Hokkien Lang. 福建人. Hok-kiàn-lâng
The Hokkien people came to South East Asia from the coastal region of Fujian as early as the 15th century. They were primarily fleeing poverty, famine and the general state and societal decay of the final Chinese dynasties. They now make up the largest Chinese dialect group in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia.
The early Hokkien immigrants of South East Asia were predominantly merchants, owing to their long history of seafaring as a coastal people. They were the originators of the Chinese convenience stores 杂货店 (chap huey diam, translated literally to mixed goods shop).
In Malaysia, Zhanzhou Hokkiens settled primarily in the Northern parts of the Peninsular (Penang, Kedah & Terengganu) while Quanzhou Hokkiens settled the South (Melaka & Johor) including Sarawak. This contributes to a slight difference in the Hokkien culture and language between North and South though much of the difference has dissipated over the years due to integration and migration.
Hokkien is one of the many languages of the Southern Min dialectic supergroup along with Teochew, Hainanese Hockchew, Foochow and Heng Hua. The Hokkien dialect was formed by the migration peoples of the central plains and can be dated back more than thousand years ago. As such, it contains many ancient Chinese tones, vocabulary and phonetics. It is referred to as a living fossil of the Chinese language. The recent dominance of Mandarin as the representative tongue of the Chinese people globally has resulted in significant decline of the Hokkien dialect group among the young. The dialect is rarely taught and its significance in literature, artistic and cultural content has waned over the last few decades.
Here is a 2001 song from a fellow Malaysian Hokkien singer 黃一飞 (Huang Yi-Fei) to start your year!