Qiaopi Culture and Diasporic Memory in Dear You : Chaozhou Cinema and Transnational Chinese Identity
This article examines Dear You (Gei A Ma de Qingshu) as a work of Chaozhou cinema, focusing on how its portrayal of qiaopi reconstructs diasporic memory and transnational Chinese identity. Combining family letters and remittances, qiaopi becomes an affective medium linking Chaozhou and Thailand through the film’s portrayals of food, dialect, and women’s care. More specifically, the film uses Chaozhou dialect, food, and domestic space to turn regional culture into a lived form of transnational belonging. The circulation of qiaopi further connects migration, remittance, waiting, and intergenerational memory across Chaozhou and Thailand, highlighting women’s everyday labor in sustaining transnational family continuity. Close readings of key scenes involving ghostwriting, remittances, letter reading, and the revelation of the truth show how Chaozhou identity is sustained through cross-border practices of care. The ghostwritten letters provide Ye Shurou with material and emotional support, yet their prolonged concealment also denies her the chance to learn of her husband’s death. The film thus presents an asymmetrical form of transnational kinship in which archival authenticity, emotional authenticity, and moral legitimacy remain in tension.
本文以电影《给阿嬷的情书》为研究对象,考察其如何通过侨批文化与潮州影像重构 离散记忆和跨国华人身份认同。侨批是兼具家书与汇款功能的跨国文献,影片借书信、食 物、方言及女性照护,将其转化为连接潮州与泰国的情感媒介。进一步而言,影片通过潮 州方言、地方食物与家庭空间,将区域文化转化为可感的跨国归属;侨批在潮州与泰国间 的流通则将迁徙、汇款、等待与代际记忆联系起来,并凸显女性日常劳动在维系跨国家庭 连续性中的作用。通过分析代笔、寄款、收信及真相揭示等关键场景,本文指出:潮州身 份在跨境流动与日常照护中被持续实践;代笔侨批虽为叶淑柔提供物质支持与情感安慰, 却也因长期隐瞒损害了她的知情权。影片由此呈现出一种具有照护效力、同时伴随信息不 对等的跨国亲属关系,使文献真实性、情感真实性与道德正当性之间的张力持续存在。