exponents are
able to sustain it. This paper draws on fieldwork conducted since 2004 to address
issues of music and identity. Possible methods for sustainability are discussed with
reference to Sydney Conservatorium’s Chinese Music Ensemble.

Keywords: Chinese Music; Teochew Opera; Identity; Ethnomusicology; Sustainability

Cabramatta, Sydney | 5 May 2004, 11 am

The sound of bowed and plucked strings reverberated through the corridor,
leading me upstairs. At the end of the hallway, I found a small group of elderly
male musicians seated on a wooden stage. The texture of their music was clearly
heterophonic and built on the mode that seemed familiar although I could not
quite identify it. My attention was drawn to a musician seated at the side of the
stage who seemed to lead the ensemble with a small fiddle,1 very high in pitch
and with a piercing quality. The musician to his right played an alto-sounding
fiddle that filled the space with its mellow timbre. From its rotund shape, I
assumed it must be the yehu (coconut fiddle) that my teacher had spoken of.

* Nicholas Ng is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture,
Western Sydney University. Email: nicholas.ng@westernsydney.edu.au

© 2021 The Australian National University

 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 163

There was no conductor; the men made little to no eye contact but played with a
synchronicity that only comes from years of rehearsals with the same people. I did
not know what they were playing, but they delivered each note with calm delibera-
tion and a look of nostalgia in their eyes, as if reminiscing of a bygone era.
The men continued to rehearse even after I entered the hall with occasional glances
in my direction acknowledging my presence. I soon realised that the lead fiddle in
the foreground must be Mr Huang, the person I had been told to seek out. As I
approached the stage, he paused; the others stopped playing. The sudden silence
was almost unbearable as the ensemble looked at me expectantly, waiting for me
to speak.2
At Sydney University, my honours supervisor Allan Marrett once told me about a
‘fossilised’ genre of Chinese music that to this day remains largely untainted by
outside influences. Unlike classical Chinese music taught in conservatoria, which
employs equal temperament and other musical devices thought to represent progress
and modernity, Allan said that there are musicologists who believe that the music of
the Teochew (Chaozhou 潮州 in Mandarin)3 has remained largely unchanged over
time.4 I was inspired to one day locate and learn this music as a young, impression-
able composer with strong interests in ethnomusicology. This interest was fuelled by
a yearning to invent my identity through sound. More than trying to discover what
my individual voice could be as a composer, I was inadvertently searching for a place
in society as an immigrant Chinese raised at the westernmost fringes of metropolitan
Sydney. The fact that my Indonesian-born maternal grandmother is a full-blooded
Teochew, coupled with the discovery of the existence of Teochew music, was
enough to send me on a long-term quest to sample, experience and understand
this intriguing genre.
I did not have to travel very far for fieldwork. At the Australian National Univer-
sity, my PhD supervisor Stephen Wild was aware of the wide diasporic network of
Chinese in Australia and saw great merit in beginning my research locally. A
quick search in the Yellow Pages led to the phone number of the Australian
Chinese Teo Chew Association, a meeting place for diasporic Chinese hailing from
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Mainland China and various Southeast Asian countries.
Their common link is the Teochew dialect and culture, which originates in the
localities of Teochew (Chaozhou 潮州) and Swatao (Shantou汕头) known collec-
tively as Teoswa (Chaoshan 潮汕), a cultural–linguistic region in the east of Guang-
dong province. The Association Centre, as shown in Figure 1, is located deep in the
heart of Sydney’s west in an impressive Chinese-style building comfortably nestled
between the Baptist Church and Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Cabramatta. An
ornate stone archway greets visitors from the driveway leading to a carpark and
the main building, which has been constructed in a classical architectural style remi-
niscent of the famous guild halls of China.
Through the case study of diasporic Teochew music, this paper seeks to address the
role that ethnomusicology has played in the deliberation of my musical identity and
practice. Following a discussion of the Teochew, including their origins and cultural
164 N. Ng

Figure 1. Australian Chinese Teo Chew Association, courtesy of Nicholas Ng (2004).

traits, I will analyse my experiences with members of the Australian Chinese Teo
Chew Association in Sydney’s far west. Their cultural activities are discussed with
a special focus on the music they perform, its use and function, and the apparent situ-
ation of its gradual decline in recent years. I examine how this music relates to my
work as a teacher of classical Chinese music at Sydney Conservatorium, and
explore avenues of possible sustainability through tertiary education. My discussion
concludes with a reflection on my own Teochew heritage as part of my practice-based
research.

The Teochew
Teochew is the common tongue of those native to modern-day Teoswa (Chaoshan)
and various parts of the Chinese diaspora. In Australia and other countries inhabited
by a Chinese population, Teochew cultural visibility is rare in comparison to the
dominant Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking forms of ‘Chineseness’. Assimilation
in favour of mainstream Mandarin and Cantonese culture has resulted in many of
Teochew descent, such as myself, growing up without much awareness of their cul-
tural and linguistic origins.
However, a Teochew renaissance of sorts has taken place in recent decades. This
movement is the result of diasporic Teochew descendants seeking to identify with
others sharing their cultural and linguistic origins and forming a unique transna-
tional subculture. For instance, it is now possible to find movies, television
dramas, and a variety of YouTube programmes on the Teochew people. With over
15,000 views, Kiew Lin’s recently premiered short film Uncle Goose Waits for A
Phone Call (2020) highlights the transnational cosmopolitan nature of Teochew iden-
tity. The Teochew Family by Mediacorp5 (1995) is a notable 30-episode saga following
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 165

