Vancouver university begins Cantonese courses amid fears the language is being lost to Putonghua
With Putonghua increasingly dominant in Chinese language classes worldwide, news that the University of British Columbia will introduce Cantonese courses has caused a stir
Safeguarding Cantonese has become an emotive issue in recent years in Hong Kong and Guangdong, where many citizens worry that their mother tongue is being marginalised in an increasingly Putonghua-speaking world. So when the University of British Columbia in Vancouver announced that it would offer credit-bearing Cantonese courses starting this month, the news immediately generated a buzz.
It even brought a stream of daily e-mail messages to Professor Ross King, the university's head of Asian studies, thanking him for helping to save the language.
But that's not why the university introduced its Cantonese programme. The idea is to offer a course that reflects the community of Vancouver as well as the history of Chinese immigrants in the city, King says.
"It's about doing justice, doing what's right by a robust and intellectually comprehensive programme. It makes sense for teaching and research, too, though there is a lot of worry about the legal status of Cantonese."
There are different kinds of Cantonese - street talk and then more formal [language] that's used in TV news. At UBC we'll do both
The development has drawn attention in publications from Sing Tao to The Economist. Fairchild Radio, a Chinese-Canadian radio network, also recently devoted an entire session of its phone-in programme to the topic.