Pro-Cantonese Protest in Guangzhou

[WilsonFong]

I'm surprised no one has brought this up yet (granted, this forum is mainly focused on Mandarin. But still...). Anyway, as some of you may know, the central government recently asked Guangzhou TV to change their broadcasts to Mandarin to cater to non-locals who will be visiting the city during the Asian Games. Quite a few of the locals were upset by the proposal and staged a protest on yesterday.

Southern Chinese oppose ban on Cantonese TV

Thousand rally to support Cantonese

Requires subscription, but there's a brief summary of the article.

32000 views? Are there even 32000 people who can access Youtube in China?

What do you guys think? I'm surprised to see a group of people care so much about their dialect.

[xiaocai]

I'm surprised to see a group of people care so much about their dialect.

We all do, just that many people don't know.

[wushijiao]

The Apple Daily video is also pretty cool. (Notice the HK's own Norwegian Cantonese-speaking celeb as 0:40).

As far as I know, this the largest rally against a language policy in PRC history, so it's really quite historic.

[skylee]

Another example of 官逼民反.

[anonymoose]

And quite right too. I'm not really familiar with television in Guangdong, but if it's anything like what we get in Shanghai, then there are dozens of stations from around China in Mandarin anyway, so what difference does it make if there are a couple of local stations in local language???

Personally, when I travel to a new place, I like to experience different language and culture. I think it is a shame that in Shanghai, one never hears anything official in Shanghainese, and even television in Shanghainese is restricted to a small number of programs on an otherwise Mandarin channel.

Hopefully these protests will cause the government to rethink their language policy across the whole of China.

[clc]

I'm surprised to see a group of people care so much about their dialect.

Cantonese has been defined as a language by UN. Furthermore, according to the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity:

“Cultural rights are an integral part of human rights, which are universal, indivisible and inter-dependent. The flourishing of creative diversity requires the full implementation of cultural rights as defined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Articles 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. All persons have therefore the right to express themselves and to create and disseminate their work in the language of their choice, and particularly in their mother tongue; all persons are entitled to quality education and training that fully respect their cultural identity; and all persons have the right to participate in the cultural life of their choice and conduct their own cultural practices, subject to respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms."

[wushijiao]

Hopefully these protests will cause the government to rethink their language policy across the whole of China.

Maybe, but I doubt it. I think linguistic consciousness, as a political movement, (or what have you) in Shanghai is very low. Although I could be mistaken....

[anonymoose]

I think linguistic consciousness, as a political movement, (or what have you) in Shanghai is very low.

Yes, and I think it's probably gone past the tipping point now.

But I still wish they'd do things like put Shanghainese announcements in the metro just as they have Cantonese announcements in the metro in Guangdong.

At the present rate, I think Shanghainese will be more or less extinct within 100 years.

[clc]

At the present rate, I think Shanghainese will be more or less extinct within 100 years.

That is more of reasons that each language heritage should be cherished and protected, before it is too late.

[wushijiao]

But I still wish they'd do things like put Shanghainese announcements in the metro just as they have Cantonese announcements in the metro in Guangdong.

I agree 100%. As a person who is studying Cantonese and made a stab at Shanghaiese, I think it does help a lot that a lot of the announcements are in Cantonese (on the MTR, ferries...etc). This sort of repetitive input helps in knowing place names and basic transportation words. It'd be nice if they had trilingual announcements (local language/Mandarin/English) in all cities.

At the present rate, I think Shanghainese will be more or less extinct within 100 years.

I think that's unfortunately true. It'd be interesting to see what percentage of toddlers speak Putonghua vs. Shanghaiese in Shanghai...

[clc]

It'd be nice if they had trilingual announcements (local language/Mandarin/English) in all cities.

HK has set a very good example, unfortunately cities in Mainland China still hardly follow suit.

Instead of banning this and that, mainland China should be more open and accommodating...just look at the pictures, the people have spoken.

7.25廣州江南西/天河數千人撐廣州話（多圖）

http://www.hkreporter.com/talks/thread-954127-1-1.html

[clc]

More events seem to have been arranged simultaneously on next Sunday 2pm onward:

在廣州人民公園內

香港灣仔修頓球場

澳門也同時組織聲援

【HK,廣州,澳門】同年同月同日同時行動聲援【保護粵語大行動】1-8-2010-----14:00

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6548388462

[SamGz]

Here I am suggesting people who come from Guangzhou or even Guangdong,can we also help protect our mother tongue?In fact,many of them are just 20 something and teenagers.But they still went out to the street requesting peacefully a right to protect Cantonese.They were not afraid of being caught by the police.I know on August 1,in Hong Kong,people will gather again to protect Cantonese!Can we,who are now overseas in different parts of the world,also help them?We can apply for peaceful match to let the world know that we value our mother language.We want it to be protected!Can anyone think the same and want to do so?

