Medan Hokkien is a local variety ofHokkien spoken amongstChinese Indonesians inMedan,North Sumatra,Indonesia. It is thelingua franca in Medan as well as the surrounding cities in the state ofNorth Sumatra. It is also spoken in some Medan Chinese migrant communities such as inJakarta. Medan Hokkien is a subdialect of theZhangzhou (漳州) Hokkien, particularly ofHaicheng (海澄) subdialect. It borrows heavily fromTeochew,Deli Malay andIndonesian.

It is predominantly a spoken dialect: Vernacular Hokkien, including Medan Hokkien, is traditionally passed down orally and is rarely transcribed inwritten Hokkien. Moreover, Indonesia'sNew Order Era imposed martial laws to suppress and ban display ofChinese characters andChinese tradition in public.^[5] However, with the rise of social media, Medan Hokkien is often transcribed inEYD, ignoring tone markings altogether.^[6]

When comparing Medan Hokkien to other Hokkien dialects spoken in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, Medan Hokkien can be relatively intelligible. It is, however, most similar toPenang Hokkien. Both are strikingly similar that it could be difficult to tell the difference between the two if a Medan Hokkien speaker does not heavily mix Deli Malay and Indonesian borrowings in their conversation.

Medan Hokkien’s origin could be linguistically traced back toPenang Hokkien^[7] and itsKedahan roots.^[8] Early presence of Chinese in Medan could be found inPulau Kampai^[9] andKota China,^[10] with archaeological discoveries pointing out the presence of Chinese traders as far back as 12th century CE. WhenJohn Anderson was sent for a diplomatic mission to eastern coasts of Sumatra in 1823, he recounted the presence very few Chinese in what was known as Deli,^[11] and around 50 to 100 Chinese in Asahan.^[12] Trade between eastern coasts of Sumatra and Penang and Malacca was already very much established by then.

The rise ofDeli as a major exporter of Tobacco brought in great influx of ChineseCoolies (indentured labourers) fromPenang. By 1890, Chinese Coolies in East Sumatra rose up to 53,806.^[13] The significance of Penang's role in Deli's economy and the influence of Penang's eliteBabanyonya and the Five BigKongsi cannot be denied.Cheah Choo Yew (1841-1931) was one of the founding fathers of Cheah Kongsi was native toLangkat, East Sumatra.Khoo Cheow Teong (1840-1916) was the great grandson ofKoh Lay Huan (Penang's first Kapitan China) and grandson of Khoo Wat Seng (founding father of Khoo Kongsi). He was the Kapitan Cina ofAsahan for 26 years. Penang's famousCheong Fatt Tze was also related to Medan's Kapitan CinaTjong A Fie andTjong Yong Hian, and the three of them monopolised major commodities in East Sumatra. The cultural link between Penang and Medan was beyond mere proximity. One could even find strong similarities in rituals such as worship of Datuk and in mutually shared Peranakan dishes.

Russell Jones, in his article 'The Chiangchew Hokkiens, the true pioneers in Nanyang' took the effort to confirm the early presence of Zhangzhou Hokkiens, not only in Penang, but also inMalacca,Batavia and the rest of the archipelago.^[14] In addition, the uncanny similarity of the Malay loanwords (batu, mana, binatang, tapi), 'Hokkien-ised' Malay terms (lokun, sukak) and as well as Kedahan dialect (gatai) in Penang Hokkien that has become canonic to Medan Hokkien vocabularies is evident of its lineage.

Medan Hokkien also had substantial influence fromTeochew dialect, due to the dominant presence ofTeochew coolies during the Tobacco boom. The events ofJapanese invasion,East Sumatra revolution andNew Order regime sundered the cross-strait cultural kinship between the two cities. The two dialects ever since diverged and evolved separately, where Penang Hokkien became more Anglicised and Mandarinised, while Medan Hokkien became more Indonesianised.

• Penang Hokkien
• Hoklo people
• Hokkien culture
• Hokkien architecture
• Written Hokkien
• Hokkien media
• Taiwanese Hokkien
• Singapore Hokkien
• Southern Malaysia Hokkien
• Philippine Hokkien
• Holopedia
• Speak Hokkien Campaign

• Medan & Penang Hokkien Podcast(in Min Nan Chinese)

• Languages of Indonesia
• Hokkien-language dialects

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