How a Chinese film shot in dialect is finding a global audience

BANGKOK (AP) — The buzziest film in China this year was shot almost entirely in a southern Chinese dialect that most Chinese viewers need subtitles to understand.

Yet “Dear You” has become China’s second-highest-grossing film of the year. Now it is heading overseas, part of a broader wave of Chinese cultural exports.

“Dear You” was shot mostly in Teochew, a dialect spoken in Guangdong’s Shantou region. Set among the Teochew immigrant community in Bangkok, it tells the story of people who left China in search of work to support their families. Made on a low budget, it features a cast of mostly unknown actors.

The film provides a glimpse into the centuries-long history of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia. It has succeeded in making this little-discussed history visible to a wider audience, threading the fine needle of passing official censorship requirements, experts say, while telling a compelling story.

As of August, the movie had grossed about 269 million yuan ($40 million) at the Chinese box office. It was released in Thailand in early August after being shown in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. It will be released in the U.S. next month.

China is increasing its soft power with cultural exports

The film’s popularity comes as Chinese culture and consumer brands have been gaining global cachet — from collectible Labubu dolls to “Chinamaxxing,” a social media trend of embracing aspects of the Chinese lifestyle.

The Chinese government began promoting the film as it became a hit and prepared for its international release.

The Chinese consul in Sydney said at a June screening of the film that it “reflects the Chinese nation’s virtues of diligence, kindness, courage and unity.”

The movie aligns with Beijing’s broader goal of “telling China’s stories well,” highlighting themes of friendship, tradition and family, including motherhood and kinship, said Belinda He, an assistant professor of East Asian cinema and media studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

China’s ambassador to Thailand presented the film at a special screening in July and again at a red carpet event this month.

“We’re grateful to Guangdong for making such a wonderful film,” Chinese ambassador Zhang Jiangwei said at the red carpet event, which was attended by officials from Guangdong’s Information Office. “Stories about ordinary people and simple, genuine emotions can be even more moving. This film is an excellent vehicle for telling China’s story well.”

Chinese migration to Southeast Asia has been ongoing for centuries

The film first resonated in Malaysia and Singapore because it showcases a history that’s rarely featured in mainstream films.

Chinese migration to Southeast Asia dates back centuries, with many migrants coming from the Guangdong and Fujian provinces in southern China. Many worked as laborers in building projects in an era of Western colonial rule across much of Asia.

The film starts with a young man trying to find his grandfather, Deng Musheng, in hopes of getting a loan to repay his debts. In the family lore, there was supposedly a wealthy grandfather in Thailand, who left his young wife and children behind in China and never came back.

Using an address on an old remittance letter his grandfather had sent, he meets people who became part of his grandfather’s life in Bangkok, uncovering the mystery of why his grandfather never returned.

The film’s director, Lan Hongchun, wrote in a column for the People’s Daily, a state media outlet, that he grew up hearing stories from his grandmother about people she knew migrating to Bangkok, and wanted to tell these stories in film.

The film also resonates with Thai Chinese viewers

The plot revolves around “qiaopi,” remittance letters used by Chinese immigrants to send money and news back home. Many workers who could not write Chinese relied on scribes to compose the letters.

Scenes set in the centralized offices where the scribes worked, called “poy kuan,” were directly out of the childhood of 74-year-old Sathien Tuntipaiboontana.

“I connected emotionally with that part of the film quite strongly,” he said after watching the first screening of the film in a Bangkok theater with his older sisters and sisters-in-law. Among them was his eldest sister, who is 89 and needed help climbing the stairs to the cinema.

Their father had immigrated to Bangkok from China in search of work, leaving behind a wife and children. He ended up remarrying and never returned to China. But Sathien’s family continued to send remittances to the family left behind in China.

Thitikorn Phanprayoon, a third-generation Thai Chinese, said he decided to see the film after hearing Teochew, the Chinese dialect he speaks at home, in the trailer. It surprised him since most Chinese films are in Mandarin. He plans to return with his parents.

“I felt like I was sitting at home,” he said. “It felt like my family was performing in the movie in front of me.”

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AP writer Fu Ting contributed to this story from Washington, D.C.