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07-26-2010, 06:13 PM
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#1 | | YOU CANT CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS
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| Chinese Government Move to limit Cantonese Media
Quote:
BEIJING — Protests over land grabs, industrial pollution and poor work conditions often rattle the Chinese authorities.
Now add to that outrage over language policy.
More than 1,000 people gathered Sunday in Guangzhou, in southern China, to demonstrate against a local politician’s proposal to force a major local television network to stop broadcasting in Cantonese and switch to the country’s official language, Mandarin.
The protest, which was raucous and impassioned, ended peacefully after the police broke up the crowd. But any mention of the demonstration was wiped from many Internet forums on Monday, and only one national newspaper carried a detailed report, indicating that the pro-Cantonese groundswell had become a politically delicate matter.
Cantonese is widely spoken in Hong Kong, Guangdong Province — whose capital is Guangzhou — and neighboring areas. Some call it a dialect of Mandarin, a language spoken commonly in the north, but a growing number of linguists say Cantonese is a separate language. Northerners generally do not understand it, but are used to its strongly pitched sounds because of the ubiquity of Hong Kong movies and Cantonese pop songs.
Concern over the loss of languages and dialects in China is growing. In Tibet and Xinjiang, some ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs say the use of Mandarin as the official teaching language in schools has weakened the fluency of the local languages among many young people. Officials say mastering Mandarin is important for students to compete for jobs and university slots.
Two weeks ago, notices began popping up online telling people to gather at 5:30 p.m. on July 25 at the Jiangnanxi subway station in Guangzhou to oppose a proposal that was presented this month by the local politician, Ji Kekuang. Mr. Ji, a member of the local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, suggested that the programs on Guangzhou Television’s news and satellite channels start using Mandarin instead of Cantonese. He said the change would help accommodate tourists and athletes visiting for the Asian Games in November.
The protesters on Sunday gave passionate speeches to cheering crowds about the worth of Cantonese and sang Cantonese songs, one news report said. Young people wore T-shirts with “I Love Guangzhou” written in characters common to Cantonese script but absent from Mandarin script. (Most characters overlap between the languages, but there are notable exceptions.)
The English-language edition of Global Times, aimed at foreigners living in China, carried the one detailed report. It quoted Su Zhijia, a deputy party secretary of Guangzhou, as he rebutted rumors that the government planned to completely reject the use of Cantonese. “The city government has never had such a plan to abandon or weaken Cantonese,” Mr. Su said.
Most of the protesters appeared to be in their 20s or 30s. The owner of a restaurant by the demonstration site said in a telephone interview that the protesters had yelled out “Support Cantonese!” and “Protest!” The protesters clogged the roads and stopped traffic, said the restaurant owner, who gave his name only as Mr. Liao because of sensitivities about discussing protests in China. “I couldn’t do business at all,” he said. “They all blocked up my door.”
Lines of police officers formed human barricades to try to keep the crowd from swelling, witnesses said.
The Cantonese-versus-Mandarin debate is fierce even in Chinatowns in the United States, where many residents traditionally spoke Cantonese or a related dialect, Taishanese, because their families came from Guangdong Province. But in recent years, the number of immigrants from other parts of China has grown, and Mandarin is now becoming the dominant language.
| SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES
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07-26-2010, 06:55 PM
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#2 | | I am Hook'd on RS
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That'd be so fucked up if they made it official policy. It's already bad in places like Shenzhen where almost nobody speaks Cantonese even though it is in Guangdong province.
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07-26-2010, 07:12 PM
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#3 | | JDMEK9Mod | DogWhisperer
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absolute 
this would be a fucking retarded policy to essentially wipe out a language on tv.
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07-26-2010, 07:31 PM
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#4 | | Banned (ABWS)
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by jungle168  That'd be so fucked up if they made it official policy. It's already bad in places like Shenzhen where almost nobody speaks Cantonese even though it is in Guangdong province. | shenzhen has migrant workers from all different parts of china. so putonghua has to be the standard where they would all understand each other.
some migrant workers though can pick up the dialect because its quite similiar enough... its kinda like english and french
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07-26-2010, 07:31 PM
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#5 | | i like gifs
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Not surprised.
Outside of HK and Vancouver, there's not a whole lot of places that really speak Cantonese fluently.
Mandarin > Cantonese in terms of jobs as well  | |
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07-26-2010, 07:35 PM
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#6 | | Banned (ABWS)
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I think its good that China is uniting its languages, everyone should be able to communicate in the official language first, then dialect second.
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07-26-2010, 08:09 PM
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#7 | | I WANT MY 10 YEARS BACK FROM RS.net!
