Taken in April 08 - Weena Gotama and April -

Some photos taken in April 2008. Wenny and April wanted to do photoshoot. We did a photoshoot at the garden pool at Damansara. Wenny is a chinese indonesia but came to stay here in Kepong, Malaysia with her beautiful child and husband. Weeny brought her mum and April as for photoshoot as well. The photoshoot outcome was good.

Wenny came with her mum from Indonesia who is here for holiday. She speaks Hokkien! Awesome. She told me that Medan is just like Penang. Now history strucks me my mind again. In a nutshell, the people from many backs years ago settle in Penang as well as Medan in the straits of Malacca.



All Chinese in Medan speak Min nan Hua (Southern Min) dialect from Chuang Chiu (nearby Xiamern) region, which is known in Indonesia simply as Hokkien. The version spoken is 99% the same as the Penang version.



All Medanese Chinese who have moved to other parts of Indonesia also continue to speak Hokkien. You can find a lot of them in Jakarta, Batam and Surabaya.

Min nan Hua (Hokkien) is the lingua franca among all Chinese in Medan and surronding cities in North Sumatra. If you are a Cantonese in Medan, then you usually speak cantonese at home and Hokkien when you do any business dealings with other Chinese or at school and with your friends. If you are a Hakka (Ke Jia Ren) in Medan, then you speak Hakka at home and a Hokkien when you do any business dealings with other Chinese or at school and with your friends. So on and so on....

And not surprisingly, there are many chinese who are in Penang has very close relatives from Medan. The distance between Medan and Penang is approximately 270km.

Suppose to go there for diving last year and infact, this year as well. Let's hope I can make it next year.