a 1940s rice merchant family in Singapore over a period of fifty years. Teochew food
is often celebrated in popular culture due to its distinct culinary flavour: Netflix
recently released the documentary series Flavorful Origins (2019), focusing on
Teochew cuisine, and Teochew eateries such as Sunrise Teochew Congee and
Gongfu Cha outlets in Sydney are places of growing popularity today. ‘The
Teochew Store’ is one of many websites serving as an English language portal on
all things Teochew, while countless interest groups on Facebook like ‘Gaginang’
(meaning ‘our people’) and other social media channels act as thriving hubs of cul-
tural and social interaction. ‘The Teochew Store’ reports on a recently launched
American English–Teochew ‘WhatTCSay App’, one of many international projects
focused on ensuring the survival of the Teochew language.
In addition to multicultural diversity in Australia, the ethnic diversity of the
People’s Republic of China is of great interest to me. Apart from its 56 ethnicities,
there are a myriad of cultural and linguistic subgroups even within the most populous
Han ethnicity, which comprises 91.51 per cent of the mainland Chinese population
(Thrasher et al. 2016) and most of the Chinese population in Australia. It is common
knowledge that through the course of history, southern Han groups developed in dis-
tinct ways from their northern counterparts. The varieties of mutually unintelligible
languages and dialects testify to this diversity. While there are many cultural traits in
the south that are often said to represent what is truly and ‘authentically’ Han, there is
a general consensus that people in the north are the ‘original’ Chinese (Liu Ying, pers.
comm., 2019). Even so, many Chinese music teachers will assert that Hakka and
Teochew guzheng 古筝 (zither) music is the most ‘Chinese’ of the six regional
guzheng schools.6 A brief outline of the origins of the Teochew may help explain
the north–south binary that often comes up in discussions on Chinese musical
culture.

Origins of the Teochew

Scholarship on the precise origins of the Teochew is scarce. ‘The Teochew Store’
website, mentioned earlier, records a popular belief that the Teochew are descended
from the Han Chinese civilisation that arose in the Central Plains, comprising
present-day Henan and Shaanxi provinces, and began a process of southward
migration from around the fourth century (Figure 2). This theory of migration
helps assert a primordial Han ethnicity wherein the Teochew brought their language
and customs from ancient north-central China to the Teoswa region (Thrasher 2008,
7, 9). According to Jinhe Cai (2007), their departure may have taken place as early as
the Jin dynasty (265–420 CE) due to political turmoil. Cai (2007) notes that the Han
contingent first arrived in Putian, Fujian province, before settling in parts of Teoswa
during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Here, they intermixed genetically and lin-
guistically with local non-Han peoples. This includes the She (Miao–Yao or
Hmong–Mien ethnicity) and the Yue.7
166 N. Ng

Figure 2. Teochew migration and Han Chinese expansion.8

The indigenous non-Chinese tribes identified by the Han under the ‘Yue’ nomen-
clature inhabited large parts of what is now southern China (Jiangsu, Yunnan,
Guangxi and northern Vietnam) from the first millennium BC into the Zhou and
Han Dynasties (Barlow 1997, 2; Meacham 1996, 9, 83). Figure 2 above depicts the
historical process whereby the Yue tribes were gradually displaced or assimilated
into Chinese culture as the Han empire expanded into what is now southern
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 167

China and northern Vietnam. This meeting of ancient cultures might account for the
traces of Yue substrate languages in many present-day southern Chinese dialects,
including Cantonese and Teochew, as espoused by eminent Chinese–American gen-
ealogist Him Mak Lai (1991). Due to the difficult terrain and parasitic issues such as
malaria (Marks 1998; Elvin 2004), this émigré Han community became closed, and a
localised culture and language developed separately from their northern Chinese
counterparts. As the concentration of southward Han movement took place
during the Tang Dynasty, the Teochew, like the Hokkien in neighbouring Fujian pro-
vince, still refer to themselves today as Deung nang (‘Tang people’) rather than Hang
nang (‘Han people’) to assert a Chinese cultural identity connected to the great med-
ieval Tang capital of Xi’an (Thrasher 2008, 9).
Today, people of Teochew ancestry may be found in numerous countries within
the greater Chinese diaspora. Due to civil unrest and other socio–economic
factors, the Teochew, along with other Han Chinese (Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka)
have since the eighteenth century migrated to nearby countries such as Cambodia,
Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and Vietnam (Thrasher 1988, 1–2).
From there, due to various factors including war and civil unrest,9 another wave of
twentieth century migrations followed with settlement in the United States,
Canada, Australia, and France, where large numbers of Teochew associations have
formed.