[xiaocai]

It'd be nice if they had trilingual announcements (local language/Mandarin/English) in all cities.

Why English?

HK has set a very good example, unfortunately cities in Mainland China still hardly follow suit.

Instead of banning this and that, mainland China should be more open and accommodating...just look at the pictures, the people have spoken.

Why do we have to follow HK on this? The first time when I went to HK any attempt to speak Mandarin was not well accommodated at all.

[MakMak]

I for one don't approve of this at all. This is definitely not fair. If you view China as equivalent to Europe with the European nations compared to China's many provinces... it wouldn't be right if you forced everyone to know say English or French and dump their own culture and start enforcing pronunciation of names like Paris from "pa-REE" to "PAIR-is" as legit right? It would destroy the very fabric of culture for Cantonese if they did the same. I wrote started writing a blog the other day. Here's the post for this: http://canton168.byethost31.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1280614467. Check it out and let know what you guys think (of the post and thoughts that is! not the blog itself haha)

[clc]

Why English?

Simply because English language happens to be the most widely spoken language in the world.

Why do we have to follow HK on this? The first time when I went to HK any attempt to speak Mandarin was not well accommodated at all.

No one needs to follow HK on anything, just everyone knows HK is much more accommodating than any other city in mainland China. At least they have trilingual announcements on their trains, and they do not have GFW there.

Mandarin is not native to HK, shouldn't you be pleased if anyone at least tried to understand you at all? Why should the whole world accommodate Mandarin? How accommodating would you be if HKers speak Cantonese in your home town?

[renzhe]

How accommodating would you be if HKers speak Cantonese in your home town

It depends on whether the majority of tourists in his hometown speak Cantonese or not.

Where I'm from, people are very accomodating to Italian and German speakers. In Hong Kong, they probably aren't. In Hong Kong, English and Mandarin are more important.

FWIW, I haven't had any negative experience with Mandarin in Hong Kong. The vast majority of people preferred using Mandarin to English, in restaurants, hotels, cafes etc. I found it surprising, but was told that it had to do with the large numbers of Mainland tourists.

If you view China as equivalent to Europe with the European nations compared to China's many provinces...

Why would you want to do that?

[xiaocai]

Simply because English language happens to be the most widely spoken language in the world.

Not widely spoken in all cities in China.

No one needs to follow HK on anything, just everyone knows HK is much more accommodating than any other city in mainland China. At least they have trilingual announcements on their trains, and they do not have GFW there.

Mandarin is not native to HK, shouldn't you be pleased if anyone at least tried to understand you at all? Why should the whole world accommodate Mandarin? How accommodating would you be if HKers speak Cantonese in your home town?

Please show valid proof of your statement "everyone knows HK is much more accommodating than any other city in mainland China".

No most of them didn't even try to understand me. They don't have to accommodate Mandarin if they don't want to, but please then do label yourself as being "much more accommodating than any other city in mainland China" then, thank you. I will speak my dialect to them then if they speak Cantonese to me in my home town. There are many other dialects in China spoken by their native speakers, please do not be ignorant. I understand Cantonese by the way.

And no I will not vote your reputation down, even that I could. You should learn to accommodate other people's opinion before you ask others to accommodate yours.

[jbradfor]

Wow xiaocai, you're in a bad mood today....

Please show valid proof of your statement "everyone knows HK is much more accommodating than any other city in mainland China"

HK has a lot more signs in English than another mainland city. That's proof to me!

My limited experience in HK was similar to renzhe's: I was very surprised at the positive reaction I got speaking Mandarin in Hong Kong. Part of that might be because I'm white, so they were happy with a Caucasian speaking any Chinese dialect, I don't know. In fact, I was so surprised by their positive reaction I even started a thread on it....

Not wildly spoken in all cities in China.

And that, again, is further evidence of "everyone knows HK is much more accommodating than any other city in mainland China".

You seem to be contradicting yourself here.

[xiaocai]

Probably, my apology for it then.

They accommodated you but didn't accommodate me, so we draw then...

Still waiting for the proof for the "more accommodating" bit though.

What I really don't like is in fact discrimination. It is good that when foreigners speak Mandarin but not good when mainlanders do. My dialect is very important but your dialect is... you have a dialect?