Cultural Preservation: How Mandarin Chinese Affects Cantonese
Usage in Hong Kong
Have you ever heard of Jin Yong (金庸), Steven Chow (周星馳), Jackie Chan (成龍), or Edward Lau(劉德華)? If yes, perhaps you have already seen their works? If otherwise, no worries still, I would as well like to invite you to have a look of this article and understand more about the Hong Kong culture! In fact, from the 1950s to 1990s, Hong Kong’s culture was at its peak. Its influence was able to spread to the other countries, especially those in Southeast Asia. Even for people outside Hong Kong nowadays, I believe some who are 20 years old or above, might also have heard of Hong Kong’s songs, literature, movies, and celebrities from that period. Among all these, there is a common element that links them together, and it is also the subject today: Hong Kong Cantonese.
Few Things You Should Know About Hong Kong Cantonese
Cantonese is mainly used in Guangzhou, Macao, and Hong Kong, while there are differences in pronunciation and diction in three areas. In order to differentiate, the one used in Hong Kong is called Hong Kong Cantonese. In my opinion, the concept of Hong Kong Cantonese is quite complicated and unique at the same time. For writing systems, Hong Kongers use traditional Chinese characters to write, and the form is called written vernacular Chinese (白話文) which is mainly used in formal occasions; whereas in informal occasions like texting with friends and posting on social media, written Hong Kong Cantonese is preferred. For oral communications, Hong Kongers use Hong Kong Cantonese. Therefore, the writing and oral system used could be different, unlike in Taiwan and China, people just read what they write.
There are some significant features in Hong Kong Cantonese. Since Hong Kong used to be a British colony, English is also one of the languages frequently used back then. As a result, code-switching with English is common. It is expected for people to use both Cantonese and English in the same sentence. Besides, there are also many imported loanwords from English, and being transformed into Hong Kong Cantonese vocabulary. Such features have enhanced the diversity of Hong Kong Cantonese.
Crisis of Hong Kong Cantonese: Cultural Invasion
Hong Kong Cantonese has its own uniqueness. While importing loanwords to create new words is a representation of diversity, words that already existed are being replaced by imported words is a signal of cultural invasion. Right now, Hong Kong Cantonese is unfortunately being culturally invaded by Chinese Mandarin due to various factors. First, more and more schools adopted the policy that teaching Chinese in Mandarin. As mentioned, even for formal occasions, Hong Kongers use written vernacular Chinese, but it is different from that of Mandarin Chinese. Under such situation, students would easily be confused and mixed up the words. For example, it is acceptable to write ice-cream as “雪糕”in written vernacular Chinese, however when learning Chinese in Mandarin, students would only be allowed to pronounce and write ice-cream as “冰淇淋”.
Second, more and more Chinese are moved to Hong Kong. Except Guangzhou, almost all of the provinces in China are not using Cantonese but Mandarin, so they are non-Cantonese speakers. With the government policy “One-way Permit Scheme”, it allows 150 mainlanders move to Hong Kong every day. Thus, you can imagine the increase of non-Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong over the years. Some of them are willing to learn and use Cantonese after they moved here, while most of them are still unwilling to do so. What is worse, they also raise their kids in Mandarin. As a result, Cantonese users are dropping whereas Mandarin users are rising. Moreover, there are many Shen Zhen-Hong Kong cross-boundary students studying in the schools of Sheung Shui, the district near the mainland borders most. Hence, a phenomenon exists that most of the students are communicating In Mandarin instead of Cantonese.
Third, the increase influence of Chinese culture. With the rise of China, its cultural export is strong as well. By browsing Chinese social media platforms like Weibo, WeChat, Baidu, Tik Tok, etc., or watching Chinese television dramas frequently, Chinese culture rubs off on Hong Kong people. They would easily be used to the Mandarin usage. As a consequence, Hong Kongers’ word choices would be affected since the two systems still shares certain similarities after all.
With the factors mentioned above, more and more Hong Kong people are starting to replace Hong Kong Cantonese words by Mandarin Chinese words consciously or unconsciously. However, this is definitely not a good sign to Hong Kong Cantonese. The influence of such increasing trend is that people would soon forget the original Cantonese words, but only remember and use the Mandarin Chinese words. Especially for the younger generations, when they soak in an environment where most of their peers are from Mainland China, or learning from their parents who talk to them using Mandarin Chinese words, then how do they know there are actually Hong Kong Cantonese words with the same meaning? They would simply follow their peers and parents and communicating with Mandarin Chinese words as well. Moreover, the words used by Hong Kongers in the future will then no longer preserve the unique features and cannot represent the Hong Kong culture. As a result, it leads to a language decline in short-term, and the language could even be replaced in long-term.
Examples: Comparisons on Words Choices of Hong Kong Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese
Even though both Hong Kong Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese are Chinese, they present and express in a largely different way. In order to show a clearer difference in terms of word choices of the two languages respectively, I am going to list numerous words pairs as examples below.
These examples may be quite difficult for non-Chinese speakers to understand, but to sum up, Hong Kong Cantonese is different from Mandarin Chinese explicitly in many ways. Moreover, the formation of Hong Kong Cantonese words is quite special. For example, for the word ‘portable charger’ in Mandarin Chinese is “充電寶”, which is formed literally; whereas for “尿袋” in Hong Kong Cantonese is formed figuratively. Since the literal translation for “尿袋” is a urine bag, and carrying a portable charger with the wire look like carrying a urine bag, hence the word is formed. Another feature is that the Cantonese imports loanwords from English. From the list above, tips in Hong Kong Cantonese is “貼士 (/tʰip7 si2/)”, the pronunciation is similar. These features are what made Hong Kong Cantonese so special and different from Mandarin Chinese.
Cultural Representation of Cantonese in Hong Kong: Why Should We Preserve It?
Some people may wonder why it matters so much when simply using Mandarin Chinese words instead of Hong Kong Cantonese words. In fact, the language Hong Kong Cantonese itself is a representation of Hong Kong’s culture, history, and the people. By knowing the formation and etymology of a Hong Kong Cantonese word, you can know more about the Hong Kong’s background. Moreover, by using Hong Kong Cantonese words, is also a kind of self-identification of Hong Kongers, for them to show their sense of belongings of the city. Thus, when the Hong Kong Cantonese words are being replaced, the cultural and historical knowledge contains by the words will be lost as well. Cantonese is then no longer interesting. If Hong Kongers do not uphold and preserve Cantonese, the language would soon die out. Guangzhou is exactly a warning for Hong Kongers, situation there is not simply replacing words choices, but Cantonese itself is becoming a dying language. Youngsters are learning Mandarin instead of Cantonese, and many of them do not even know how to speak Cantonese. Therefore, dear Hong Kong people, please do not let our precious Cantonese becomes part of the history. Let’s start learning more about the knowledge inside Cantonese from today and preserve it together!
