2010-07-25

Youth demonstrate for Cantonese

The demonstrations announced last week took place on Sunday in Guangdong. Surprisingly, it was the young, not the old, who turned out in support of their native tongue.

Thousand rally to support Cantonese
More than 1,000 people, most of them in their 20s or early 30s, gathered outside an exit at the Jiangnanxi Guangzhou Metro station yesterday afternoon in a show of support for the Cantonese dialect.
A strong police presence and a media gag on coverage of the campaign to defend the local dialect failed to stop the protest.
One reason for the youth turnout was because it was organized online.
More people gathered around the exit, some displaying posters and wearing T-shirts with slogans in support of the local dialect. One poster said "Languages slaughterer" in English and showed a skull and bloody bones, referring to the endangerment of Cantonese. The protesters also shouted "Support Cantonese" and "Shut up, Ji Kekuang ".

It was Ji, an official of Guangzhou's political advisory body, who suggested the switch to Putonghua on local television.

Some college students arrived as early as 2.30pm yesterday. Alvis Zhao, 21, said he wanted to claim a good seat in a fast-food outlet by the metro exit to watch the event. Zhao and seven of his friends - all Guangzhou natives who went to high school together - said they had decided to attend the gathering even though they had heard it might be banned.

"We want to express our dissatisfaction and worry," Zhao said. "We don't hate Putonghua, and it's OK for us to speak it in the schools, but the government has gone too far with its plan to use more Putonghua on local TV channels."
Seeing a purely domestic debate over language clarifies what is going on with the social mood. Often it is colored with other issues, such as English and immigration in the U.S., minarets in Switzerland or burkas in France.

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