China's Unlikely Hit: What "Dear You" Reveals About Language and Identity China's box office has been dominated by Lan Hongchun's film "Dear You," a Teochew language drama that has defied predictions to become this year's second highest grossing film.
The movie tells the story of qiaopi, the complex system of remittance letters used by overseas Chinese laborers in the 1950s.
This unusual dialect and period setting are not just distinctive features but also key elements in shedding light on the tensions between language, identity, and cultural heritage.