Asia
Protest in Guangzhou
The medium is the message
Jul 27th 2010, 4:46 by J.M. | BEIJING
HAVING been denied permission to demonstrate, more than a thousand citizens of Guangzhou, most of them youngsters, happened to drift together—assembling as if by chance—outside the Jiangnanxi metro station on Sunday evening, at exactly 5:30 in the evening. Soon they were chanting a very pungent Cantonese slogan, in unison: “Fuck your mother! Go all out!” (Or “hit the hard”, depending on one’s taste in translation.) Their cry was at once a celebration of local culture and an act of defiance, aimed at the local government. The Cantonese dialect itself is under attack, they reasoned. How better to defend it than to demonstrate it in action, en masse?
Authorities in Beijing are unlikely to be worried that their complaint against the Guangdong government, about the dialect used in a television broadcast, will trigger broader unrest. But the protest on July 25th will be seen as a warning sign of something that does disturb them. It showed that for all China’s strenuous efforts to censor the internet, it remains a powerful tool for mobilising dissent. Word of the protest was spread online, not least by social-networking tools such as Twitter. Though Twitter is blocked in China, thousands of Chinese gain access to the service by using software to circumvent what is scornfully referred to as the government’s Great Firewall. Many also use government-sanctioned Chinese versions of Twitter, which—though filtered for offensive keywords—are still effective tools for the broadcast transmission of sensitive news.
Many of the protesters in Guangzhou were young people brought up in classrooms where use of the Cantonese dialect (or language, depending on one’s linguistic views) has long been restricted. But for all their professed dismay at the government’s decision to reduce Cantonese broadcasts, they have nonetheless grown up in an environment far richer in Cantonese culture and language use than their parents experienced in the earlier decades of Communist rule. Guangdong province is today awash with Cantonese DVDs from Hong Kong, where the dialect is almost universally spoken. Many residential buildings provide feeds of Hong Kong television (albeit with the sensitive parts blacked out). Since the dark days of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s, Cantonese opera has enjoyed a revival.
The experience of Taiwan suggests that government efforts to impose linguistic homogeneity on an unwilling population are by no means guaranteed success. After fleeing China in 1949, the island’s ruling party, the Kuomintang, tried to force universal use of Mandarin (which in Taiwan is called guoyu 國語, or the state language, rather than the less formal-sounding term putonghua 普通话, or common language, that is used in China). For years, the use of Taiwan’s widely spoken native dialect (a variant of the most popular dialect in China’s Fujian province) bordered on the subversive. It was all but eradicated from mainstream cultural entertainment. Yet as soon as the KMT’s grip began to relax, in the 1980s, the Taiwanese dialect rebounded, magnificently. Mandarin has since found itself increasingly marginalised. Many Taiwanese leaders now use it sparingly, even though it remains the official tongue.
A dialect as robust and well-entrenched as Cantonese will not be extinguished. The protest in Guangzhou seems more to reflect youthful resentment at interfering bureaucrats rather than a specific anxiety about the demise of Cantonese. In a country where protest is rarely tolerated, especially when it is directed at officialdom, an innocuous-sounding get-together to air views on the local dialect stood a better chance of ending without arrests. But the large police presence that was deployed suggests the authorities were still nervous. A protest over dialect-use today could embolden Guangzhou’s youth to rally for more overtly political causes tomorrow.
In this blog, our Asia correspondents and our Banyan columnist provide comment and analysis on Asia's political and cultural landscape. The blog takes its name from the Banyan tree, under which Buddha attained enlightenment and Gujarati merchants used to conduct business.
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Readers' comments
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I speak for myself as a non-Cantonese Chinese: I do not want to be told by the government of what language to speak, what websites to visit, what shows to watch, etc. Please, stop meddling! Less governmental intervention ftw!
I have been looking at some of the videos and photos associated with the posts below and elsewhere on the internet. Does anyone else think these police seem strangely restrained by the usual Chinese police standards. Perhaps the clear visibility of video recorders and devices that can publish direct to the internet restrained them?
Photos of Aug 1 Pro-Cantonese Rally in Guangzhou:
http://img.ly/images/abu9
Video of Aug1 Pro-Cantonese Rally in Guangzhou
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWNL1MEtUH0
There were so many police and even military vehicles were seen.
@lecra
"Actually, Mandarin is also a dialect. If Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were parts of China, maybe people would also call their languages "dialects"?"
Having the same written language does not mean the languages are related. Vietnamese and Korean are not even in the same language group as Chinese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language
English has a lot of French words, but it is not a Romance language. Korean has a lot of loan words from Chinese, but linguist do not consider it a Chinese language.
Same written script does not mean shared language. The Vietnamese most had no written script before they adopted Chinese writing. Did Vietnamese become a Chinese language by adopting the writing system. For example the Thai alphabet is based on the Brami script from India. As I said before, the Economist don't want to get into an argument about whether Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu and Min are dialects or separate languages, because the writer is not a linguist specializing in Sino-Tibetan languages. If they put down language they will offend people, if they put down dialect they might also offend some people.
"The term dialect (from the Greek Language word dialektos) is used in two distinct ways, even by linquists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class......" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect)
Actually, Mandarin is also a dialect. If Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were parts of China, maybe people would also call their languages "dialects"?
