Inspired by the seminar and class discussion in class, I would like to share a similar case happened in China.
I was born in southern China, a city near Guangzhou, a Cantonese spoken area. All my family and neighborhoods speak Cantonese thus it seems that I was born to know it. Moreover, I grew up with the influential popular culture of Hong Kong since 1990s. Thus, the identity of Cantonese has rooted deeply in my mind.
When I was in primary school, Mandarin started to enter my life. The Mandarin promotion policy was carried out in 1980s, strictly adopted in 1990s among schools, administrations, transportations and all public areas. Since then, Mandarin became an official language and the others were all dialects. (An interesting point from my teammate is that she thought dialect is viewed as being subordinated to a language, containing the sense of discrimination to some extent. Language is regarded as paramount while dialects are secondary.)
From the official posters I could tell, at that time, speaking Mandarin represented being well-educated, loyal to our country while speaking dialects represented being rude, lack-of-education, and localism. Even worse, insisting on speaking dialects and rejecting learning Mandarin, was regarded as an action of betraying or nationality separatism. The policy and some of its actions had drew Mandarin and dialects to a hostile position in some provinces, especially in Guangdong.
Unsatisfied with the policy, Cantonese people tended to protect Cantonese dialect and Cantonese culture to the upmost. Lots of resistance and movements came out since then. Although Mandarin is taught in schools, leant by everyone, Cantonese people persist in using their own dialect in transportations broadcast and TV news till now. The awareness of reserving and promoting local culture leads Cantonese to be the most powerful dialect in China.
Even so, I have noticed that the following phenomena show that Cantonese has been weakened and replaced gradually:
- The youth tend to mix Mandarin words in their Cantonese speaking, in order to replace the vocabulary they don’t know or forget.
- Parts of the young kids they can understand Cantonese but they can’t speak, and some of them even refused to speak.
There is always a dilemma between popularizing the official language and protecting dialects. For the whole society, popularizing official language is essential for regularity. For individuals, learning the official language can benefit them in study, career and traveling. Dialects fall in a weak position inevitably, which represents the weaken status of local culture. To balance the two items is a tough task.
However, the policy from the government may not deal with this issue perfectly. Individuals should take up the responsibility for it. For instance, the family guidance and education may help a lot? I am still looking for more solutions about this issue.