Monday, January 24, 2011

The Medicine-man of time past

One or two decades ago, any market square will surely have a Chinese medicine man hawking his goods comprising traditional oils, pills and whatnots. He would be calling out in a number of Chinese dialects so that his message went across to a wider population. This brand of medicine-man is no longer seen in current times.

The following is a re-enactment of what used to be the norm decades ago - though the translation errors were part of the comedy act. This is hilarious if you understand Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka, three common Chinese dialects used here in Malaysia. Enjoy..

7 comments:

  1. A good one..cant stop laffing..To come to think about it have not been seeing these Medicine-man on the streets or I have not been going out for too long..which is which? haha.

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  2. Now on some topic about human nature..From the beginning no body will ever step forward to buy the medicine until someone makes a bold step forward to purchase and the Medicine-man would shout loudly about the first purchase and all of a sudden the public will follow suit digging into their pockets to buy. Heard that becoz of the this true *pai seh-ness* shyness of the public the Medicine-man got an accomplice to act as a purchaser and it works all the time. How true? Bananaz's Beleaf It Or Not!!!

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  3. hahaha, this is a good one, i like that.. found out recently there are quite some clips in dialects in youtube huh.. are they becoming popular languages now?? haha~~ :D

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  4. Bananaz, perhaps they still exist in small towns where there are more senior citizens and less technology.

    Smart gimmick, that one and human nature being such, we do fall for it.

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  5. SK, glad you enjoyed it too. Hokkien is a popular dialect on videos. In fact, there even are romanised Hokkien blogs and Cantonese ones too and they are a great source for giggles..

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  6. I do see them in our pasar malam here from time to time. Ha :D

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  7. T, cool! What a gem from the past just like those fortune-tellers with their bird in a cage and a pack of cards.

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