@lecra
""Many of the protesters in Guangzhou......where use of the Cantonese dialect (or language, depending on one's linguistic views)...."
If Cantonese is a "language" and not dialect, how is it written?"
The Economist is being diplomatic here. Because increasingly linguist (including Chinese ones) view the main "dialect" groups like Yue (Cantonese), Wu, Min etc as separate languages, while others still view them as dialects. The Economist are not linguist so they are correct hedging their bets.
As for the writing part, the use of standard Chinese is relatively recent (ie past 120 years). Before that Classical Chinese was used. Vietnamese and Koreans used Classical Chinese 200-300 years ago, but does anyone consider them to be dialects of Chinese? Again its better left to the linguist.
And definitely, it will be really sad when one day all of the LANGUAGES and the DIALECTS are dead! But guys, why don't we try first to save Irish, Scottish or maybe Welsh?!
And the fact is, at least in South China, where dialects exist are full of discrimination. Shanghai would be a typical example! So we mock, "It's always safe to speak ENGLISH or other foreign LANGUAGES, if you can. Keep one thing in mind: never speak Mandarin with people you don't know!"
What can I say, after all of these, the explosion, the oil spill, the ...? This country is crazy and so are the people living there. No one should be blamed but politics. Yes, people inside the Great Wall are unhappy but how can people outside the Wall publish such bullshit so happily? Of course, we are from differing nationalities, from different minority groups, so it always has nothing to do with YOU, ME, US, but only THEM! Economist, perhaps you wanna be objective, however, can you really be? When you support your President Obama, when you worry about your United States, when you mock China, either the ridiculous government or the crazy people, can you be objective, can you?
I say, more power to all languages & dialects! Embrace them with open arms & more importantly, open minds.
The world is so enriched & enhanced by the variety, disparity & diversity they collectively & individually embody.
Viva la multi-linguisity!!
"Many of the protesters in Guanzhou......where use of the Cantonese dialect (or language, depending on one's linguistic views)...."
If Cantonese is a "language" and not dialect, how is it written?
Nonsense. At least those parts on what languages people are using now in Taiwan. You converse with any young people under 30 and see what's the language they are using. Politicians speak Fu-Kien dialect (sorry, there's no the so-called Taiwanese dialect) when they went to Southern Taiwan to lure the older generations of voters.
Please do some field works before you wrote anything. Especially as a reporter.
Cantonese fares much better than other dialects, i.e. Shanghaiese.
Guangzhou still has Radio channels broadcasted in Cantonese. Hong Kong movies are shown in either original Cantonese or Mandarin-dubbed versions in cinemas. Cantonese opera also makes a strong comeback.
As long as Cantonese remains the predominant language in Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese will not wane in the Pearl River delta.
However, Cantonese has lost its clout in some other regions. It used to be Cantonese was commonly spoken in Nanning, Guangxi. But hardly anymore.
The style of Young Guangzhou Cantonese Protest is probably a mimic of Hong Kong style protest
Here's a video of "Long Hair" and the crowd shouting "Tsang Yam Kuan, Pok Gai (Go to Hell)" and "Communist Party, Go to Sleep Early" ("Go to Sleep Early" is a Cantonese slang for **** off)
on the street of Causeway Bay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQo28boGa6c
Sorry for the typo.
More videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HA9B7UstV4
People are chanting "Guangzhou people speak Cantonese" and "**** his mom. Hit the Hard" (Tiu Laa Maa, Ding Ngang Shueng)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6KhCW0bikI&feature=related
People are yelling "Sau Pei" (F*** off) to the Police.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j0mWUXhCkw
When the police tried to stop the rally, people were chanting "Diu Laa Maa" (**** his mom)
The media didn't report in detail. After some useless politician introduced the plan of replacing Cantonese-speaking channel with Mandarin, people started sharing a pic of the statue of a Cantonese military commander, Yuen Sung Wun. on Sina Weibo, because there was a sign under his stature showing his slogan "**** His Mon. Hit the Hard" ! Local media reported that and government later took down the sign!
Pictures inside:
http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?1,100990
Right after the government took away the sign, a few young people organized a flash mob to raise the awareness of protecting Cantonese. The local and even national media reported it.
At the same time, the TV system in Guangzhou metro was hacked and the screen only showed "Cantonese".
Picture and Video Inside:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_suppression_of_Cantonese_s...
During the rally, there were even people chanting "Mandrin **** off". (youtube link is inside wiki)
After the rally, Sina weibo censor the word "Cantonese". Click the following link for picture
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4707071&id=46309462581
The situation is Taiwan is actually much more subtle than this article suggests. For instance, politicians in north Taiwan tend to use Mandarin more often and those in south Taiwan tend to use more the local dialect. In the pop-culture landscape, esp. pop music, Mandarin commands the definite dominant position, and songs in local dialect are in a more niche position.
As to Guangzhou, one big factor is the existence of the large migrant population (some say 50% of the Guangzhou population), who usually do not speak Cantonese.
A simple solution is to add additional Mandarin channels, rather than replacing existing Cantonese channels. This will make everyone happy.