The Australian Chinese Teo Chew Association

Established in 1988, the Australian Chinese Teo Chew Association (henceforth
ACTCA) continues to be a meeting place for people of Teochew ancestry. The anni-
versary brochure shown in Figure 3 below depicts a thriving community with an
active presence in wider Australian society. Karaoke and ballroom dancing sessions
are meeting points for older community members, while kung fu and lion dancing
classes are popularly attended by many younger Australian-born Teochew. The
ACTCA Lion Dance Team is highly popular and has been regularly booked by
various Chinese associations and organisations for events of note in the lunar calen-
dar such as Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Teochew lions often
appear during Fo Guang Shan Buddhist community events at Nan Tien Temple in
Wollongong and, also, at the annual Buddha’s Birthday festivities in Darling
Harbour.
ACTCA hosts and produces annual Teochew operatic events. Due to the expense
and organisational complexities of producing large-scale operas, and the time press-
ures of modern life, arias10 and operatic excerpts have become the norm at concerts
with local performers and specially invited guests from Swatow (Shantou) perform-
ing arias from epic legends and heart-breaking romances for the enjoyment of com-
munity members. A well-known classic, Ziêngbhê Gouli/Zhanma Guli (‘Tale of the
Warrior Horse’) was performed during the Lantern Festival celebrations at Sydney
Town Hall on 1 March 2015 and may be found online.11
168 N. Ng

Figure 3. ACTCA Tenth Anniversary Brochure, image courtesy of ACTCA (2004).

Teochew Opera
A regional style of Chinese theatre, Teochew opera has been described by Mr
Huang and his associates (pers. comm., 2004) as the highest expression of
Teochew culture due to the extremely intricate combination of instrumental and
vocal music, drama, poetry, acrobatics, stylised costumery and folk art. The earliest
hand-written opera manuscripts from Ming dynasty productions12 suggest its evol-
ution from nanxi 南戲, a southern dramatic genre. This genre was a synthesis of
mime, singing and dance from the Wenzhou region of Southeast China during
the twelfth century. It existed in a far less elaborate format compared to its
modern form and was suppressed by Ming gentry–officials, who viewed it as
vulgar due to use of the village vernacular instead of literary Chinese. However,
the patronage of wealthy merchants allowed the art to survive and blossom (Sun
1996; The Teo Chew Store 2016).
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 169

I find that Teochew opera serves a multi-purpose role that may be examined on
many levels. As a recreational activity, it continues to feature prominently in main-
land China during events such as the Shantou International Chaoju Opera Festival
(Lin 2003, 64). With the advent of digital technology, the solo rendition of arias,
often with orchestral accompaniment on a pre-recorded backing track, is a
common occurrence at informal events and celebratory functions. In the Cabramatta
community, I was shown homemade DVD and VCD copies of operatic karaoke used
for private practice and also group gatherings. Singing competitions have been
popular with many events broadcast on Teochew (Chaozhou) regional TV. Diasporic
Teowchew, if unable to stream from China, may view these events easily on YouTube
(Opera Competition—2016, n.d.). Frederick Lau (2012) reports that professional
operatic troupes have been touring regularly to Bangkok since the 1930s, and with
the subsequent establishment of the various voluntary Chinese community associ-
ations, amateur music groups and singing clubs have for several generations
served as creative outlets for Thai-born Teochew wishing to connect with their ‘Chi-
neseness’. In Thailand, every Teochew association today has its own music and
operatic ensemble. Concurrently, Mandarin13 has become popular amongst Thai-
Chinese, and Mandarin pop songs (known affectionately as ‘Mandopop’) have
since the mid-1950s captured the interest of many of Teochew origin (Lau 2012,
50–51).
Opera also plays an important socio-religious role throughout the Teochew-speak-
ing world, particularly for those who adhere to the tenets and customs of folk
Daosim. Here, there are two main functions: to honour the birth of a deity from
the Daoist pantheon, and to entertain and appease the spirits during the Hungry
Ghost Festival, which takes place in the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar,
colloquially known as the ‘Ghost Month’. Writing in 1970s Hong Kong, Helga Werle
(1975, 71) noted that properly celebrating such feast days ensured the prosperity and
success of the deity’s respective temple and its devotees. This involved not just one
performance but also a series of shows produced by the most outstanding
members of the community. The consent of the god was invoked through ritual,
after which a large public space was booked for the performance. A construction
company would erect the temporary bamboo staging on which the ‘best and most
costly’ opera troupe would perform (Werle 1975, 72–73).
Performances like these continue to take place throughout the Chinese diaspora,
particularly in Singapore where temporary public spaces are utilised for celebrating
a range of public holidays and festivals including ‘the birthday of the goddess
Guan Yin, Jubilee of Queen Victoria, Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival and
Hungry Ghost Festival’ (Chan and Sai-shing 2012, 12). Hungry Ghost Festival in par-
ticular is taken very seriously by Lao Sai Tao Yuan, Singapore’s oldest opera troupe,
since it is the duty of the performers to ‘entertain the ghosts’ with multiple perform-
ances in temples across the region. This involves the transportation of truckloads of
costumes and props with a fresh remount of the production at each venue (Lizeray
2016).
170 N. Ng
Figure 4 is a photo of Teochew instruments taken during one of my earlier field-
trips to ACTCA in 2004. These instruments are played together in a repertory of
string ensemble music known as hinsi ghaoh/Mandarin xianshi yue 弦詩樂
(‘string-poem music’)14 used to accompany Teochew opera. The dihin/erxian 二弦
(‘two-strings’) is the fiddle mentioned in my earlier fieldwork notes and often
leads the other instruments from stage left. These include the rihu/tihu 提胡 or
riou/erhu 二胡 (‘two-stringed fiddle’), iaou/yehu 椰胡 (‘coconut-shell fiddle’),
taohin/touxian 頭弦 (‘head lute’), dêghin/zhuxian 竹弦 (‘bamboo lute’), bibê/ pipa
琵琶 (‘four-stringed, pear-shaped lute’), usually placed stage right, samhin/sanxian
三弦 (‘three-stringed lute’) and the iangkim/yangqin 洋琴 (‘hammered dulcimer’),
almost always positioned centre stage (Thrasher 2008, 8). In the related soighaoh/
xiyue 细樂 (‘fine music’) repertory, the zeng/zheng 筝 may be heard with bibê and
sanxian. I did, however, hear the deg/di 笛 (transverse bamboo flute) and only
once did a performer play the sieu/xiao 簫 (end-blown bamboo flute). Percussion
instruments used for the accompaniment of opera and ritual music are made from
wood, skin and metal such as the bhaghe/muyu 木魚 (woodblock), bhagpang/
muban 木板 (hand-held wooden clapper), duapang/daban 大板 (hollow wooden
blocks), diêggou/zhegu 哲鼓 (small drum) and danglêng/tongling 銅鈴 (copper bell).
I first discovered the resident ACTCA hinsi/xianshi ensemble as a PhD student in
2004. Having learned erhu with conservatory-trained virtuosos such as Chen
Xuebing (Beijing Arts University) and Henry Cao (Shanghai Radio Orchestra), I
did not realise that my instrument was just one of many Chinese bowed instruments
and was fascinated by the range of southern fiddles played at ACTCA on a weekly

