One of the most talked-about films in China this year was filmed mainly in a southern Chinese dialect. Most viewers in China would need subtitles to understand it.
Still, Dear You has become the second-highest-earning film in China this year.
Dear You was mostly filmed in Teochew. This is a dialect spoken in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong. The story is set in the Teochew immigrant community in Bangkok.
The film looks at the long history of Chinese people moving to Southeast Asia over many centuries. Many migrants came from the Guangdong and Fujian provinces in southern China.
The plot revolves around qiaopi, letters used by Chinese immigrants to send money and news back home. Many workers who could not write Chinese relied on scribes to compose the letters.
