A Couple of Interesting Items About the Chinese Language

I’ve come across a couple news tidbits about the Chinese language in the past week or two that caught my eye. First, from the Los Angeles Times:

Texting and typing are replacing the elaborate strokes that make up written Chinese. And when it comes time to jot down a few words, more Chinese are realizing they can’t remember exactly how.

You can read more about my thoughts on this item at my other blog.

Then there’s this story about a brouhaha in my hometown of Guangzhou over a local committee’s suggestion of adding more Mandarin-language programming to the local channels.

Hundreds of people staged a peaceful but loud protest in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province Sunday over fears that Cantonese dialect is being threatened.

At 5 pm Sunday, at least 1,000 people - mainly in their 20s and 40s - gathered outside the Jiangnanxi subway station exit to criticize a proposal to increase programs in Putonghua on Guangzhou Television’s news and satellite channels, which are mainly in Cantonese.

The local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) suggested the idea earlier this month.

The committee said Putonghua broadcasts would accommodate athletes and tourists who go to Guangzhou from other places for the Asian Games in November.

The idea prompted fears that the local government will completely abandon Cantonese in favor of Putonghua in the near future.

To me, that suggestion about increasing Mandarin programming is nowhere near as insulting as this op-ed in the Beijing Evening News criticizing the backlash (apologies to those who can’t read Chinese. Google translator gives you sort of the gist of the piece). The op-ed cavalierly dismisses the opposition as merely the work of a few Cantonese-speaking broadcasters who are worried about losing their jobs if the networks switch to more Mandarin programs. The piece also tries to draw a parallel between a marginalization of Cantonese and the fact that many ancient tongues from China’s history are now extinct, ignoring the fact that latter is a result of centuries of cultural evolution while the former would be clearly a deliberate act to promote one dialect over another.

For the record, I’m a strong supporter of people all around China learning Mandarin and having it be the national language. As many local dialects as there are in China, without a common tongue, people would struggle to communicate with each other. That extends even to life here in the United States. When I go to the local Asian grocery store, not knowing which part of China the woman working the cash register or the guy stocking the shelves came from, I can nevertheless be confident that we won’t have communication issues because I can ask my questions in Mandarin.

Growing up in Guangzhou, I never felt like the two languages were in competition with each other. The schools taught Mandarin and classes were taught in Mandarin. All public/official interactions were conducted in Mandarin. Yet, when I was home, hanging out with friends or relatives, or having a casual conversation with someone, we usually spoke Cantonese. The transition was virtually seamless, and I never felt pressured to use one or the other. It’s sad to see such talks of doing away with Cantonese, and I hope the co-existence of languages I grew up with can continue.