Figure 4. Teochew instruments at ACTCA, courtesy of Nicholas Ng (2004).

 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 171

basis. However, the classical Chinese music I had learned bore little correlation with
this repertory. Aware of my musical background, one of Mr Huang’s first remarks to
me was: zhe bushi Shanghai yinyue … hen bu rongyi xue 这不是上海音乐 … 很不容
易学 (‘this is not Shanghai music … it is not easy to learn’). My musical upbringing
was in the guoyue (national music) ‘classical’ genre, a synthesis of regional musical
forms taught in Chinese conservatoria beginning with Shanghai, as a cultural
centre, in 1927. I soon discovered that the music at ACTCA was similar yet quite
different to guoyue: the fiddle players used only one hand position, as opposed to
the many that I was taught to use, they bowed with unusually stiff wrists and consist-
ently produced certain notes that seemed to me to be off pitch. The scores I found
looked nothing like the jianpu notation15 I was used to, and improvisation was a
key feature of their performance practice.
It may be true that Teochew opera is directly connected to Tang Dynasty music
through various etymological and terminological links (Thrasher 2008, 9–11). Cer-
tainly, claims of similar musical antiquity have been made concerning other genres
like nanyin 南音 (‘Southern sounds’) from Fujian,16 believed to be directly linked
to the music of the Tang court (Lim 2014, 84). Stephen Jones (2003, 319) and
Alan R. Thrasher (2008, 10) concede that it is scholastically more tangible to trace
such historical connections to the seventeenth century for such genres rather than
to the Tang Dynasty. While observing hinsi/xianshi music in Cabramatta, I did
encounter a modal system that predates standardised classical Chinese repertoire
developed in the twentieth century, the same system identified by Mercedes
Dujunco (2003) in her study of Teochew modality. Of these, the hexatonic
uahngou/huowu 活五 (literally meaning ‘live five’), depicted in Figure 5 below, is
one of the four most commonly used and ‘represents the essence of local flavour’
in Teochew music.17
Although slightly discouraged by the words of the elderly men at ACTCA who
referred to the music I play as ‘Shanghai music’, I was compelled to learn and mem-
orise a basic passage in the uahngou/huowu mode. It has remained in my memory to
this day as a basis of improvisation on my erhu and as a composition tool because I
was so moved by the creativity of the hinsi/xianshi musicians in rehearsal. Their
ability to remember countless melodies with intriguing embellishments and expres-
sive playing brings something of the ancient past to mind. I find the Sydney Teochew
experience very similar to Dujunco’s observation of hinsi/xianshi musicians in post-
1970s China, where ‘nostalgia is transmutable into a musically and culturally codified
sentiment shared by those who have assimilated the musical code’ (1994, i). With
government support to revive what was once a forbidden genre following Commu-
nist occupation in 1949, the repertory continues to hold special meaning for those
who grew up with the music through the celebration of a common Teochew identity.
One of my main informants in the Sydney Teochew community is an advocate of
Teochew operatic song, or arias. Ah Yong (Teochew name), more commonly known
as Veng (Vietnamese name), maintains a dual Vietnamese–Chinese identity in the
Cabramatta area of Sydney. Like many diasporic Teochew from Southeast Asia, he
172 N. Ng

Figure 5. Hinsi/xianshi modes: Qingsan qingliu, Zhongsan zhongliu, Qingsan zhongliu,

Huowu (Dujunco 2003).

is fluent in various languages including Vietnamese, Teochew, Cantonese and Man-

darin. Veng is not fluent in English and mixes almost exclusively within Vietnamese–
Chinese social networks.18 He runs an informal VCD and DVD duplication business
from home, and actively avoids public places like Woolworths where he might have
to speak English. Veng is not a trained musician but is an avid music lover and a fan
of all types of Chinese opera, including the mass-produced Huang meidiao 黃梅調
(Mandarin opera) genre.19 He enjoys attending the ACTCA rehearsals as an aria
singer. On one occasion I was able to hear him collaborate with Daisy, a senior
female singer from the community, in a touching duet. Such musical experiences
endow the elderly hinsi/xianshi instrumentalists with the musical purpose of accom-
panying sung text.
Měi dāng wǒ chàng cháojù shí, wǒ dōuhuì gǎndào zìjı̌ shì guójì cháozhōu shèqū de yī
fēnzı̌.
每当我唱歌潮州音乐时，我都会感到自己是国际潮州社区的一分子。
‘I like [to] feel part of the international Chaozhou community whenever I sing
Chaozhou opera’. (Veng, pers. comm., 2004)
For Veng, singing these arias in his native Teochew helps him relate to a transna-
tional kind of Teochew identity. I recall the joy in his eyes as he explained the
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 173

