Controversy over use of Cantonese by Guangzhou Television

In July 2010, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Guangzhou Committee, in a written proposal to mayor of Guangzhou Wan Qingliang, suggested increasing Standard Chinese (Putonghua) programming in the General Channel and News Channel of Guangzhou Television (GZTV).^[1] The proposal sparked widespread controversy, met with fierce criticism in Cantonese-speaking cities including Guangzhou and Hong Kong and eventually triggered a protest in Guangzhou. In a formal response, GZTV rejected the proposal, citing “historic causes and present demands” as reasons for Mandarin-Cantonese bilingualism.^[2]

Background

Mandarin as the official language

Beijing made Mandarin the country’s official language in 1982, leading to bans on other languages at many radio and television stations.^[3] This status was confirmed by the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, which went into effect on January 1, 2001. This law implements the provision in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China that the state promotes nationwide use of the language.^[4][5]

Use of Cantonese on television

Due to Mandarin’s status as the official language, use of the country’s other languages in television as well as radio and film is rigorously restricted by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT).^[6][7][8] Permission from state or provincial authorities is required for using a dialect as the primary programming language at radio and television stations.^[7]

In 1988, the Ministry of Radio, Film, and Television, predecessor of the SARFT, approved the use of Cantonese by Guangdong Television (GDTV) in its Pearl River Channel and Guangzhou Television as a countermeasure against the influence of Hong Kong television in the Pearl River Delta region.^[1] The Satellite Channel of Southern Television Guangdong (TVS) is another major channel in China offering Cantonese programming and is the only Cantonese channel permitted to be broadcast worldwide via satellite.

Decline of Cantonese in younger generations

Despite having been approved for use in local television, Cantonese still faces restrictions and challenges in other aspects of social activities, which contributes to the decline of the language, particularly in the younger generations.

In elementary and secondary schools, the medium of instruction is mandated by law to be Mandarin.^[4] Use of Mandarin is also ubiquitously promoted in schools. In contrast, most, if not all, local schools do not offer classes on Cantonese, although this is not explicitly forbidden by law.

In the past few years, there have been a number of newspaper reports about students in Guangzhou being punished for speaking Cantonese in school and even outside the classroom.^[9] One elementary school in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou reportedly requires students to speak Mandarin not only in classes but also during their spare time, and threatens to deduct points from their records if they fail to comply.^[10] This has caused some children to become reluctant to learn and use Cantonese or unable to understand or communicate in Cantonese at times.^[10][11][12]

Also contributing to the decline is the influx of migrant population into Guangzhou as a result of the city’s economic and developmental advantages in the country. Increase of non-Cantonese-speaking population in the city leads to an increased number of non-Cantonese-speaking teachers in schools, forcing students to speak Mandarin on more occasions than Cantonese.^[12][13]

Earlier moves by GZTV in adopting Mandarin

In 2009, GZTV shifted its Economy Channel from Cantonese to Mandarin at a cost of 30 million yuan.^[13] Following the transition, viewership of the channel plummeted from 0.34 to 0.09.^[14] The channel’s noontime news program reverted to Cantonese in January 2010 due to low ratings.^[1]

CPPCC Guangzhou Committee proposal

Survey

Prior to submission of the proposal to the local government, in June 2010, the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee conducted an online survey on GZTV’s broadcasting on its website. In response to a question concerning increasing Mandarin programming, of the 30,000 respondents, among whom two thirds were Guangzhou natives, a dominating 79.5% opposed the increase in favor of maintaining the current Cantonese-to-Mandarin ratio, while only a meager 19.5% were in support.^[15][16]

Proposal

In spite of opposition expressed through the survey, in July 2010, the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee officially submitted a proposal titled Suggestions on Further Enhancing Construction of Asian Games Soft Environment to Guangzhou mayor Wan Qingliang (simplified Chinese: 万庆良; traditional Chinese: 萬慶良), which explicitly voiced that GZTV should increase Mandarin programming by either adopting Mandarin as its primary programming language or converting all prime-time programs into using Mandarin and serving reruns in Cantonese.^[1][16]

