Hakka Tea Salon: Xi Piao — A Malaysian Story Across the Sea
As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the idea of “going home” becomes especially meaningful.
But what does home mean when you live and work hundreds of kilometres away? What happens when returning home means crossing the South China Sea?
On Saturday, 26 September 2026, Hibiscus Academy presents a special edition of our 客家茶會 Hakka Tea Salon: 《西漂》 Xi Piao — an afternoon of Hakka language, music, tea and conversation centred on a Malaysian journey from Sabah to Kuala Lumpur.
西漂: From Sabah to Kuala Lumpur
The expression 《西漂》 Xi Piao, literally “drifting westward”, captures a familiar experience for many East Malaysians who leave Sabah or Sarawak to study, work and build their lives in Peninsular Malaysia.
For this Hakka Tea Salon, we welcome Sabah-born singer, songwriter and actor 邱蘊能 Niko Hugyposem, now developing his career in Kuala Lumpur.
His journey from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur is geographical, but it also opens a larger conversation about home, language, memory and belonging.
What happens to the languages we grew up with when we move away from home? Which songs follow us? Does an accent change? Can a familiar language suddenly become more precious when we no longer hear it every day?
Rather than presenting these questions as an academic lecture, 《西漂》 explores them through something much more intimate: people sitting together, drinking tea, listening to music and talking.
客家話，敢敢講！ Speak Hakka, Boldly!
At the heart of the Hakka Tea Salon is a simple idea: a language stays alive when people use it.
Hakka is often associated with family conversations, grandparents and the private sphere of home. Yet a living language also needs spaces beyond the household — places where people can meet new friends, tell stories, laugh, sing and express contemporary experiences through it.
That is why our motto is:
客家話，敢敢講！Speak Hakka, Boldly!
The afternoon will be conducted primarily in Hakka, with Mandarin, Cantonese or English support when necessary.
You do not have to speak perfect Hakka. Those who speak fluently are welcome. Those who speak only a little are equally welcome. Even if you mainly understand Hakka but rarely speak it, come and listen.
The purpose is not to test anyone's language ability. It is to create another occasion for Hakka to be heard and spoken naturally in Kuala Lumpur.
Songs from Hakka, Sabah and Beyond
Music provides another way of travelling between places and memories.
Niko will bring together Hakka songs, Sabah songs and Mandarin campus folk songs, interwoven with stories and conversation about his journey from East Malaysia to West Malaysia.
This combination is deliberate.
《西漂》 is not intended to present Hakka culture as something frozen in the past. Hakka identity in Malaysia has always existed alongside other languages, places and cultural experiences. A Sabah-born Hakka who moves to Kuala Lumpur carries more than one cultural world with him.
In this tea salon, those worlds are allowed to meet.
From Sabah to Kuala Lumpur.From Hakka songs to campus folk songs.From memories of home to the experience of building a life somewhere new.
It is, above all, a Malaysian telling a Malaysian story.
一茶三粄: One Tea, Three Hakka Ban
No Hakka Tea Salon would be complete without tea and food.
Guests will be served 大埔西岩・香妃翠玉烏龍茶, Taipu Xiyan Xiangfei Cuiyu Oolong Tea, alongside three Hakka 粄 ban:
紅印粄 — Red Imprinted Ban九層粄 — Nine-Layer Ban糍粑 — Ciba, Glutinous Rice Cake
The word 粄 itself is culturally significant in Hakka food vocabulary. These are not merely refreshments placed beside the tea; they form part of the cultural language of the afternoon.
The red imprint evokes celebration and blessing. The many layers of 九層粄 lend themselves to wishes for progress and longevity. 糍粑, shared among family and guests, evokes gathering and hospitality.
Together, tea and ban turn the event from a performance to be watched into a table around which people can gather.
A Different Kind of Mid-Autumn Gathering
Mid-Autumn is traditionally associated with reunion.
Yet contemporary Malaysian life also contains countless stories of departure: young people leaving their hometowns to study, professionals relocating for work, families separated by states and seas, and individuals learning how to make a second place feel like home.
《西漂》 is our small cultural response to that experience.
Perhaps home is not only the place to which we return.
Sometimes, home is recreated for an afternoon — through a familiar language, an old song, a cup of tea, a piece of 粄, and someone sitting across the table who understands why these things matter.
Join Us This Saturday
Hakka Tea Salon: 《西漂》Guest: 邱蘊能 Niko Hugyposem — Singer · Songwriter · Actor
Date: Saturday, 26 September 2026Time: 2:30 PM–4:30 PMVenue: Hibiscus Academy Cultural Centre10-2, Jalan Panggong, 50000 Kuala Lumpur
Fee: RM68 per person
Registration closes Friday, 25 September 2026 at 12:00 noon.
The RM68 fee includes the cultural programme, tea and Hakka ban.
For enquiries and registration:WhatsApp: +60 12-423 3350
Email:
Payment may be made by bank transfer:
HIBISCUS ACADEMYPublic Bank3812949105
Credit/debit card payment is also available.
Full event brochure:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z5N9N0TXsCprYQxt_GOt2WtZJDVEd9Ho/view?usp=sharing
If you have been thinking about joining us, registration is now in its final days.
Come for the songs. Come for the tea. Come to hear a story from across the South China Sea.
And, perhaps most importantly, come and give Hakka another afternoon in which to be spoken, heard and shared.
客家話，敢敢講！
Speak Hakka, Boldly!
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