Meet the Cantonese activist fighting to keep the language alive in its southern Chinese heartland
- Until recently the idea that the language was at risk of dying out in Guangzhou – the city formerly known as Canton – would have seemed laughable. But now its advocates have a fight on their hands
For the past 18 years, 39-year-old Cantonese cultural activist Lao Zhenyu has been running a website to protect his native culture and linguistic heritage amid fears that the language – once spoken by more than 60 million people around the world – is slowly dying in its birthplace.
Gznf.net, set up in December 2000, has attracted 1 million followers online – mostly native Cantonese speakers – as he seeks to promote and keep the Cantonese identity alive in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
Twenty years ago, the idea that Cantonese might be at risk of dying out sounded like a joke to anyone living in the provincial capital Guangzhou – formerly known as Canton – and the wider Pearl River Delta as the dialect was a basic element of the 2,000-year-old city’s culture and history, Lao said.
“It was there like the sun and air in our life.” he said.
But Lao said a series of incidents drove him and other residents of the city to notice that the Cantonese dialect and traditions that locals took for granted was were under threat.
He and his team believe they must stand up for the dialect and the culture that they love and argue there is no contradiction between using Cantonese and Mandarin, the official language in mainland China.