narrative of the text that he and Daisy were practising. Performing such arias at
ACTCA produces a group-bonding effect almost identical to that found in Lau’s
(2012) study of singing Chinese songs in Bangkok, and Casey Man Kong Lum’s
(1996) Chinese karaoke research in America. Unlike the temple-based productions
of Teochew opera in public spaces throughout Southeast Asia, there is no explicit reli-
gious function in Veng’s experience of Teochew opera as the same sort of temple
communities do not exist in Australia. However, both performance contexts very
much coalesce in the notion of performing musical identities.

Performing Musical Identities

In her summary of various studies in migrant behaviour, Vikki Bell writes that iden-
tity as a process is not simply a product of time and circumstance, but ‘the effect of
performance, and not vice versa’ (1999, 3). Identity is, therefore, performable for
migrants, not least due to the many selves that each of them is confronted with as
a result of the migration experience. The essence of Judith Butler’s study is important
in this discussion. Writing on the politics of gender and sexuality, Butler argues that
identity comes into being only by virtue of, and during, performance. Amy Wai Yee
Chan finds that this theory subverts the paradigm ‘we are, therefore, we perform’ in
her study of intercultural music in Malaysia and Singapore (2005, 31). Instead, it is
more ‘we perform to create who we are’ (original italics). In other words, identity
is not a tool but an outcome. The following words ring very true for the Teochew
community members I have worked with in Sydney:
[M]usic can be used increasingly as a means by which we formulate and express
our individual identities. We use it not only to regulate our own everyday
moods and behaviours, but also to present ourselves to others in the way we
prefer. (Hargreaves, Miell, and MacDonald 2002, 1)
As observed in the quotation above, music has the ability to affect the identity of an
individual externally and internally—the types of songs one sings, for instance, help
determine one’s very sense of self. Such use of music extends to the individual’s
social and political surroundings. For example, unlike the words of national
anthems, which are often ‘remembered well enough to forget to understand’ for
most citizens of a particular country (Kelen 2003, 162). Katelyn Barney maintains
that the words and songs of Indigenous Australian singers Lou Bennett, Kerrianne
Cox and Monica Weightman ‘illustrate the dynamic and socially constructed nature
of Aboriginality’ (Barney 2006, 5). Barney’s study reveals how the act of performance
through sounds, words and music enables these women performers to subvert
‘Aboriginalist constructs of race’ and ‘affirm the multiple subjectiveness of their
identities’ (ibid, 7). Depending on the societal constructs of a community, music
is capable, amongst many things, of rendering significant change, determining the
identification of a people and acting as a social adhesive in transplanted commu-
nities across the globe.
174 N. Ng
In her investigation of the Chinese in Houston, Elionne Belden reminds us of
Butler’s concept of performance, in which ‘[i]dentity cannot be repeated’ but is
shaped according to new events that take place in new contact zones where adjust-
ments must be made to match the experiences of each individual (Belden 1997,
151–152). Unlike the Teochew community in western Sydney, the Chinese studied
by Belden strive to create a new Chinese identity that matches their new setting in
which ancestral traditions and social conventions are respectfully adhered to but
modified to suit their current circumstances as an ethnic minority. This way of
being Chinese does not have as much to do with geopolitical identity than it does
to ethnic cultural consciousness, which may be seen as either newly formed or tra-
ditionally maintained (Belden 1997, 7–8). The performance of identity in these com-
munities is highly contingent on feelings of sameness and difference in what Henry
Johnson describes as the empowering presentation and representation of culture
(2005, 236). The Teochew in Sydney, on the other hand, seem to focus on the reten-
tion of their language, food, music and other cultural activities. They take pride in a
certain ‘Teochewness’, a word of my own invention, or the concept of gaginang (lit-
erally ‘one’s own people’) which is distinct from mainstream representations of being
Chinese in contemporary Australia.
Focusing on Chinese New Year as a case study, Johnson studies the annual cele-
bration of a unique yet diverse cultural and national identity through the medium
of performance in the lives of the Chinese in New Zealand (Johnson 2005, 230).
The public performance of Chinese music, with the lion and dragon dance, dissemi-
nates a certain Chinese identity nation-wide. This promotes a multicultural outlook
and awareness of minority cultures. In addition, such cultural displays help widen the
field of identities that may be assumed, and open doors for the formation of new
identities (ibid). Henry Johnson finds that with the marketing of heritage, contem-
porary cultural performances provide a cultural display of identity for audiences
who may view such acts with a kind of touristic gaze. Johnson notes that such dis-
plays tend to be exoticised (2005, 236), a concept identified by the late Edward
Said in his seminal work Orientalism ([1978] 2003). While the lion dance troupe
of ACTCA might account for similar displays of ethnic tourism in Sydney, much
of the musical happenings within the community are ethno-specific events attended
by community members alone, apart from official functions where non-Chinese local
politicians and the Australian media may be invited to attend.
Teochew opera in present-day Sydney, along with the revival of Teochew culture
mentioned earlier in this paper, certainly enable its practitioners to affirm and cele-
brate a common sense of Teochew identity, which is shared with those overseas
artists who are invited to perform local events. There is not enough scholarly evi-
dence to suggest that their music survives unaltered from the Tang Dynasty, that
is, in a fossilised state. However, as the result of their unique migration and settle-
ment history, the genre may still contain the nuances and something of the
essence of the ancient Central Plains through certain modes, song titles and lyrical
narratives. The wish to preserve this music post-migration, along with ethnic
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 175

