By Sarah-Claire Jordan
If you are someone who keeps up with what happens in China and its special administrative regions (SAR) like Hong Kong, then you probably have read or heard that Cantonese, may be in danger. Cantonese is the dialect of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in South China, and also the de facto official language in Hong Kong, with English being another official language of the SAR. In the rest of China, sometimes referred to as Mainland China or the mainland, Standard Chinese, based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin (and simply called Mandarin sometimes), is the official language.
For what seems to boil down to nothing more than political differences, with the mainland government wanting to eliminate any differences in China’s population, the Mandarin agenda is being pushed on those whose native language is Cantonese. If measures aren’t taken to try to save Cantonese, we might lose it forever, which would be a tragedy for many reasons. Here are the most important ones, though:
1. It would erase the identity of a big portion of the population
Besides being one of the most common languages spoken in Hong Kong, Cantonese is also spoken widely in the province of Guangdong (home to the capital city of Guangzhou) as well as some parts of neighboring provinces. In some cases, it is spoken as a lingua franca. In the case of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, where the highest concentration of Cantonese speakers seems to be, the language has become a part of the identity of those who were born and raised there. Mandarin might be taught in schools, but Cantonese is spoken at home and heard on the radio and TV, which are more powerful sources of identity than education.
2. Cantonese culture and arts have left their mark on the world
If you’ve ever seen a kung fu movie, then you have seen a cultural product of Hong Kong that was originally made in Cantonese. The most famous kung fu artists and actors are also Cantonese speakers, like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, to name a few. Cantopop, or pop music with lyrics in Cantonese, is another Cantonese cultural export that became popular mostly in Asia. Even if people didn’t understand the lyrics, the music and beautiful sounding language of the songs were appreciated greatly.
3. Cantonese may be closer to Classical Chinese than Mandarin
This hasn’t exactly been proven, it is mostly speculation based on the complexity of the Cantonese language when compared to Mandarin. For example, Mandarin only has four tones, while Cantonese uses between six and nine different tones, all with a different meaning. Mandarin’s use of only four tones is due to a simplification of the Chinese language, something that Cantonese has not had to go through yet. Written Cantonese uses traditional Chinese characters in Hong Kong, whereas written Mandarin uses a simplified system. These measures taken to simplify the language, especially the writing, have caused some beautifully complex language to lose its poetic meaning, which is retained in Cantonese.
