Guangzhou and Hong Kong support Cantonese

Locals in Guangzhou are worried that their dialect will be banned. Xinhua/AFP Photo

By Zhang Dongya

Hundreds of people gathered in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, over the last two weekends to protest the local government’s popularizing of Mandarin while holding back Cantonese. Two hundred people also assembled in Hong Kong on Sunday to show their support.

In June, the Guangzhou municipal committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) released a survey on its website about testing local TV broadcasters in Mandarin.

Local people worried the dialect would be banned, while local media reporting the incident used provocative phrases like “Cantonese renounced.”

The local committee of the CPPCC told the local Yangcheng Evening News that they wanted to increase the amount of Mandarin used on local broadcasts, not ban Cantonese. But later, a committee member suggested using Mandarin in major programs on Guangzhou TV for the sake of domestic and overseas visitors for the Asian Games in Guangzhou this November.

Hong Kong citizens, who take Cantonese as their mother tongue, organized an assembly last Sunday to show solidarity with their Cantonese-speaking brethren in Guangdong. About 200 people gathered in Southorn Playground in Wanzai Port, then marched to the Hong Kong Secretariat building. They worry that the “ban” in Guangdong might affect the dialect’s survival.

According to the June survey in Guangdong, only 20 percent of respondents support the local government’s suggestion.

Cantonese, which originated in Guangxi Zhuang Automonous Region, is widespread in Guangdong Province, eastern Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau. The dialect is used in Hong Kong and Macau as the official spoken language of the government and in schools. Some on the Chinese mainland are fond of the dialect due to the popularity of Cantonese pop songs and films. Statistics show 70 million people around the world speak Cantonese.