“	We suggest converting the General Channel or News Channel of GZTV into a channel with Putonghua as the primary programming language, or changing prime-time programming of the General Channel and News Channel into using Putonghua.	”
—CPPCC Guangzhou Committee, Suggestions on Further Enhancing Construction of Asian Games Soft Environment

Proposal rationale

“	For Guangzhou to reach out via satellite [broadcasting], [GZTV] must use Putonghua.	”
—Ji Keguang (纪可光), vice-chair of proposal committee of CPPCC Guangzhou Committee, in words to mayor Wan Qingliang (万庆良)

In explaining the rationale for the proposal, the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee cited allowing satellite broadcasting of GZTV programs, an idea supported by 82.1% of the respondents in the online survey, as the main reason. Among municipal television stations of the five National Central Cities named by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, GZTV is the only one whose main channel is not broadcast nationwide via satellite, because the majority of its programs are in Cantonese, while Mandarin programming is one of the requirements of SARFT approval for satellite broadcasting. The CPPCC Guangzhou Committee also asserted that only if GZTV achieved satellite broadcasting would Guangzhou live up to its status as a National Central City, and it would also facilitate more people to know about Guangzhou.^[16]

Reactions

Reactions of local citizens and netizens

Responses to the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee’s proposal were generally negative, especially those from local citizens and netizens; only a minority of reactions were positive.^[1][15][17] In response to media interviews, local citizens expressed concerns about the possibility of Cantonese being lost, particularly in the younger generations, although there were also more optimistic and neutral opinions.^[10][12][17]

Cantonese speak Cantonese poster

Netizens created artworks that satirized the proposal and promoted Cantonese. Some made a sarcastic poster mimicking that of the movie Echoes of the Rainbow. The title of the poster, Cantonese-breaking Thief (simplified Chinese: 碎粤神偷; traditional Chinese: 碎粵神偷), has the same pronunciation as that of the movie in both Cantonese and Mandarin.^[18] Some others made a poster taking the style of propaganda posters that were popular before the 1990s, with text reading “Cantonese speak Cantonese; go home if you cannot understand it”.^[19]

On July 11, 2010, a group of Guangzhou youngsters carried out a flashmob-style gathering in the People’s Park in Guangzhou to promote Cantonese, singing Boundless Oceans Vast Skies and Glorious Years, two famous Cantonese works by Hong Kong-based band Beyond, and the Cantonese adaptation of the theme song from Japanese anime Dr. Slump, known to many born in the 1980s.^[20]

July 25, 2010 mass assembly

People gather at Jiangnanxi Station

A man displays a slogan during the assembly

Police on the scene

On July 25, 2010, a crowd of about 10,000 gathered at 5pm in the surroundings of Guangzhou Metro’s Jiangnanxi Station in a protest to criticize the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee’s proposal and support Cantonese.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26]} Organizers of the activity had informed local police in advance, but were forced by the authorities to cancel it.^[26][27] People, however, gathered regardless.

During the gathering, the crowd shouted slogans promoting Cantonese, including the battle cry^[28] of a famous Cantonese general, Yuan Chonghuan, and mocking at Ji Keguang, who was believed to be the most active supporter in the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee; they also sang Glorious Years by Beyond.^[13] Despite its size, the crowd stayed peaceful and maintained order.^[24]

Local police were dispatched to the scene and exercised restraint throughout, and there was no physical clashes between the protesters and the police.^[29] The crowd was dispersed at 6:30pm, when dusk fell and it started to rain.^[24]

Reactions of notable personalities

Han Zhipeng (simplified Chinese: 韩志鹏; traditional Chinese: 韓志鵬), a member of the CPPCC Guangzhou Committee, expressed his opposition after release of the proposal, saying, "Cantonese is the carrier of Lingnan culture, and the mother tongue of Guangdong people; it is also a bond connecting overseas Chinese, for most of them speak only Cantonese." He further suggested introducing a new Mandarin satellite channel instead of reducing Cantonese programming.^[1]