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all the locals in GuangDong region watch TVB anyway,
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07-26-2010, 08:17 PM
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#8 | | YOU CANT CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS
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Originally Posted by Jingwu3 I think its good that China is uniting its languages, everyone should be able to communicate in the official language first, then dialect second. | uniting is one thing - to completely take it off the media is another thing. Example: quite a lot of people in Richmond don't speak English, yet the official languages of Canada are English and French. Will it be fair for the Canadian government to completely wipe the Chinese media (Cantonese and Mandarin)?
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07-26-2010, 08:45 PM
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#9 | | OMGWTFBBQ is a common word I say everyday
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yeah...
they are not doing it anyways, and welcome to last month
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07-26-2010, 09:53 PM
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#10 | | Hacked RS to become a mod
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If you are in the Guangdong province, and outside the factory areas, MANY people still speak cantonese. In my anecdotal experience, the majority of these people speak both canto and mandarin.
I don't see why people are shocked at the CCP doing this though...
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07-27-2010, 09:52 AM
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#11 | | RS.net, where our google ads make absolutely no sense!
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07-27-2010, 10:32 AM
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#12 | | My homepage has been set to RS
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Fuck mandarin, sounds too serious...
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07-27-2010, 11:12 AM
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#13 | | I don't get it either
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in another 1000 years, there will be only 1 language left. The world will be so small that australia is like our backyard. Having a common language is just more efficient because more people can understand you, and you lose the inefficiency and error of translation.
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07-27-2010, 12:33 PM
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#14 | | My homepage has been set to RS
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| Quote:
Originally Posted by Ch28 Outside of HK and Vancouver, there's not a whole lot of places that really speak Cantonese fluently. | you really need to get out more
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07-27-2010, 12:36 PM
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#15 | | I *heart* Revscene.net very Muchie
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Jacky Cheung cantonese songs are better  33
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07-27-2010, 12:42 PM
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#16 | | Need to Seek Professional Help
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Now you all know how Francophones in Quebec feel  | |
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07-27-2010, 01:21 PM
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#17 | | Even when im right, revscene.net is still right!
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There are no other "dialect" language channels in China. I don't get why cantonese should get any special treatment? It's a dialect after all.
HK is fine, but its no surprise that mandarin should be the only proper language on TV in China.
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07-27-2010, 05:45 PM
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#18 | | Hacked RS to become a mod
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Because a TV channel should be able to broadcast in any language they want. There are mandarin channels in Canada, as well as Cantonese, French, Hindi, etc.
Even in China they have English language TV. So why not Cantonese?
This is straight up persecution. Nothing new for China, but just as wrong as everything else they do.
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07-27-2010, 06:33 PM
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#19 | | OMGWTFBBQ is a common word I say everyday
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Originally Posted by fetched There are no other "dialect" language channels in China. I don't get why cantonese should get any special treatment? It's a dialect after all.
HK is fine, but its no surprise that mandarin should be the only proper language on TV in China. | you need to get cable, man.
there are dozens of dialect channels in China.
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Originally Posted by Fei-Ji haha i can taste the cum in my mouth | There is a time when you have to sig a post.
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07-27-2010, 06:40 PM
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#20 | | :: Sells McLarens, Not tofu :okay: ::
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must be abandoning cantonese cuz of the hongers...
oh so sad laaaaaa
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07-27-2010, 06:49 PM
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#21 | | Even when im right, revscene.net is still right!
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Originally Posted by wouwou you need to get cable, man.
there are dozens of dialect channels in China. | uhh wah? Dialect channels? Like what? name some
Last edited by fetched; 07-27-2010 at 06:54 PM.
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07-27-2010, 07:44 PM
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#22 | | Unofficial Tin Foil Hat Specialist.
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Originally Posted by Captain Picard uniting is one thing - to completely take it off the media is another thing.
Example: quite a lot of people in Richmond don't speak English, yet the official languages of Canada are English and French. Will it be fair for the Canadian government to completely wipe the Chinese media (Cantonese and Mandarin)? | To be honest, I wish most of them spoke english. You're moving to a country, you're expected to learn and understand the national language.
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07-27-2010, 08:38 PM
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#23 | | look at these diamonds, they shining
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why is china such a dick sometimes
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07-27-2010, 08:58 PM
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#24 | | reads most threads with his pants around his ankles, especially in the Forced Induction forum.
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Originally Posted by skyxx To be honest, I wish most of them spoke english. You're moving to a country, you're expected to learn and understand the national language. | LOL when people ask me do I speak chinese I always say Sorry I don't know chinese in a chinese enlgish tone just to piss them off. You are in Canada now learn to at least speak a few simple English sentence.
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07-27-2010, 08:59 PM
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#25 | | OMGWTFBBQ is a common word I say everyday
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Originally Posted by fetched uhh wah? Dialect channels? Like what? name some | Hangzhou area has at least 3.
I will get you the numbers next week when I went there again for business.
Honestly, getting cable TV in China is CHEAP, you should try it sometimes.
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Originally Posted by Fei-Ji haha i can taste the cum in my mouth | There is a time when you have to sig a post.
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