{"id":63714,"date":"2026-06-25T20:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63714"},"modified":"2026-06-25T20:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:38:02","slug":"opinion-for-many-outside-china-dear-you-reflects-family-history-not-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63714","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | For many outside China, Dear You reflects family history, not politics"},"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\/06\/25\/cf6aeb41-b661-45a1-aa02-33a3be361e0d_0b71bbb1.jpg?itok=tcNv1Ct1&amp;v=1782360443\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">When a modest Chaoshan-dialect film about an indebted grandson, a missing grandfather and a bundle of yellowing remittance letters opened quietly in China in late April, few expected it to become one of the biggest films of the year. Yet <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Dear You<\/em> has earned more than 1.8 billion yuan (US$265.75 million) at the Chinese box office. It has done so without major stars or heavy promotion \u2013 an <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">unlikely triumph<\/span> for a film told largely in Teochew or Chiu Chow.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As the film is released across Southeast Asia, however, it has also prompted reflection on how Chinese communities remember migration.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The film unfolds across generations. A young man from the Chaoshan region travels to Thailand to track down his grandmother\u2019s long-absent husband. His search is intercut with scenes from an earlier wave of migration, when Chinese men left for Southeast Asia and mailed home <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">qiaopi<\/em> \u2013 letters enclosing money and scraps of news, apology and hope. Many of these letters are now <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">archived<\/span> in Unesco\u2019s Memory of the World Register, but for audiences in China and Southeast Asia, they evoke memories of how families endured years apart.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That recognition gives the film its emotional force. <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Qiaopi<\/em> were lifelines, envelopes with a few banknotes, sometimes a small token \u2013 proof that someone overseas had not forgotten.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Part of the film\u2019s impact stems from its language. <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Dear You<\/em> is spoken almost entirely in Teochew, the dialect of Chaoshan and some Chinese communities in Hong Kong and across Southeast Asia. With amateur actors and ordinary village backdrops, the conversations feel genuine and unvarnished.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For younger viewers raised on sleek productions, that roughness has felt personal \u2013 like listening to their grandparents or seeing their hometown streets projected onto a big screen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/opinion\/asia-opinion\/article\/3358199\/many-outside-china-dear-you-reflects-family-history-not-politics?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a modest Chaoshan-dialect film about an indebted grandson, a missing grandfather and a bundle of yellowing remittance letters opened quietly in China in late&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[832,2653,238,2284,11252,4028,215],"class_list":["post-63714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-china","tag-dear","tag-family","tag-history","tag-opinion","tag-politics","tag-reflects","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63714","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=63714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}