Do most people in China speak Cantonese or Mandarin?

At present, there are about 67 million to 654.38+300 million people in the world who speak Cantonese, and it is widely used. Cantonese is not only widely used in overseas Chinese communities, but also supports Cantonese culture centered on Hong Kong culture and South Guangdong culture, which makes Cantonese have a strong influence and can be said to be one of the most vibrant languages in the world at present. At present, Cantonese has become the fourth largest language in Australia, the third largest language in Canada and the third largest language in the United States.

Strictly speaking, Mandarin is just an artificial language, not Beijing dialect. In Chinese mainland, "promoting Putonghua" is regarded as one of the important policies and even written into the Constitution, while the use of dialects is restricted. In recent years, this restriction has been relaxed, and dialect programs have emerged in various TV stations. Many cities have dialect news programs and TV dramas, but most of them are entertaining, such as the sitcom Old Man of Shanghai TV, Shan Hai Jing of Suzhou dialect news of Suzhou TV, In a word of Nantong TV, Local Lang of Foreign Daughter-in-law of Guangdong TV, Boys and Girls of Jilin TV, Hunan and so on. The Ministry of Education also promoted the campaign of "Putonghua becomes the language of campus", which led to the situation that some schools in some provinces banned students from speaking dialects. Some people think that in some areas, the one-sided popularization policy makes it impossible for children born in the 1990s to use dialects fluently, and there are gaps in the inheritance of dialects and local cultures. Compulsory popularization has been criticized by online public opinion. Some people think that the emergence of a certain number of young people who speak Mandarin as their first language in dialect areas will not make dialect culture extinct. [Source Request] Unlike the rapid decline of dialects in the northern region, in southern cities such as Shanghai and Xiamen, the government has begun to realize the significance of inheriting dialects.

A more objective point of view is that "promoting Putonghua" is beneficial to the communication between China people in different regions and foreigners and China people in different regions. However, dialects bear a large number of oral literary heritages, such as Suzhou Pingtan [8], Henan Henan Opera [9] and other folk arts or operas were born on the basis of dialects. The gradual disappearance of dialects means that these rich intangible cultural heritages are on the verge of extinction. Dialect is the bond of homesickness. Artificially cutting off this bond may accelerate the destruction of local traditional culture. [Source Request] Moreover, the widespread use of dialects will lead to obstacles in regional communication and even regional discrimination. For example, in Shanghai, Guangdong and other places, people who can't speak the local dialect will be discriminated against by most local people.

Before the reform and opening up, few people could speak the northern dialect, and people often used the local dialect to communicate in their lives. In recent years, this phenomenon has changed greatly. With the popularization of Putonghua in China, more and more people are learning Putonghua, and it has even become the main language of strangers' descendants. Some people even pointed out that "Putonghua teaching" is "mother tongue teaching", which even stimulated the online discussion of dialect protectors. People in Chinese mainland have been debating whether it should be popularized, whether the use of dialects should be restricted, and whether popularization will inevitably lead to the atrophy of dialects.

In areas with more immigrants, such as Shenzhen, Putonghua has replaced the local aboriginal dialects (Hakka dialect and Weitou dialect) and Guangdong's strong dialect (Cantonese) as a common language. Cantonese and Hakka almost completely quit local public places and can only live on a dialect island. It may be difficult to communicate simply in local Cantonese or Hakka in urban areas.

In many specific places, such as large institutions, government departments at or above the prefecture level, universities, etc., it is stipulated that Mandarin is the only common language, and dialects other than Mandarin are generally not used in these places. However, due to the majority of local people in some towns and villages, officials still communicate in local dialects.

In many cities in the north (especially in Hebei) and some cities in the south, there have been cases where local young people can only speak Mandarin, but not local dialects. In other areas, the mother tongue of urban young people has also been influenced by Putonghua, and their dialect expression ability has deteriorated to varying degrees compared with the previous generation.

So there should be more people who speak Mandarin.