{"id":52773,"date":"2026-05-16T10:28:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=52773"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:28:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:28:43","slug":"chinese-tourists-flock-to-teochew-sites-after-indie-film-becomes-surprise-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=52773","title":{"rendered":"Chinese tourists flock to Teochew sites after indie film becomes surprise hit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/05\/15\/2e5b119d-4963-4037-87f5-9a39a65b14c6_0b37be0a.jpg?itok=DZRlijGY&amp;v=1778835796\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Made for roughly the price of a single scene in a Hollywood blockbuster and filmed entirely in a southern Chinese dialect, the drama <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Dear You<\/em> does not have the hallmarks of <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">a box office hit<\/span>.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But the independent film has unexpectedly become a sensation in China, receiving stellar reviews and sparking a wave of tourism to the small corner of southern Guangdong province where it is largely set.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Produced on a shoestring budget of just 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million), <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Dear You<\/em> has already grossed more than 200 million yuan in China since its release on May 3. It is projected to eventually take about 800 million yuan \u2013 a record for a dialect film in the country \u2013 and is set to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The film appears to have struck a chord in China \u2013 where young people are increasingly captivated by regional culture \u2013 by exploring the history of Chaoshan, a cluster of coastal districts in eastern Guangdong <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">known for its distinct cuisine<\/span>, teahouses and rich diaspora heritage.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">From the 1800s, generations of Chaoshan people \u2013 also known as Teochew \u2013 left their homes in this historically poor corner of China to <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">seek their fortunes across Southeast Asia<\/span> and beyond \u2013 in Penang, Singapore and the United States. Famous for <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">their clan-based culture<\/span>, they formed tight-knit communities wherever they settled.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\"><em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Dear You<\/em> spans Chaoshan and Thailand, following a grandson\u2019s search for his family history by tracing letters sent home decades ago. As he pieces together his grandfather\u2019s story, the film explores the wider history of the great \u201cSouth Seas\u201d, or <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Nanyang<\/em>, migration of the 1800s, when millions of economic migrants fled southern China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3353707\/chinese-tourists-flock-teochew-sites-after-indie-film-becomes-surprise-hit?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Made for roughly the price of a single scene in a Hollywood blockbuster and filmed entirely in a southern Chinese dialect, the drama Dear You&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[107,1900,8711,467,4706,6891,6615,7178,5593],"class_list":["post-52773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-chinese","tag-film","tag-flock","tag-hit","tag-indie","tag-sites","tag-surprise","tag-teochew","tag-tourists","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}