Expert lauds Malaysian Hokkiens

MALACCA: The Hokkien culture and dialect in Malaysia is more vibrant than its birthplace – China.

French anthropologist Fiorella Allio noted that the Hokkiens in Malaysia had preserved their culture and language better and that they were similar to that in ancient China. “There is not much distortion in the way the culture is preserved and the dialect spoken here is authentic.

Colourful minds: Allio (right) discussing with her student Aurelia Koop, 25, the tradition of the Hokkien people in Malaysia. Allio is in Malacca to record and conduct an in-depth research on the Wangkang festival.

“In China, the tradition of the Hokkien people is somewhat skewed due to various reasons, and this was brought to its pinnacle during the height of the Communist era,” she said at the Yong Chuan Tian Temple at Bandar Hilir here, yesterday. The 49-year-old Allio is in Malacca to record and conduct an in-depth research on the age-old Wangkang festival.

The festival is a tradition of the Chinese Peranakan whose ancestors migrated to Malacca and other parts of South-East Asia from Fujian province during the 17th century. The festival was organised to get rid of wandering souls and other negative elements on the streets of Malacca, thereby bringing health, peace and bliss to the local folks. The first recorded Wangkang festival was held in Malacca in 1919 and the last was held in 2001.

Tomorrow, there will be a 20km procession before a 2m-high, RM80,000 wooden boat is scuttled along the coastline of Pulau Melaka together with “evil spirits”. Allio, who speaks fluent Hokkien and is a Mandarin linguist, described the event as a once-in-a-lifetime experience that would greatly assist her research on the Hokkien community’s customs in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.

She said that from a young age, she had been fascinated by ancient cultures and that the Chinese culture preceded even the Egyptians. She believes the Hokkien to be the most ancient of the various Chinese communities.

Allio, who is attached to the Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Marseille, France, said the information on the festival would be useful for her comparative study. Allio has been interested in Chinese culture and religion since the 1980s when she called China and Taiwan home. She added that part of her studies included comprehending the sub-cultural practices, social structures and religions of the communities outside Fujian province.

-thestar online.