Medan Hokkien is a local variety of Hokkien spoken among Chinese Indonesians in Medan and Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the lingua franca in Medan as well as other northern city states of North Sumatra surrounding it, and is a subdialect of the Zhangzhou (漳州) dialects, together with widespread use of Indonesian and English borrowed words. It is predominantly a spoken dialect: it is rarely written in Chinese characters as Indonesia had banned the use of Chinese characters back in New Order era. Comparing Medan Hokkien to other Hokkien dialects in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, Medan Hokkien is still understandable to a certain extent. Medan Hokkien speakers may have a similar accent as Malaysian and Singaporean speakers. The closest comparison to Medan Hokkien is Penang Hokkien. Both are so similar that it is hard to tell the difference between the two if the Medan Hokkien speaker does not mix Indonesian language borrowings in their conversation. See also Hoklo people Hokkien culture Hokkien architecture Written Hokkien Hokkien media Taiwanese Hokkien Singapore Hokkien Penang Hokkien Southern Malaysia Hokkien Philippine Hokkien Holopedia Speak Hokkien Campaign External links Medan & Penang Hokkien Podcast Languages of Indonesia Hokkien-language dialects