Fukien Boat Song

folk song / traditional

Info

Fukienese is a group of Chinese dialects, including Amoy and Taiwanese, spoken in Fukien province in southeastern China as well as in Taiwan. (source) Fukien is also called Fujian is a province in SE China opposite Taiwan (source). The Fukien province is here.

Lyrics – Transliteration

(Chinese folk song)

Chit chia eh hoay chun kia tee Hokkien.
Kia kau tee poa hai chut or ean.

Ah Hock ee chin sooi goa boh gian.
Kamgoan khee chia chye khee seng tian.

English Translation

The only information I have is it is about a rocking boat and is often sung as a lullaby.

Recorder Notes D, E, F#, A, B, D’

YouTube

Extras for Plus Members

PDF of song with chords
MIDI file
Listen to the melody

2 Comments

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Eugene

1 year ago

Hi Beth!

Thanks for sharing this!! I came across this song earlier this year as I was trying to find songs from Fujian (we say Hokkien in Singapore) to learn. This a little bit in the effort of retracing my musical heritage! I grew up speaking some Hokkien with my grandparents, but I’m not fluent by any means.

I put in a bit of research (in the form of asking my dad for help to decipher the transliterated lyrics), and here’s a version I just posted with possibly a bit more information on this piece!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCYiBrdSQjJ/

Beth Thompson

Author

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