Cantonese songs.

I have heard that it is a call for the preservation of Cantonese culture

A proposal triggered a debate over "promoting popularization and abolishing Cantonese"

In June this year, the Guangzhou CPPCC When conducting research on issues related to the soft environment of the Asian Games, a survey on the broadcasting situation of Guangzhou TV Station was posted on its website. The results show that nearly 80% of the viewers hope that Guangzhou TV station will continue to use Cantonese broadcasting method.

On July 5, Ji Keguang, deputy director of the Proposal Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference, handed over a proposal "Recommendations on Further Strengthening the Soft Environment Construction of the Asian Games" to Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang. One of them is: The Asian Games will be held in Guangzhou in November this year. It is recommended that the prime-time news broadcasts on the comprehensive channel and main channels of Guangzhou TV be changed from Cantonese to Mandarin to create a good language environment and create conditions for successfully hosting the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Immediately, Han Zhipeng, a member of the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference, posted on Weibo: “We received news today that the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference will formally recommend that Guangzhou TV’s news and comprehensive channels switch to Mandarin all or during major periods. The mother tongue is in danger!” Short In just a few hours, there were thousands of comments and thousands of reposts.

A few days later, the local media in Guangzhou reported on the "banning" of Cantonese in a primary school in Guangzhou, describing the experience of grandparents and grandchildren in old Guangzhou who did not understand the language, and people in new Guangzhou who wanted to learn Cantonese but had no environment. This news undoubtedly made Guangzhou people who opposed the proposal depressed and entangled.

For a time, the voice of "defending Cantonese" spread everywhere.

"New Weekly" executive editor Feng Xincheng posted a Weibo post: "Cities without dialects are shameful." It became one of the most forwarded comments.

Chen Yang, a famous media person in Guangdong, sighed: "Cantonese has fallen. Behind the disappeared dialect must be a weak culture."

There are also countless comments on the Internet supporting "Cantonese" : "Cantonese is the root for many overseas Chinese to maintain their homeland and cannot be cut off." "The dispute between Cantonese and Mandarin is actually a cultural conflict between the north and the south, and Lingnan culture is in danger."

It is worth noting that in the opposition Among the people in Guangzhou who propose and defend "Cantonese", there are many young people born in the 80s and 90s. On July 11, a group of local "post-80s" people in Guangzhou gathered in a park in Guangzhou and sang Cantonese songs together using a "flash mob" method.

The cultural anxiety behind "defending Cantonese"

This debate has brought Ji Keguang, a representative figure who proposed promoting Mandarin on TV stations and deputy director of the CPPCC Proposal Committee, to the forefront of public opinion. People on the Internet jokingly call him the "Smashing Cantonese Thief".

Ji Keguang, who was born, grew up and works in Guangzhou today, said in an interview with Guangzhou media: Guangzhou is not only a Guangzhou for Guangzhou people, it is also one of the central cities in the country and is also international. Guangzhou, Guangzhou should be open and tolerant, allowing foreigners who study and work in Guangzhou to integrate into Guangzhou, and this integration is first of all linguistic integration. I'm not suggesting "cancel Cantonese", I'm just calling for the main channel to be dominated by Mandarin.

In fact, as early as 2009, in preparation for the Asian Games, Guangzhou TV invested 30 million yuan to change the economic channel originally broadcast in Cantonese to Mandarin, and also changed the "Lunchtime" broadcast in Cantonese to News" was also changed to Mandarin. However, the ratings of the revised Economic Channel were not satisfactory, and it was switched back to Cantonese broadcasting earlier this year. However, in Ji Keguang's view, the ratings have a lot to do with ideology, program production, and broadcast quality. Switching to Cantonese in order to pursue ratings is "choking and giving up food."

What is puzzling is that in the "Recommendations on Further Strengthening the Soft Environment Construction of the Asian Games" submitted by the Guangzhou Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference, there are *** 35 items. Why is this suggestion to increase the number of Mandarin broadcasts on TV stations? Do people in Guangzhou have such a big reaction?

Han Zhipeng, who supports "Cantonese", believes that Cantonese is an important carrier of Lingnan culture, and many overseas Chinese only speak Cantonese, which is what maintains the overseas Chinese. A bond. Cantonese is closely related to local lifestyles. If Cantonese declines, lifestyles will also change. I'm afraid that Guangzhou people will have collective amnesia by then.

Cantonese is really in danger, has it reached the point of "defending"?

