China News Service, Kuala Lumpur, February 20th: What are the cultural connotations of Malaysian Chinese-specific words?
——Exclusive interview with Wang Xiaomei, head of the Chinese Department of Xiamen University Malaysia
China News Service reporter Chen Yue
"Pasar" (meaning market), "Coffee Wu" (meaning black coffee)... Mandarin speakers in Malaysia will almost always be exposed to many of these unique things that they can "understand" but not necessarily "understand". words.
Wang Xiaomei, head of the Chinese Department of Xiamen University Malaysia, and other scholars, started from the establishment of the corpus and after ten years of hard work, published the "Dictionary of Malaysian Chinese-Specific Words", which comprehensively summarized and sorted out more than 2,000 Malaysian-Chinese words. Why does Malaysian Chinese produce such unique words? Where do they come from and what cultural connotations do they embody? Wang Xiaomei recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question" on this issue.
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: What was your original intention and what was the process of compiling the "Dictionary of Unique Malaysian Chinese Words" with scholars such as Tang Zhixiang and Zhuang Xiaoling?
Wang Xiaomei:
We compiled this dictionary to record and describe Malaysian Chinese-specific vocabulary, bring it into the international Chinese research field, and enhance people's understanding of Malaysian Chinese-specific vocabulary. We believe that Malaysian Chinese vocabulary is an integral part of global Chinese and a valuable resource in the global Chinese vocabulary system.
The compilation of this dictionary took 10 years. The compilation is divided into two stages: the entries in the first stage were included in the "Global Chinese Dictionary" in 2016; the second stage began in 2019. Based on the experience of the "Global Chinese Dictionary", the writing team absorbed " The concept of "Global Chinese" and the recent results of Malaysian Chinese vocabulary research strive to connect Malaysian Chinese with Mandarin and other Chinese-speaking circles, and provide first-hand research materials for global Chinese vocabulary research.
In December 2017, the launching ceremony of the first Global Chinese Recitation Competition and the fourth "Cao Can Cup" Youth Recitation Competition was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo by Zhang Qin
The dictionary contains a total of 2182 unique words. The corpus comes from major Chinese newspapers, Chinese literary works, magazines and Chinese websites in Malaysia. In addition to collecting unique words that reflect local social phenomena, political ecology, education system, national culture, etc., it also includes Collected dialect vocabulary and alphabetic words commonly used in Malaysian Chinese. The criteria for selecting entries refer to the frequency of use of words. In terms of writing style, in addition to the traditional simplified glyphs, Chinese pinyin notation, and definitions, it also adds traditional glyphs, part-of-speech annotations, etymological information, corresponding vocabulary from other regions, etc., reflecting the concept of "global Chinese" in dictionary compilation.
The dictionary also marks the variant forms of unique words in other regions as "also known as". For example, the entry for "Pasar" marks it as "market" and "wet market" (Beijing) in mainland China, and "market" in Hong Kong, China. (port). In addition, the dictionary opens a knowledge window for some cultural words to introduce their cultural background and connotation, allowing readers to have an in-depth understanding of the connotation and related knowledge of the word.
This year coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia. We have launched the revision project of the "Dictionary of Unique Malaysian Chinese Words", hoping that it will be more perfect and become a language bridge for exchanges between the two countries.
In January 2024, Malaysia’s first National Huichun Convention was held in Selangor, where contestants from multiple ethnic groups in Malaysia displayed their works. Photo by Chen Yue
China News Service Reporter: Through compilation of dictionaries and related research, what do you think are the sources of unique Malaysian Chinese words?
Wang Xiaomei:
In the process of researching the unique words of Malaysian Chinese, I once proposed four perspectives: "ancient", "square", "popular" and "foreign" to explain their structural characteristics and reasons for their formation. On this basis, we can further observe the characteristics of Malaysian Chinese-specific words from the four analytical dimensions of "diachrony-synchrony, written language-spoken language, common language-dialect, foreign language-Chinese".
The so-called "ancient" means that Malaysian Chinese is influenced by ancient Chinese; "Fang" means that it is influenced by southern dialects such as Fujian, Cantonese, and Hakka; "foreign" means that it is influenced by foreign languages such as Malay, English, and Tamil; "Putong" points to exploring the similarities and differences between Malaysian Chinese and Mandarin.
The influence of ancient Chinese on Malaysian Chinese can be taken as an example of the word "WEI". In Malaysian Chinese, "WEI" may be used at the beginning of a clause to express a slight twist; or it may be used in conjunction with the word "you" to form a fixed combination of "WEI". This ancient Chinese vocabulary is still a commonly used vocabulary in written language in Malaysian Chinese. There are still many classical Chinese words like "WEI" retained in Malaysian Chinese, which reflects the inheritance of ancient Chinese by Malaysian Chinese.
