Du Ting traces his roots to the Chaoshan region in South China's Guangdong province. Living near the coast where ships had set sail for Southeast Asia, his family members have vivid memories of waiting for qiaopi, or remittance letters, sent by early Chinese migrants to their loved ones back home.

"Whenever someone from the village sent qiaopi back, the whole village would wait for them with great hope and expectation," he said.

Du, who is president of the Australian Chinese TeoChew Youth Association Inc, was relating his personal experience with the main themes of the Chinese box-office hit, Dear You.

On Tuesday, the association, together with CMC Pictures, presented the highly anticipated Australian premiere of the hit to about 1,300 moviegoers in Sydney.

Dear You, which cost about 14 million yuan ($2.06 million) to make, had by mid-June raked in more than 1.8 billion yuan at the domestic box office since its Chinese mainland release on April 30, making it one of China's highest-grossing films so far this year.

The movie tells the story of migrants from Chaoshan — a region that includes the cities of Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang, all in Guangdong province — who headed to Southeast Asia in search of work and a better life. It describes their trials and tribulations as they strove to maintain family and community ties across generations, along with the significant use of qiaopi.

Chinese Consul General in Sydney Wang Yu said the movie presents the strengths of the migrants through their endeavors.

The depiction of the ordinary details of their daily lives reflects some of the warmest, most moving aspects of traditional Chinese culture, he said.

At the premiere, software engineer Nicholas Fang said he could fully understand the movie being screened in its original Chaoshan, or Teochew, dialect. There were also English and Chinese subtitles.

"My whole family still uses Teochew here in Sydney, we communicate in it," said Fang, 23, who was born in Australia but spent the first three years of his life at his ancestral home in Chaoshan where he learned the dialect.

Fang said that one major way the film resonated with him was how people were "all helping each other to survive, no matter the hardships they had to go through. They're constantly supporting their community and their relationships are very strong, it's like a bond", he said.

Du Ting said the film's message about the importance of family and cultural connections certainly resonates across the oceans.

"Whether it's the qiaopi of the past or the advances in technology today, our modes of communication may have changed but the links to home will never change," he said.

Zhou Guangming, founding president and chairman of the board of the Australian Chinese TeoChew Association, said qiaopi is a deep part of Chinese history and culture.

Chinese people, especially those from Chaoshan, when they were overseas, used qiaopi as an important channel to maintain their links with family members back home, he said.

"It was a very good habit, the best way to let them know that we were safe and sound," Zhou said.

"Now, we're all very happy that China has developed and progressed so much. I believe that Chinese people abroad are still able to know their roots."

CMC Pictures' associate director Duan Wei said Dear You drew a record turnout for a Chinese film premiere in Australia. With a full Australian theatrical release on Thursday, it will screen in other major cities.

Office worker Thalia Pantazis, 22, said she found the movie "touching all throughout, even from the very start".