Mr. Liu, a member of the central media stationed in Guangdong who has been paying attention to the debate over the "survival of Cantonese" said, "Cantonese has fallen. "This is purely unfounded worry. In Guangdong, Cantonese mainly includes Cantonese, Hakka and Chaoshan dialects. However, most people believe that Cantonese refers to the Cantonese dialect commonly used in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, also called vernacular, and is the best-protected dialect. There are currently about 67 million Cantonese speakers in the world. Cantonese is not only widely used in overseas Chinese communities, but also supports the Lingnan culture centered on Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and has strong influence and vitality.

A government official believed, "If a city wants to go nationwide, it needs communication. If outsiders don't understand what is being said on TV, how can they understand Guangzhou? If the TV station does not speak Cantonese, it does not mean that It just killed this dialect.”

In fact, with the acceleration of Guangzhou’s urbanization process, a large number of new immigrants and “new Hakkas” have poured in, and northern culture has rapidly penetrated and penetrated, leaving room for the development of Lingnan culture. Shrinking has inadvertently aggravated the cultural anxiety in the Cantonese community.

The cultural game of the "Controversy between Guangdong and Pudong"

As for the debate over "promoting Popularization and abolishing Cantonese", relevant personnel of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference responded: Guangzhou TV station wants to cancel Cantonese broadcasting, which is obviously A misreading. Among the 14 million permanent residents in Guangzhou, only about 7 million speak Cantonese, and most of the rest are Mandarin speakers. The CPPCC's suggestions only hope that Mandarin broadcasts can be added during important periods such as comprehensive channels.

It is understood that Guangzhou TV Station recently responded to the CPPCC Proposal Committee's "Recommendation on Guangzhou TV Station's Comprehensive Channel Should Increase the Broadcast Time of Mandarin Programs", stating that the station currently operates its own channel programs in Mandarin and It is compatible with Cantonese. The current situation of this broadcast is due to the historical formation of the city of Guangzhou and the needs of practical development, and there is no consideration for change.

Recently, Su Zhijia, deputy secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, gave an "official statement" on the debate over "promoting popularization and abolishing Guangdong" in the form of an interview with the media. Su Zhijia said that the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have never had the idea of ??"abolition of Cantonese" or "weakening of Cantonese". In the process of building a national central city and promoting Lingnan culture, promoting Mandarin and protecting dialects are not contradictory, but can also complement each other.

Su Zhijia pointed out that my country is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-dialect country with a large population. Promoting and popularizing Mandarin is conducive to enhancing exchanges among various ethnic groups and regions, maintaining national unity, and enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation. As an important part of Lingnan culture, Cantonese is closely related to Lingnan opera, music, food, etc. Not only is there no possibility of "abandoning Cantonese", but the protection and promotion of excellent local culture has always been an important work content of the party committee and the government.

Wang Yang, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, also warned not long ago: "Lingnan culture should not be ruined in our hands."

Some experts believe that in recent years, , with the rapid economic and social development of Guangzhou, more and more people from other provinces have settled in Guangzhou and become "new Hakkas". With the popularization of primary and secondary education in Guangzhou and the improvement of residents' education level, most Guangzhou people are now proficient in Mandarin. The simultaneous use of Mandarin and Cantonese, and the use of different languages ??on different occasions, has become a way of life for Guangzhou people. Promoting Mandarin and defending Cantonese are not “either/or”. Promoting Mandarin is to achieve "language modernization"; while "defending" Cantonese is to maintain cultural diversity. Behind the dispute between Mandarin and Cantonese broadcasting time is the issue of integrating cultural diversity and unity.

Some netizens pointedly pointed out that this battle over "the survival of Cantonese" artificially amplifies the contradiction between Cantonese and Mandarin, and over-interprets the survival of Cantonese. It is not only an emotional media misleading , but also a kind of pseudo-cultural protectionism.

In fact, whether it is "promoting Mandarin" or "defending Cantonese", behind the "Cantonese-Putong controversy" is the fear of the decline of Lingnan culture and the concern about the ineffective protection of local culture. Some scholars believe that as a major economic province, Guangdong’s cultural construction is unsatisfactory.

With the return of Hong Kong and Macau, the north wind blows south, Cantonese language and its culture are gradually withdrawing from the mainstream and no longer become the vane of popular culture. It is no longer fashionable for young people to speak Cantonese and adopt a Hong Kong and Taiwanese accent. The sense of cultural superiority that emerged since the reform and opening up no longer exists, and this debate emerged as the times require.

While looking at this debate correctly, we also need to see that with the acceleration of modernization, urbanization, and industrialization, and the frequent movement of people, more and more dialects are facing degradation or even There is a danger of extinction, and local traditional culture has a tendency to drift away from people. This is indeed worthy of people's deep thought.