Zeng Zhi (Chinese: 曾志; ), director of GZTV’s General Editor Office, questioned satellite broadcasting as a motivation for GZTV shifting to Mandarin, saying that satellite broadcasting was a complicated and difficult issue, and might not be attained even if Cantonese was ditched.^[1]

Chen Yang (simplified Chinese: 陈扬; traditional Chinese: 陳揚), who is celebrated by local television audience for his blunt criticism of government policies and behaviors when hosting News Eyes for GZTV since the show’s inception in February 2004 until being forced to leave in December 2008, sighed, "Cantonese is in degeneracy… Behind a dialect forced into extinction there must be a weakened culture."^[1]

Zhan Bohui (Chinese: 詹伯慧; ), honorary director of Jinan University’s Chinese Dialect Research Center, defended the proposal, declaring that increasing Mandarin was to cater to the migrant population in Guangzhou, to whom Cantonese was unintelligible.^[1]

Ji Keguang (simplified Chinese: 纪可光; traditional Chinese: 紀可光), the most prominent proponent of the proposal, when requested for comment on the 90% agreement to Cantonese programming in the online survey, responded with "They need guidance", which eventually put him at the center of criticism from local citizens and netizens. Ji also downplayed the feasibility of introducing a new Mandarin channel as he believed that a new channel would be very costly and lack time to mature before the 2010 Asian Games.^[17]

Reactions of government officials

Wang Yang (Chinese: 汪洋; ), secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangdong Committee, noted in a session of the committee on July 16, 2010 that the important upcoming work was “education, to enlighten and culture the people with education”.^[30] The remark was interpreted by the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily as the authorities maintaining a hard-line stance against popular calls to protect Cantonese.^[31]

Su Zhijia (simplified Chinese: 苏志佳; traditional Chinese: 蘇志佳), deputy secretary of the CPC Guangzhou Committee, explicitly denied the existence of “popularizing Putonghua while abolishing Cantonese” in an interview with GZTV on July 20, 2010, saying that the government had no intentions to abandon or weaken Cantonese. Meanwhile, he still encouraged local citizens to master Mandarin and use the language on formal occasions and in public places, reflecting the government’s policy of promoting it.^[2][13]

Reactions of GZTV

In a formal response, GZTV rejected the proposal, citing "historic causes and present demands" as reasons for Mandarin-Cantonese bilingualism.^[2]

Official response

Guangzhou city deputy Ouyang Yongsheng (欧阳永晟) responded by saying "Cantonese dialect is Cantonese people's native tongue and is also Lingnan area's dialect. Guangzhou according to law, according to rule, according to heart, according to reason would never do something to 'promote Putonghua while abolishing Cantonese' (推普废粤)." Other terms which gained popularity among netizens include 'the fall of Cantonese' (粤语沦陷).^[32] A suspect from Hubei with surname Yu (余) was arrested for instigating the event with ulterior motives.^[33][34]

Post rally

On 1 August 2010 hundreds of people gathered in Guangzhou People's park. About 20 people were taken away by police. Three of them were journalists from Now TV, two from Cable TV and one from Reuters.^[35] Others gave the figure at 3000 people attending the Guangzhou rally with 7 journalists arrested.^[36] A protester asked a police officer why he was carried away for protecting his own culture as he was not breaking any laws. Another person in the rally said he has never seen that many police in his entire life.^[36] About 200 people attended another rally in Hong Kong at the same time in Southorn Playground in Wan Chai.^[35]

At the end of August a 24-year old female from native Guangzhou named Deng Xiaoying (鄧XX) was revealed to have started the campaign with her friends on July 11 asking Cantonese speakers to sing Cantonese songs. Government officials called her home and warned her not to take part in any campaign. At the time she believe the campaign should continue.^[37]

On 18 and 19 September 2010, famous Hongkong activist Cai Shufang (蔡淑芳) and famous blogger Zhong Shuangyu (鍾雙羽) led the global Cantonese supporting assembly. However, because of the preparation by the Chinese government, the assembly only been held on time in Hongkong and United States. ^[38][39]

See also

• Linguistic rights
• National political concerns of the Frenchification of Belgium

References

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External links

• Anger at Cantonese language switch