GEORGE TOWN, July 5 — Instead of saying “how are you”, Chinese Penangites used to greet each other with “lu chiak pa boey”, which mean “have you eaten”?
From the hawker stalls to the wet markets, this version of Hokkien used to be the lingua franca of Penang; it was also spoken with ease by other local ethnic groups including Indians and Malays.
But with the increasing focus on Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin, many Penang-born youths no longer speak the dialect.
The caretaker state government is now moving to address this and prevent the dialect from fading in public.
“It has been proposed that the dialect be gazetted as a state heritage under the Penang Heritage Enactment 2011,” caretaker Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said at a public forum on the Penang Hokkien dialect here today.
Chow alternated between Hokkien and Malay effortlessly in his speech.
He said gazetting the dialect is one way to preserve Penang’s cultural heritage, but hoped locals will also continue to be used in their daily communication.
He later launched a Penang Hokkien Dictionary and Learn Penang Hokkien YouTube channel by local activist, Timothy Tye.
Caretaker state executive councillor for tourism and creative economy Yeoh Soon Hin later said the gazettement of the Penang Hokkien dialect as a state heritage is underway.
“We will need to submit it to the state heritage council and it needs to be brought up for the state exco approval,” he said.
According to Yeoh, the dialect has been used in Penang for over 300 years, but it is slowly dying out as the younger generation grew up without learning it.
“A majority of the ethnic Chinese in Penang learn Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia and English in school so Hokkien is seldom used,” he said at the same public forum.
Other than organising a forum about the dialect, Yeoh said the state is also encouraging educational institutions to support the speaking of Hokkien among the younger generation.
“I have also approved an allocation to support an initiative by Han Chiang University College to produce a video of the Penang Hokkien,” he said.
