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SCMP Reporter

Best-selling author on Cantonese civilisation  says province's detractors should re-read the history books

Computer engineer Kong Shidong has not picked up a word of Cantonese even though he has been living in Guangzhou for three years.

The 32-year old moved from Tianjin  to Guangdong because of better job opportunities in the province, but he said he had never felt attracted to the local culture.

'I know people here want you to speak Cantonese. To me, that is just petty regionalism,' Mr Kong said. 'My impression of Guangdong people is that they are very materialistic. They spend most of their time thinking about money and nothing else. They are short-sighted and lack higher ideals.'

The man's sweeping criticism of Cantonese culture is widely shared outside the province. While Guangdong has been  the mainland's business mecca for decades, its cultural achievements  are often ridiculed.

'In many of the TV dramas in the 1980s, there will be a shyster from Guangdong wearing fake Rolex and tacky suits. He talks in a funny and glib manner with heavily accented Putonghua and always tries to cheat honest people,' recalled Zhang Hongye , a  writer from Yunnan .

This  perception reached a new height  during the 2003 Sars outbreak. Scientists blamed the spread of the virus, which first emerged in Guangdong, on local people's fondness for eating wild animals.

Stories of Guangdong people's 'barbaric' culinary habits  filled internet chat rooms. Some even suggested the disease was a scourge to punish Guangdong people for their avarice and cruelty.

Many Guangdong natives felt such criticism was unfair and ill-founded. So much so that when Guangzhou writer Ye Shuming   was approached by a local publisher for a book in defence of the Cantonese culture, he jumped at the chance.

Ye finished his job with gusto. The book, titled You Don't Understand Cantonese People, became a smash hit in Guangdong  after its release in January.

Publisher Wu Manhua , deputy editor of Guangdong Education Publishing House, said more than 13,000 copies had been sold in the first three months.

The book topped the best-seller list in Guangzhou and received rave reviews from local newspapers. Nanfang Daily, the official mouthpiece for the province, gave  rare full-page coverage of  Ye and his book.

Even the author himself has been taken aback by the success. Ye believes his work has struck a chord with many who have grown tired of being misunderstood and ridiculed.

'We feel we have to speak out because such stereotypes have caused a very negative perception towards Guangdong people. It is pernicious to our cultural and economic development,' Ye says.

He and many others see such bias as being deeply rooted in China's history, in which a self-centered China habitually brands the peripheral regions as 'barbarian lands'.

Guangdong, with a history of civilisation  stretching as far back as any other region, has nonetheless been called 'the land of southern savages' for centuries.

Despite  having been the birthplace of many great cultural and political figures in the country's history, it is always scorned by people from the north.

'From a historical prospective, Guangzhou is far more ancient than Beijing or Shanghai. Our history stretches back at least 2,000 years, while Beijing is only 800 years old and Shanghai is a modern city,' Ye says.

'But our culture has never been given the same weight as that from these two cities. Guangdong is far away from China's political centre and has been relatively independent. So it is always regarded as a branch, not the mainstream, of Chinese culture.'

Hong Kong translator Leo Lam  shares this view.

'Cantonese is more ancient than Putonghua, which is actually a mixed language. Many ancient poems do not rhyme when you read them in Putonghua but they rhyme in Cantonese. In many aspects, Cantonese has retained more ancient Chinese characteristics than Putonghua,' he says.

Ms Wu, the publisher, says Guangdong culture has often been misunderstood by people from other provinces.

A native of Yunnan, Ms Wu points out that Guangdong has been the breeding ground for new cultures and new ideas throughout China's modern history.

Many prominent  Chinese figures are Cantonese, including  Sun Yat-sen , the founding father of  the modern nation.

'Because Guangdong is the earliest Chinese territory opened to westerners, people here are more accustomed to and tolerant of new ideas,' she says.

This puts the Cantonese culture in sharp contrast with its northern counterparts, which puts the stress on tradition, convention and 'Chinese characteristics'.

'Modern Chinese film and music are heavily influenced by the Cantonese culture, first from Hong Kong and then from Guangdong,' Ms Wu says.

'Cantonese culture has become analogous to popular culture. The conservative cultural elite gradually came to regard Cantonese culture as a sub-culture or the symbol of commercialism.'

This 'cultural strife' does not limit itself only to internet chat rooms and newspapers. Guangdong officials are increasingly aware of how  the province's perceived cultural inferiority has taken a toll on its other developments.

In an official research paper last year,  scholars pointed out that the Yangtze River Delta region had attracted more professionals and skilled workers than the Pearl River Delta on the strength of its 'strong cultural environment'.

Last year Guangdong Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang   told officials that Guangdong needed to add more 'cultural elements in economic development'.

The province should become not just the economic centre, but also the cultural centre  of China, Mr Zhang says.

For  starters, it certainly needs more writers like Mr Ye to speak out loudly against such centuries-long prejudices.



'Southern savages' claim cultural high ground