2010-08-02

Hundreds protest for Cantonese

Hundreds of people gathered in a Guangzhou park yesterday in defiance of government orders not to rally as part of a campaign to defend Cantonese.
About 20, including several journalists, were taken away by police for questioning. The journalists, three from Now TV, two from Cable TV and one from Reuters news agency, were detained for nearly six hours, one of them said.

"We were told we were being formally summoned for allegedly causing public disorder," said Lam Kin-shing, the Guangzhou correspondent for Cable TV.

About 200 people attended a parallel rally in Hong Kong.

The rare joint campaign was the first to mobilise Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong and Guangdong in defence of the dialect, which they say has been increasingly marginalised on the mainland. In downtown People's Park in Guangzhou, amid a heavy police presence, more than a hundred supporters congregated yesterday afternoon, participants said.
It turns out the government also ticked off some people by removing an obscene historical quote from a statue:
Others screamed: "Police, go away!" and: "F*** his mother, persist against all odds," emulating the obscene rallying cry reportedly used by Ming dynasty national hero Yuan Chonghuan.

Guangdong authorities last month upset Cantonese-speaking natives by removing a plaque with the phrase inscribed at the base of his statue in Dongguan.

Hundreds defy orders not to rally in defence of Cantonese

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