榕葉冊 • Banyan collection: documentation, preservation, archival and visual presentation of Singaporean Foochow culture through a micro-history perspective

• Main Author: Zheng, Hao
• Other Authors: Jesvin Yeo Puay Hwa
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Visual arts and music::Design
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167523
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Hockchew/Foochew people originated from the Mindong region of Fujian, China. Their primary dialect is the Hockchew or Foochow language. In Singapore, the Hockchew people constitute only three per cent of the population speaking non-mandarin Sinitic varieties. In 2017, the Straits Times reported an article stating that there are "less than half of the nearly 57, 000 Hockchews in Singapore are proficient in the dialect". Currently, the language and the community are on the verge of extinction in Singapore. As languages are the vessel of a culture, it is clear that the Hokchew culture, which entails language, will soon face extinction. This project aims to record and document the Hockchew communities in Singapore. This is done through the creation of three publications: 1. The oral histories of the Hockchew people. Oral histories are chosen because histories are a mosaic of smaller stories that decorate our collective histories. The histories and cultural information of the culture were recorded in English, Chinese and the Romanised Foochow script. By doing so, this project hopes to preserve and encapsulate the stories in a time capsule, and the stories of the community will be remembered even after their extinction. 2. A record of the Foochow community’s history in Singapore. This will examine the history, geography and communities formed by Foochow people in Singapore. 3. Folk stories and mini-stories in Foochow. This is to record and preserve the unique Hokchew nursery rhymes spoken on the tongue. As a graphic designer, I can use my skillsets to preserve the language by creating easy-to-read reading materials that encapsulate the language and culture for the future.