retention in places like ACTCA, comes with a certain stoic pride in their ‘Teochew-
ness’, since they are culturally and linguistically distinct to other Chinese groups such
as the mainstream Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking entities. Teochew music seems
to be thriving in various contexts across the globe through cultural associations and
temple networks, at community centres, and is very much celebrated at international
festivals and competitions. Certain Teochew opera practitioners have come into the
limelight in recent years including Prudence Roberts, the first non-Chinese Austra-
lian to join Lao Sai Tao Yuan, Singapore’s oldest Teochew opera troupe (Lizeray
2016), and Tan Wei Tian who, at the age of 15, rose to public attention as an impor-
tant young culture bearer assisting with the continuation of her tradition (Loh 2018).

Decline in Western Sydney

As much as Teochew music seems to be flourishing in certain parts of the world, my
research suggests that this genre is declining in western Sydney. The ACTCA hinsi/
xianshi ensemble consists of retired and elderly community members whose
numbers are slowly but steadily dwindling. The core ensemble of the instrumental
music tradition comprises a small handful of elderly men who meet to drink tea
and play chess on Mondays followed by a general rehearsal on Wednesdays. They
are old and tired; it is not uncommon for ill health to prevent them from rehearsing.
Figure 6, a photograph taken during a rehearsal in 2004, depicts the smallest number
of participants I have encountered yet with only three in attendance. This number

Figure 6. ACTCA hinsi/xianshi rehearsal, courtesy of Nicholas Ng (2004).

176 N. Ng
does not seem to have increased in recent years. Curious to learn what will become of
this genre, I plan to resume research on the current musical situation. Prior to the
outbreak of COVID, the hinsi/xianshi ensemble in Sydney was not capable of consist-
ently accompanying the singers and acrobats during public ACTCA events. Instead,
the fully choreographed operatic excerpts at Sydney Town Hall and in the commu-
nity centre have involved specially trained actors from abroad who perform to pre-
recorded tracks heavily saturated with reverb.
I believe these production choices might be due to a difference of level or issues of
specialism between what is largely an amateur hinsi/xianshi ensemble and pro-
fessional performers who are unable to collaborate. However, the ensemble does
rehearse certain arias in various modes such as uahngou/huowu with dedicated com-
munity singers such as Veng and Daisy, as mentioned earlier. At the annual gather-
ings, not all items are from the Teochew opera repertory due to the influence of
Cantonese culture in various countries of origin such as Hong Kong and Indochina.
All of these complexities, of course, made hinsi/xianshi more appealing for me to
explore, and the existence of the ACTCA cultural centre, as a place for young
Teochew to learn this musical tradition, was also fortuituous. The community is cer-
tainly very well equipped for participants to engage in highly efficacious ‘ethnic event
[s]’, which involve the thickening of ethnic identity during which traditions are not
simply repeated but selectively re-enacted (Chan 2005, 18; De Vos and Romanucci-
Ross 1982; Rosaldo 1988). There is, however, a general lack of interest in traditional
music among the younger generation of the community. While Teochew kungfu
classes are full, with many young boys learning the forms and lion dance along
with the intricate drum, gong and cymbal patterns, none of them seem to be involved
in playing xianshi or learning to sing classical Teochew songs.
The natural tuning antiquated folk instruments and nasal vocal timbres do not res-
onate at all with the younger Australian-born Teochew (Veng, pers. comm., 2004).
The plethora of operatic stories, although archetypal in essence, are filled with
musical imagery and metaphors from the distant imperial past and are of little sig-
nificance and interest to those who prefer singing karaoke and listening to popular
Chinese or Western music. Xianshi certainly is no match for Mando or Cantopop
in the Sydney Teochew community and abroad. This is evident in the failure of
the mainland-based Teochew-language music label several decades ago.20 Many
Chinese who enjoy listening to traditional instruments might also be partial to xin-
minyue (‘new music of the people’) (Yang and Saffle 2020). The popularity of Latino
music on Chinese popular music styles since the 1950s has resulted in the well-known
karaoke number Yiqi tiao cha qia qia 一起跳差恰恰 (Let’s Cha Cha). Sung in
Teochew, the lyrics are similar to many other pop-influenced Chinese songs and
focus on the pleasures of dancing: ‘Let’s get up and dance, and chase away all our
worries … if you are downcast and worried, join me for Cha Cha!’ With 89,658
views since 10 November 2006, this particular hit has been posted on YouTube21
with the tag ‘Help keep the Teochew dialect alive. Share on all platforms’ (Tan
2018). While there has been a great revival of Teochew awareness through social
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 177

