rss feedBrother, can you spare a Mandarin dialect?
Enough people sent me The New York Times story about the changing face - or shift from Cantonese to Mandarin - in New York Chinatown and other places in the United States with large ethnic Chinese populations.
So, I thought I’d use English to join the conversation.
My uncle, Bill Wong, provided thoughtful analysis based on his experience of growing up in Oakland Chinatown – where historically Cantonese (Guangzhouhua) or the Taishan dialect (Taishanhua) can be heard.
Interestingly, given what I’ve learned while studying at Chinese universities, I’m using the Mandarin pinyin spellings for the Cantonese and the Taishan dialects.
Really, given my ancestral ties to Guangdong province, I should be using different spellings. Something similar to: Kwangtung or Toisan.
So, why the rise of Mandarin in places in the world - which largely had Cantonese because immigrants from Guangdong province were some of the first to leave?
After Mao gained ultimate power in 1949, Mandarin – or Putonghua – became the language spoken across the country, in offices, at factories and schools.
Regional dialects were spoken in homes and on the streets.
Where do I stand in all of this?
Well, I’m someone who was born and raised in the Northern California suburbs.
My parents sent me to Cantonese school – so I could learn the native tongue of my grandparents who were from Guangdong province.
As a kid, though, I rebelled. I told my parents that everyone in our neighborhood spoke English.
I thought I had succeeded when I thought I could utter one sentence in Cantonese: “I’d like one order of fried noodles.”
But Cantonese has nine tones. I know I must have butchered those.
I realized I had failed on my first trip to Guangzhou, the bustling southern Chinese city, when I used my English and a few Cantonese words that I remembered to order food.
Although I wanted to stay close to my ancestral roots and study Cantonese, I knew it was time to start studying Mandarin.
If I wanted to see the vast country, that was the key dialect for mass communication.
How does this relate to the Times article?
From a pure traveling in China perspective, I was likely more receptive to learn Mandarin – say compared to growing up in a U.S. Chinatown and switching from Cantonese to Mandarin.
In the same light, there are more Mandarin speakers in the world.
Mandarin becomes a natural choice to study.
I don’t think the fact that Mandarin is being spoken more in urban Chinatowns should come as a complete surprise.
It’s certainly not a topic to merit, in the newspaper pecking order, front-page coverage in the Gray Lady.
Why?
Statistically, about one out of every five people on the planet lives in the People’s Republic of China.
As China opens up more, people who went through turbulent times decades ago and want better lives and new experiences are embracing traveling to other countries.
So, too, will their children who sometimes move to other countries to attend university or pursue jobs.
Mandarin-speaking Chinese who have relatives in other countries also are moving to be with them or with the goal of earning more money.
Mandarin also remains key for business in China. But even speaking Mandarin does not always guarantee financial success in the Middle Kingdom.
It’s just one part of the big picture in a place where connections, capital and competition matter.
Of course, the shift from Cantonese to Mandarin will shape the histories and feeling of U.S. Chinatowns.
But The New York Times article should have pointed out that this shift has been unfolding for years – long before the editors decided to put it on their front page and tell the nation: “Look at this!”
The reporter or editors could have taken a subway ride to Queens to visit the bustling Chinatown there.
They could have walked around, listened to people’s dialects and realized there are several heard in the Big Apple: Mandarin, Fujianese, Taishanese, Cantonese and Wenzhouese.
When I attended graduate school in New York City for two academic years about seven years ago, I only heard Cantonese spoken once on campus.
The other times: Mandarin.
When I studied Mandarin in Salinas, Calif. in 1995 at a Chinese community center, Cantonese speakers actually crowded into the classroom to learn the dialect.
And guess what dialect many ethnic Chinese are speaking in high-tech areas, such as Silicon Valley and around Redmond, Wash.?
This dialect shift also can shape a Cantonese speaker’s identity.
It’s a similar question of identity as China rises in prominence and power in the world.
But with millions of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong, Guangdong province and other places in the world, the dialect will not fade away.
Cantonese also cannot be pushed aside in China – as The New York Times story noted - because it never was the country’s primary dialect.
It’s too bad an editor didn’t catch this sentence that started: “But the eclipse of Cantonese – in New York, China and around the world.”
But you know what?
Everything shapes your identity.
After you go to China, Japan or India for the first time, you return thinking in new ways.
If you’re from Asia and you go to Europe for the first time, you come back and think about your past and future.
If you run with the hip kids in New York City, Paris, London, Tokyo, Shanghai or Rome, you gain new ideas about yourself and who you are.
With China’s ascent in the world happening quite fast, we’ll likely see this global evolution unfolding at a much rapid clip.
What I hope doesn’t change, though, is a person’s genuine warmth, hospitality and curiosity – no matter your country or the Chinese dialect you speak.
Can this change?
It’s quite possible.
Financial security, safe homes, good lives and full stomachs are something we all want.
My wife pointed out that many Chinese had very little – in comparative terms to people in the West – during the 1980s. The 1990s saw more economic reforms and opening.
This decade, we’re seeing many Chinese buy homes, fancy cars, stylish clothing and taking trips to North America, Europe and the Middle East.
Chinese companies also are venturing into the global world of business in fascinating, powerful and influential ways.
But I hope that the injection of fast money does not produce a new class of aristocrats or plutocrats – no matter your country or ethnicity.
If you gave me a strict choice of a life with incredible amounts of wealth and no friends or a lifelong supply of close friends but no opportunity to buy a Mercedes-Benz, I think I know which option I’d choose.
Years ago, I was hiking in the mountains of Yunnan province.
My friend and I were at a mountaintop Buddhist monastery that was thousands of feet above sea level.
I had to use the restroom. It was chilly. So, I bundled up as I walked into the mud outhouse.
I spotted a monk in a maroon robe, sitting on wooden planks.
He looked up and smiled. I returned the greeting.
