Tongue Tired: Hong Kong's Disappearing Dialects

Putonghua usage may be increasing in Hong Kong, but the same isn’t true for China’s many other dialects. According to the 2011 census, the number of people in the city who speak another variant of Chinese as their main language is on the decline: from 352,562 in 2001 to 273,745 only 10 years later—that’s just 3.9 percent of the population. With fewer and fewer people speaking these dialects, we meet those keeping the old tongues alive and they give us the universal greeting: sik jor fan mei—have you eaten yet?

Tanka:"Sik jor fan mei?"

The Tanka, or boat people, stay true to the name. They have traditionally resided on boats and junks along the southern coast of Hong Kong, living a simple fishermen’s life. They don’t call themselves Tanka, which some view as offensive, but sui seung yan, “people of the water.” Cheung For-yau is a spokesperson for the Hong Kong’s Fishermen’s Association.

I was born in Tai O into a fishing family. The Tanka I know is already very different to that spoken two or three generations ago. Most people my age, including me, learned Cantonese first, but with a heavy Tanka accent. Even my grandmother did not speak pure Tanka. Hers was a mix of Tanka and Cantonese.

My family have always been fishermen. My grandfather’s grandfather’s generation moored their boats in Tai O and gradually built settlements in the area.

We use Tanka phrases. We refer to fishing as hoi sum, which means “happy” in Cantonese.

I am a water person and was born into a fishing family, but still, I get seasick every single time. If we were going on a one-week fishing trip, I’d be sick the first day and throw up. I only begin to feel better the second day.

The fish maw of the Chinese bahaba was the most sought after. It used to cost $30,000 a catty. That was a lot of money back then. Now I’ve heard it’s worth about $100,000 a catty! But you rarely see the fish in these waters anymore.