media, such as American-born Chinese discovering and connecting with their

Teochew ancestry, hinsi/xianshi is perhaps not as interesting as Teochew food for
YouTubing and blogging.
Since 2009, I have been engaged in the sonic quest for my identity as a Chinese
Australian through music for the concert hall, contemporary dance, theatre and
installations. My ancestry is also part Teochew, and in my work as a composer, per-
former and researcher, I am beginning to look into ways of drawing on my heritage
and experimenting with methods of reversing the imminent fate of Teochew opera in
Sydney. At Sydney Conservatorium, ethnomusicologist Catherine Ingram, and pipa
(4-stringed Chinese lute) virtuoso Lulu Liu and myself came together in 2016 to form
a Chinese music programme and study group open to both undergraduates and post-
graduates. Assisted by Chloe Chung on dizi (transverse bamboo flute), John Ling on
pipa and ruan 阮 (lower 4-stringed lute) and Julia Luo on guzheng (21-stringed
zither), students from all cultural backgrounds, disciplines and musical experiences
are invited to learn a Chinese instrument over six semesters while playing in a
Chinese orchestral context.22
Unlike hinsi/xianshi, the tradition of Chinese orchestral music is not in fact
regarded as ‘traditional’ but developed from the sizhu 丝竹 (‘silk and bamboo’)
genre of the Jiangnan region, of which Shanghai is cultural capital, using traditional
instruments that were modified as part of the guoyue 国乐 (national music) move-
ment led by legendary reformers such as Liu Tianhua (1895–1932). Trained in
Chinese and European music, Liu Tianhua was a founding member of the Society
for the Guoyue gaijinshe 国乐改进社 (Society for Improving National Music), estab-
lished in 1927 (Tsui 2002). This movement advocated a departure from heterophonic
playing with one instrument per part to the creation of music modelled on the
Western symphony orchestra with multiple instruments per part arranged to the
rules of Western counterpoint and voice leading. Conductors were introduced
and, from the 1950s, instruments were made louder, strung with metal rather than
silk strings, and attuned to Western temperament and performance techniques,
such as smooth bowing and playing from the fingertips. Audience expectations
changed with the encouragement of virtuosity, and specialism widened the gap
between professional and amateur (Stock 1993, 102–103).
Today this music is still taught in conservatoria and is the area of focus of the
Chinese Music Ensemble performance unit at Sydney Conservatorium as depicted
in Figure 7 above.23 While the ensemble performs the ‘Shanghai’ music that the
ACTCA Teochew musicians mentioned, the Conservatorium method comes with
the kind of dissemination tools that might help achieve some degree of sustainability.
I see this course as a very promising platform for the introduction of hinsi/xianshi
followed by, perhaps, Teochew opera as well. As we plan for the next semester, I
am beginning to wonder if it is now the right time to introduce uahngou/huowu
and other such modes, to give the students an idea of what ‘ancient’ Chinese
music might have sounded like, in other words, music prior to the development of
guoyue. In future years, I aspire for interested students to learn the instruments
178 N. Ng

Figure 7. Chinese Music Ensemble, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, courtesy of

Nicholas Ng (2017).

used in Teochew music and perhaps even perform in an ensemble with the men in
Cabramatta. Such a revival through university education is not without precedence.
Huib Schippers has documented the work of Hanoi Conservatory lecturer Pham
Thui Huè, who chose to learn the endangered genre of ca trù from elderly exponents
of the music. She then taught the music to others in order to revive its practice (2010,
11–12). Before proceeding with this project, some discussion with my colleagues is
necessary, as I do not mean to impose this study on students who do not share the
same cultural interests. However, learning the ancient modes and nuances of
Teochew music could be regarded as a specialist extension of Chinese music
studies at Sydney Conservatorium. If anything, such studies might enrich the edu-
cation of those wishing to learn about another musical system.

Conclusion
In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a
sense of identity. (Erikson 1968, 38)
The experience of finding the Teochew community stronghold in Cabramatta trig-
gered within me a realisation that I had still not come to terms with my sense of self
and place in society. The men I observed have, since the 1970s, lived and operated
within a close-knit ethnospecific community. Their stately and vibrant compositions,
along with their entire musical system, like other sound worlds with a link to pre-
modern China, spoke of ancient legends from a primordial past. As much as I
wanted to learn this music and feel a belonging to hinsi/xianshi through my
Teochew lineage, I did not find that it represented myself wholly. Having grown
up biculturally in western Sydney, I am not coded in the reception of this music
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 179

