Hainanese Heritage
I am of Hainanese heritage. My grandfather came over from Hainan Island in China when he was young - around the turn of the last century. Hainanese is also one of the dialect groups in Singapore
There are generally some common beliefs about Hainanese men. Here are some of them, although I am not sure how much is true.
1) Hainanese men are good cooks.
Well, I can’t say for the rest of the Hainanese men, but I for one know my way around the kitchen. I won’t get worried or become lost when following recipes. I can cook relatively well without worrying about adding too much or too little salt when the recipe calls for “salt to taste”. I also know how to cook the perennial favourite Hainanese chicken rice. However, the local recipe didn’t come from Hainan Island, but is a modification of the original one from Hainan Island. The famous Singapore Sling was also created by a Hainanese.
Actually, I remember discussing this topic with some of my friends who are also Hainanese. They say the reason why Hainanese men can cook so well is because most of them ventured out from the little island of Hai Nan. And since during that period, they travel by boat and ships, these men were hired as cooks on the ships. When they settled down in South East Asia like Singapore and Malaysia, they started their own restaurants and coffee shops. As they grow old and settled down, they passed their knowledge to their sons and daughters who are also Hainanese, and hence you have more percentage of cooks who are Hainanese.
2) Hainanese people (men probably) have distinct head shape.
I was told that Hainanese people, usually men, have high forehead and it’s super round. I am not sure how true it is, but those Hainanese uncles I know do indeed have that feature. You can go around your estate and check them out.
Also another distinctive fact about the head shape is that the back of our head are rather flat as well. There was a discussion about these in one of the posts I wrote a while back here. Miche said that its probably due to the way the baby was put to bed which created the shape. Anyone beg to differ?
3) Hainanese dialect is hard to learn
Well, I would say if you are exposed to it long enough, you probably can speak any dialect rather well. I have forgotten most of my spoken Hainanese dialect ever since my grandfather passed away. He was the one whom I spoke the most to when I was a little boy, I could even argue with him in that dialect. Nowadays, I can only understand when its spoken to me and I still need some clarification sometimes.
I was also told that the bad words in Hainanese actually sound quite nice. I only know one though since I barely speak the dialect.
