Organize lessons to teach Sze Yi dialect – Liew
KOTA KINABALU: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law) Datuk Liew Vui Keong has proposed the Sze Yi Association West Coast, Sabah organize lessons to teach the younger generation the Sze Yi dialect.
“It is important to pass down the Sze Yi dialect to the younger generation or else the dialect would go extinct,” said Liew.
He said the Chinese community in San Francisco, United States, many whose ancestors migrated from Siyi in Guangdong province, could speak the dialect fluently.
Hence, Liew hoped that Sze Yi Association West Coast, Sabah president Datuk Susan Wong Siew Guen would look into organizing classes for the Sze Yi dialect.
Liew, who is also the legal advisor of the Sze Yi Association West Coast, Sabah, said this when gracing the Sze Yi singing competition cum Christmas celebration here on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Susan said the winner of each category in the singing competition would represent the association in The United Sabah Sze Yip
Association karaoke contest in Keningau on January 31 next year.
The karaoke contest is held in conjunction with The United Sabah Sze Yip Association’s Chinese New Year celebration the next day.
On another note, she said the Sze Yi Association West Coast, Sabah would also be holding its Chinese New Year celebration and presentation of ang pows to elderly members at Hakka Hall on January 5.
Susan added that the seventh World Youth Congress of Jiangmen would be held in Panama on March 24 next year and urged members to participate in the biennial event.
Also present were Susan’s mother Datin Seri Panglima Chen Si Mui and life honorary president of the association, Henry Kong, who were both guests of honour for the Christmas celebration, and Huang Association of Malaysia president Datuk Wong Ten An.