Op-Ed Contributors

Mandarin or Cantonese: Where's the debate?

By Colin Speakman (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-12 07:52

Although Guangzhou authorities have denied rumors that the city will scrap Cantonese (or Guangdonghua) to promote Mandarin (or Putonghua) in the near future, the Cantonese versus Mandarin debate has attracted attention from across China as well as abroad.

Westerners may remember an earlier instance when Mandarin and Cantonese featured in a limited way in "language" course options overseas. I recall that at my British university I had the chance to add either Putonghua or Cantonese studies (but no other dialect) to my degree course. That was in the days when Hong Kong was still British colony and before China's reform and opening up had really taken hold.

The early days of Deng Xiaoping's economic changes took place in Shenzhen, and entrepreneurs from Hong Kong were among those who helped bring more Western business practices to the Chinese mainland. Thus in the 1980s, as international links were developed with China, speaking Cantonese was quite useful. It was also true that overseas Chinese in Britain and America tended to speak Cantonese.

But times have changed as the mainland has developed. Mandarin is the fastest growing language. Foreigners in and outside China both are learning it. It has been added to the educational programs of many Western schools. And China has taken the initiative to set up hundreds of Confucius Institutes overseas with foreign universities' cooperation through Hanban (Chinese cultural centers) to send many Mandarin teachers across the world to provide local courses.

Many nationals of English speaking countries do not find foreign language study easy and those that have recognized the importance of learning Mandarin (reflecting the adage in international business "you can buy in any language, but to sell, you need the local language"), come to China expecting to be able to communicate with people across the country in their language.

But if people in South China were to speak in their local dialect their counterparts in the North would not understand them at all, and vice-versa. This is where Putonghua comes in as the common but effective medium of communication.