Grandpa Yeh’s Journey South

After weeks tossed at sea like vegetables in a smoking wok, Grandpa Yeh finally arrived in a land hot and humid.

October 2024 – Grandpa Yeh was only seventeen when he left his home in Swatow, China, with only the clothes on his back and a precious family heirloom — his grandmother’s rice cake mould. A junk carries him and hundreds of others to a new country where he works hard carrying heavy sacks all day beside a muddy smelly river. Grandpa is terribly homesick. One day, he decides to make his Ah Ma’s png kueh, the Teochew sticky rice cake that reminds him so much of home…and everything changes!

Grandpa Yeh’s Journey South celebrates the courage and tenacity of the early Chinese immigrants who left their homeland in search of a better life. From Swatow to Singapore, from hardship to happiness, this is a story that is repeated among the Chinese diaspora across the world. It also spotlights the family bonds that survive across generations, and a most delectable Teochew tradition, the rice cake.

This latest release by Pepper Dog Press is the second in its Hawker Culture series of picture books for children, after Oyster Girl by Joyce Chng. This time the spotlight falls on the Teochews, and includes a special png kueh recipe by celebrity chef Eric Low, a well-known and much respected champion of Teochew culture in Singapore.

This 40-page picture book is filled with the whimsical illustrations of Singaporean artist John Lim. Like Pepper Dog Press’s other picture books Oyster Girl, The Little Singapore Book and Tiger Tales: Almost True Animal Stories from Old Singapore, this too is filled with rich illustrated details that encourage young readers to explore Singapore’s heritage and engage in conversations with the grown-ups reading with them. Grandpa Yeh’s Journey South is suitable for anyone from four years old.