and still feel the need for my artistic practice to include an element of hybridity, an
element which the hinsi/xianshi ensemble in Sydney, almost amazingly, seems to
have resisted, many years after migration, in their weekly musical assertion of their
cultural ‘Teochewness’.
To add to this study, I think back on my results from a recent DNA test that con-
firmed my genetic makeup as 100 per cent Chinese and Vietnamese. This was quite
surprising as my family does not have any known connections with Vietnam.
However, perhaps this result confirms the settlement of the Teochew in southern
China, which was formerly inhabited by the Yue (the ‘ancient Vietnamese’), and
the subsequent miscegenation that followed. The reading of Teochew genealogy
from this perspective calls for a new understanding of ‘Teochewness’ and the
many centuries of development within this unique cultural identity. Rather than dis-
combobulating my process of self-discovery, this new knowledge enriches it, and
encourages me to further explore the very notion of music and identity.
Teochew shared ancestry and culture, complete with its links to an ancient hybrid
past, will undoubtedly always have a sacred and civic space in the greater Chinese dia-
spora for generations to come. Teochew opera, perhaps without the appeal that food or
popular music might bring to young bloggers, is faced with a serious challenge,
especially in the Sydney community. However, the Teochew cultural movement, sup-
ported with adequate government and private sponsorship, will most likely ensure that
there will always be Teochew opera productions and teachers to train individuals like
Prudence Roberts and Tan Wei Tian.24 The many transnational operatic aria compe-
titions and continuation of the annual events featuring Teochew opera suggest that, if
anything, elements of this tradition will last for as long as there remains enough inter-
est amongst those for whom the repertoire holds symbolic meaning.
With the disastrous effects of COVID-19 and Australia still in lockdown and at
political odds with China, I fear for the survival of Teochew opera at The Australian
Chinese Teo Chew Association. When will rehearsals resume? Who will attend? To
address the problem of transmission and sustainability in the ageing hinsi/xianshi
scene, I propose a possible practice-based solution that has been applied in similar
situations around the world. That is, bringing the genre to the attention of students
and researchers at Sydney Conservatorium. As we plan to return to campus for one-
on-one teaching, I am keen to develop the Chinese Music Ensemble curriculum to
include elements of Teochew music with the hope of enticing students to study
Teochew opera in the near future, perhaps from one of the elderly hinsi/xianshi musi-
cians in Cabramatta. Learning about this music and exposing a version of ancient
Chinese tuning methods and modes to appreciative students might help prevent a
literal fossilisation in western Sydney and offer an extension of life, so to speak, for
Teochew music. This study might appeal to people of Teochew descent, and non-
Teochew as well. Elements of hinsi/xianshi could also be used in contemporary com-
positions, leading to transformation and a preservation of sorts, and perhaps the
opportunity for future generations of musicians to produce sonic resonances touch-
ing on memory and other culturally satisfying emotions.
180 N. Ng
Notes
[1] A standard ethnomusicology term to describe bowed chordophones. I later identified this
instrument as the dihin/erxian二弦 (‘two strings’).
[2] Fieldwork notes.
[3] For reasons of simplicity, I will use the standard Romanised pronunciation of proper nouns
as they are pronounced in the Teochew language, with the Mandarin equivalent in
parentheses.
[4] Otherwise known as Teochew hee or Chaozhou xi 潮州戲 in Mandarin. In spite of associ-
ations with bel canto style singing from Italy, the term ‘opera’ has been adopted in
English scholarship on Chinese music due to similarities in artform with the combination
of sung narrative, instrumental accompaniment, theatrical acrobatics and props (see other
studies by Wang 2012; Williams 2019).
[5] Formerly known as Television Corporation of Singapore.
[6] Heard in music classrooms and seminars without academic references. For more infor-
mation, see Sun (2016).
[7] Specifically the Baiyue (Hundred Yue) and the Wuyue.
[8] Map on Teochew migration available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southward_
expansion_of_the_Han_dynasty#/media/File:Han_Expansion.png; Map on Han Chinese
expansion available at: https://www.theteochewstore.org/blogs/latest/where-do-the-
teochew-people-come-from
[9] Particularly in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
[10] I use the word ‘aria’ to denote compositions expressing the character’s thoughts and mood
with reference to events in the plot, much like the aria in Western opera.
[11] See https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ooka6.
[12] More specifically the Jiajing era (1522–1566).
[13] The original dialect of Beijing which has risen to international prominence as the Chinese
lingua franca.
[14] Teochew and Mandarin names are given to reflect the interchangeability between the two
languages when referring to musical terms and instruments during rehearsals, and also
because English language scholarship on Teochew music often defaults to the use of Man-
darin names. For a detailed study of hinsi/xianshi in China, see Dujunco (1994).
[15] The standard form of notation for the dissemination of Chinese ‘classical’ music. It was quite
possibly introduced in the nineteenth century by French missionaries and quickly became
popular due to its similarity with the established gongche system of notating pitch.
[16] The location of an earlier period of Teochew settlement on their southward trek to the
Teoswa (Chaoshan) territory.
[17] Approximate pitches given by Dujunco (2003) in her diagram. Typically, with ‘F’ as the tonic,
one hears a quick vibrato on the second degree ‘G’ with the fourth degree between ‘B flat’ and
‘B natural’ and a note that is higher than ‘E flat’ but lower than ‘E natural’.
[18] I communicated with Veng through Mandarin, which we both speak.
[19] One of the most popular forms of opera from China, which evolved from rural folk singing.
The genre became popular in Hong Kong via Chinese immigrants and was further popu-
larised in the medium of operatic films from the 1950s onwards. For more information,
see Chen (2006).
[20] Mercedes Dujunco, pers. comm., 28 May 2005.
[21] See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aso8kqmsC0s.
 The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 181

[22] This subject is taken as an elective within an undergraduate Bachelor of Music degree, while
Masters and PhD students may also elect to enrol for one to two semesters. Our students also
come from other degrees such as Media, Law and even Science. From a fledgling group of 12
students, we have grown to a large 33-piece ensemble with a core professional group of tutors
and advanced players who have so far toured to Townsville and Canberra.
[23] Students are given the opportunity to conduct their own research on their choice of Chinese
instrument through informed listening and reading. They are also encouraged to familiarise
themselves with Chinese music history and present-day performance contexts such as the
Chinese orchestral tradition.
[24] Exponents of Teochew opera mentioned earlier: Roberts is the first Anglo-Australian to learn
Teochew opera abroad, and Tan is a child prodigy in the Singapore Teochew community.

ORCID
Nicholas Ng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7984-4980

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