You can tell a lot about a culture by the way they greet you. In the case of Chinese, the standard how-do-you-do greeting translates literally as, “Have you eaten?”. Chinatownboy reflects on how this greeting has changed in Singapore, originally from the versions in different dialects such as Hokkien and Teochew to Mandarin today, and the forgotten Chinese pioneers of an earlier age.
cc image by Jesse Moore
Chinatownboy writes:
It was some 20 years ago, when even in China, the greetings have started to change from “Li Jia Ba Buay” 你吃饱没？ to “Li Jia Ho Buay”你吃好没？, meaning “have you eaten?”. In Mandarin, it would be Ni Chi Bao Le Ma 你吃饱了吗 to Ni Chi Hao Le Ma 你吃好了吗? In our exchange of notes between friends in China and Singapore, we agreed that perhaps times had changed and it was time to use the latter greetings.
In the old days, hunger would probably be the constant in many of the lives of Chinese. It is also true in old Singapore. For the elderly, who are probably in their seventies now, their greetings would have already been ingrained in them.
And so, in Chinatown, it could be greetings in Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese or any Chinese dialects, such greetings would still be the same. Listen for the key words the next time you come across such a greeting. Of course, in the morning, it would be Gao Zha (in Hokkien or Teochew) and Jo San (in Cantonese).
It is members of this older generation, some of whom greeted each other in a more local Chinese dialect, that paved the way for making Singapore a great place to live in today. Read the rest of Chinatownboy’s reflection here.
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