The influence of dialects on Malaysian Chinese is manifested in the fact that the latter directly absorbs words from dialects such as Fujian, Cantonese, and Hakka. This not only refers to the dialect words that entered the written Chinese language after "coordination", but also refers to a large number of dialect words that are active in Malaysian spoken Chinese. The dialect vocabulary that has entered Chinese has been relatively stable and is an integral part of Malaysian Chinese vocabulary, such as "Bak Kut Teh, Pumpkin Melon, Jia Po", etc. These vocabulary words are often different between Malaysian Chinese and Mandarin. The dialect words active in Malaysian spoken Chinese refer to those words that are borrowed with consonants and meanings but have not been finalized (or not standardized) and have not yet been accepted in written language. For example, "Beautiful Girl, Handsome Boy" is pronounced in Cantonese (meaning beautiful woman, handsome guy), "Coffee Wu" and "Qingcai" (meaning casual) are pronounced in Hokkien, etc. In Malaysia, Hokkien and Cantonese are strong dialects, which not only have a direct impact on the formation of Malaysian Chinese, but also have a certain impact on Malay and Malaysian English. At the same time, it should also be noted that dialects not only have a direct impact on Malaysian Chinese through vocabulary borrowing, but also have deep-seated impacts such as grammatical copying and phonetic transfer.
In April 2019, in Zengjiang New Village, the largest Chinese new village in Malaysia, 48 Malaysian Chinese women wore "Mazu hair", blue sea shirts and red and black trousers, and their outfits were quite eye-catching. Photo by Chen Yue
As for the influence from foreign languages, the importance of the foreign language perspective in global Chinese studies is self-evident. Most Chinese variants appear in multilingual and multicultural contexts, and the main local languages and international languages have more or less influence on the Chinese language. These influences are usually dominated by effects at the lexical level, supplemented by effects at the phonological and grammatical levels. At the same time, for Malaysian Chinese, we need to pay attention to not only the influence from the local dominant ethnic languages such as Malay, but also the influence from the languages of the former colonizers.
China News Service reporter: What characteristics do you think the unique Malaysian Chinese words have?
Wang Xiaomei:
Through research and analysis, I believe that Malaysian Chinese-specific words have outstanding characteristics such as "variability", "plurality" and "changeability".
"Variability" is mainly reflected in synonymous words compared to Mandarin.
"Pluralism" mainly refers to the origin of unique words. For example, according to dictionary statistics, about 18% of the unique words included come from dialects, and 13% of the words come from foreign languages such as English and Malay. "Pluralism" also refers to the coexistence of multiple vocabulary words in Malaysian Chinese. For example, the police can certainly be called "police" in Malaysian Chinese, but they can also use the Malay loan word "horse". Fruit can also be called "fruit" in dialect vocabulary.
"Variability" means that the unique words of Malaysian Chinese are in a state of change. Especially with the increase in inter-regional communication, there is also a trend of integration of vocabulary between different Chinese-speaking regions.
In May 2019, students from various ethnic groups recited poetry to Chinese teachers at Qiao Nan National Chinese Primary School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo by Chen Yue
China News Service reporter: Do these characteristics of Malaysian Chinese also show the process of Malaysian Chinese integrating their own national culture with local culture and taking root? What implications does this have for today’s civilizational exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations?
Wang Xiaomei:
First of all, we need to emphasize that when studying Chinese around the world, we need to pay attention to differences and "the parts of Chinese that have not changed in various places", so as not to generalize.
Judging from the differences in the development of Malaysian Chinese and Mandarin, it shows the inclusive nature of Chinese culture. In the process of taking root, the Nanyang Chinese have been well integrated with local cultures such as Malay culture. For example, as early as the 15th century, the Chinese who came from the south intermarried with the Malays in Malacca and other places, thus giving rise to the Baba and Nyonya community. They even fused Chinese and Malay together to create Baba Malay. This is a hybrid language that combines Malay vocabulary and Hokkien grammar. Baba Nyonya also integrates Chinese and Malay culture very well in terms of food, living customs, clothing, beliefs, etc., and is a model of cultural exchange and integration.
In September 2018, the Malaysian Baba and Nyonya Cultural Week was held in Malacca, where the Nyonyas showed off their distinctive costumes. Photo by Chen Yue
Malaysian Chinese attach great importance to respecting other civilizations in cultural exchanges. Just as Malaysian Chinese absorbs a large number of Malay vocabulary, the localization of Chinese culture also respects and absorbs elements of various cultures. For example, the food culture of Malaysian Chinese contains many Malay and Indian characteristics. During festivals, all ethnic groups hold open-door and other activities to demonstrate the integration and peaceful coexistence of all ethnic groups.
In the process of cultural contact, overseas Chinese not only do their best to maintain cultural traditions, but also continue to innovate and develop, creating unique overseas Chinese culture. Just as Malaysian Chinese is unique, Malaysian Chinese culture has also developed many local characteristics, such as the twenty-four festival drums, spring activities, lion dances, ancient temple parades, Chinese cultural festivals, etc. These efforts to maintain traditions and innovate It reflects the characteristics of Malaysian Chinese who stick to tradition and keep pace with the times, and also has reference significance for the mutual learning of civilizations in today's world.
Interviewee profile:
Wang Xiaomei is a professor and head of the Chinese Department of Xiamen University Malaysia. He graduated from the Chinese Department of Peking University, the Chinese Language and Culture Center of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and the Chinese, Translation and Linguistics Department of City University of Hong Kong. His research fields cover sociolinguistics and Malaysian Chinese studies. He has published more than 80 papers in Chinese and English in international academic journals. He serves on the editorial board of Global Chinese, Journal of Independent Secondary School Education Research and other journals. The National Language Commission Overseas Chinese Academic committee member of the research center.