Letters

Written version of Cantonese is low-brow

David Tang Wing-cheung ('Offensive views on Cantonese condescending', August 10) and Virginia Yue ('Putonghua is the linguistic interloper', August 9) use the same tired argument that is always used to defend the use of Guangzhou dialect for formal purposes: that some poetry written in classical Chinese (not Guangzhou vernacular) rhymes when read in Guangzhou dialect.

Their use of this argument demonstrates the Canto-centrism in their thinking. Speakers of nearly every dialect south of the Yangtze River claim that Tang [dynasty] poetry sounds best when read in their own dialect. How ironic that speakers of the dialect notorious for violent prosody would defend it on the basis of pronunciation.

Most educated Hong Kong people can easily see that so-called 'written Cantonese' is only used for what should be politely called low-brow purposes, such as comic books and the adult sections of populist newspapers.

I have one question for Sir David and Ms Yue: What great classics of written Guangzhou dialect 'literature' are known throughout the world, and have been translated into dozens of languages? Absolutely none. The beauty and sophistication of modern written Chinese, which is based on Putonghua, is admired all over the world. Hundreds of great works from the Dream of the Red Chamber to those of Lao She, Hu Shi and other 20th century masters have been translated into every major language. Where is the Guangzhou dialect equivalent of Dream of the Red Chamber? The lack of any literary accomplishment besides rhyming 1,000-year-old poetry shows that Guangzhou dialect is a feudal relic.

By calling the origins of modern Chinese 'barbaric', Ms Yue shows the real origin of pro-Guangzhou dialect sentiment: prejudice against non-Cantonese people. Some Guangzhou and Hong Kong people talk about language rights, but the only language rights they worry about are their own. Guangzhou and Hong Kong cultural hegemony has made many dialects extinct. When I was a child, Guangdong province had a large variety of dialects, but if you visit traditionally Hakka or Hoklo areas now, you do not hear these dialects spoken by youngsters. They now speak Cantonese instead and cannot speak their mother tongue.

Guangzhou dialect is not the mother tongue of most immigrant children from the mainland, but Hong Kong's mother-tongue education policy forces these children to learn in it. Many of these children were taught in Putonghua before they came. Making them give up Putonghua and their mother-tongue for Cantonese is a linguistic atrocity. Meanwhile, post-colonial elites send their children to exclusive schools that teach in English and Putonghua.