BEIJING — Protests over land grabs, industrial pollution and poor work conditions often rattle the Chinese authorities.
Now add to that outrage over language policy.
More than 1,000 people gathered Sunday in Guangzhou, in southern China, to demonstrate against a local politician’s proposal to force a major local television network to stop broadcasting in Cantonese and switch to the country’s official language, Mandarin.
The protest, which was raucous and impassioned, ended peacefully after the police broke up the crowd. But any mention of the demonstration was wiped from many Internet forums on Monday, (唔怪得知都睇唔到新闻）and only one national newspaper carried a detailed report, indicating that the pro-Cantonese groundswell had become a politically delicate matter.
Cantonese is widely spoken in Hong Kong, Guangdong Province — whose capital is Guangzhou — and neighboring areas. Some call it a dialect of Mandarin, a language spoken commonly in the north, but a growing number of linguists say Cantonese is a separate language. Northerners generally do not understand it, but are used to its strongly pitched sounds because of the ubiquity of Hong Kong movies and Cantonese pop songs.
Concern over the loss of languages and dialects in China is growing. In Tibet and Xinjiang, some ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs say the use of Mandarin as the official teaching language in schools has weakened the fluency of the local languages among many young people. Officials say mastering Mandarin is important for students to compete for jobs and university slots.
Two weeks ago, notices began popping up online telling people to gather at 5:30 p.m. on July 25 at the Jiangnanxi subway station in Guangzhou to oppose a proposal that was presented this month by the local politician, Ji Kekuang. Mr. Ji, a member of the local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, suggested that the programs on Guangzhou Television’s news and satellite channels start using Mandarin instead of Cantonese. He said the change would help accommodate tourists and athletes visiting for theAsian Games in November.
The protesters on Sunday gave passionate speeches to cheering crowds about the worth of Cantonese and sang Cantonese songs, one news report said. Young people wore T-shirts with “I Love Guangzhou” written in characters common to Cantonese script but absent from Mandarin script. (Most characters overlap between the languages, but there are notable exceptions.)
The English-language edition of Global Times, aimed at foreigners living in China, carried the one detailed report. It quoted Su Zhijia, a deputy party secretary of Guangzhou, as he rebutted rumors that the government planned to completely reject the use of Cantonese. “The city government has never had such a plan to abandon or weaken Cantonese,” Mr. Su said.
Most of the protesters appeared to be in their 20s or 30s. The owner of a restaurant by the demonstration site said in a telephone interview that the protesters had yelled out “Support Cantonese!” and “Protest!” The protesters clogged the roads and stopped traffic, said the restaurant owner, who gave his name only as Mr. Liao because of sensitivities about discussing protests in China. “I couldn’t do business at all,” he said. “They all blocked up my door.”
Lines of police officers formed human barricades to try to keep the crowd from swelling, witnesses said.
The Cantonese-versus-Mandarin debate is fierce even in Chinatownsin the United States, where many residents traditionally spoke Cantonese or a related dialect, Taishanese, because their families came from Guangdong Province. But in recent years, the number of immigrants from other parts of China has grown, and Mandarin is now becoming the dominant language.
北京 - 抗議對土地的爭奪，工業污染和惡劣的工作條件往往喋喋不休的中國當局。
現在補充了憤怒的語言政策。
1000多人聚集在廣州星期天，在中國南部，以證明對當地政治家的建議，迫使當地主要電視網停止廣播致辭並切換到該國的官方語言，國語。
這次抗議活動，這是喧鬧的，充滿激情，和平結束後，警察驅散了人群。但是，任何提及的示威是由許多網絡論壇抹去週一，只有一個全國性報紙上刊登了詳細的報告，表明親粵語風潮已成為一個政治上微妙的問題。
廣東話是廣泛使用在香港，廣東省 - 廣州的資本 - 和鄰近地區。有人稱之為一種方言的普通話，語言口語常用於北方，但越來越多的語言學家說廣東話是一個獨立的語言。北方人一般不理解，但使用它的強烈音調的聲音，因為在普及的香港電影及粵語流行曲。
關注損失的語言和方言在中國越來越大。在西藏和新疆，一些藏族和維吾爾族人說，使用普通話作為教學語言的學校官方削弱了流利的當地語言中的許多年輕人。有關官員說，掌握普通話是很重要的學生就業競爭和大學插槽。
兩個星期前，通知開始彈出網上告訴人們聚集在7月25日下午5:30在廣州江南西地鐵站到反對這一建議，提出了1個月，當地政客，姬科礦。嵇先生，一個地方委員會委員的中國人民政治協商會議，建議，方案對廣州電視台的新聞和衛星頻道開始使用普通話而不是廣東話。他表示，這一變化將有助於滿足遊客和運動員參觀了亞運會的11月。
上週日的示威者向歡呼的人群熱情的發言值得關注的粵語，唱粵語歌曲，一新聞報導說。年輕人穿的T恤衫以“我愛廣州”的書面致辭中常見的人物，但沒有從普通話劇本劇本。 （大多數字符重疊的語言，但也有明顯的例外。）
英語語言版的環球時報，目的是外國人住在中國，進行一個詳細的報告。該報援引蘇佳，一名副書記廣州，因為他反駁傳言說，政府計劃完全拒絕使用粵語。 “市政府從未有過這樣一個計劃，放棄或削弱廣東話，”蘇先生說。
大部分示威者似乎是在20多歲或30歲。一家餐館的主人由示威現場說，一個電話採訪時說，示威者大叫“支持粵！”和“抗議！”示威者堵塞道路和攔截車輛，餐館老闆說，誰給了他的名字只作為廖先生對討論敏感問題，因為在中國的抗議。 “我不能做生意了，”他說。 “他們都堵住了我的門。”
線警務人員組成人肉沙包盡量使群眾從腫脹，目擊者說。
粵語抗-普通話辯論非常激烈，即使在唐人街在美國，傳統上有許多居民說廣東話或相關方言，台山，因為他們的家庭來自廣東省。但近年來，移民的人數從中國其他地區的增長，與普通話正在成為佔主導地位的語言。
|
發表於 2010-7-31 01:08 AM
| 
下下咁認真...呢個世界變得唔好玩架啦...
發表於 2010-7-31 11:09 AM
| 
