Discursive Essay: Language Shift in Hong Kong (Mandarin vs. Cantonese)

This discursive essay examines the complex issue of the replacement of Mandarin over Cantonese in Hong Kong, analyzing it as a form of social control. The essay begins by introducing the significance of language in cultural identity and communication, focusing on the historical context of Hong Kong and the contrasting roles of Mandarin and Cantonese. The main body of the essay delves into the social and political factors driving the shift, including the influence of the Chinese government, educational policies, and public resistance. It explores the arguments for and against the dominance of Mandarin, considering the impact on cultural identity, language preservation, and social cohesion. The analysis incorporates various sources, including academic journals, news articles, and surveys, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the issue. The essay concludes by summarizing the key points and reiterating the significance of language in shaping Hong Kong's cultural landscape, arguing that while the replacement of Cantonese with Mandarin was not good as a form of social control, it was preferred by most people.

DISCURSIVE ESSAY AN
ANALYSIS OF THE
REPLACEMENT OF
MANDARIN OVER
CANTONESE IN HONG KONG
AS A FORM OF SOCIAL
CONTROL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of replacement of Mandarin over Cantonese in Hong Kong of social control............3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Language is the main aspect which is essential for any of the person or the country to
interest with one another. When two or more people are there then at that time language is the
only thing with which the people can share their views and feeling with one another. Hence, for
all the country it is necessary that they manage the language within their country so that every
person in the country can express their feeling and views with one another. Use of language is
very important as this assist people in communicating with each other and expressing their desire
and queries. The current report is based on country Hong Kong which is a special administrative
region coming under People’s Republic of China. This is an area which is on southern coast of
China and is one of the most densely populated place within whole world. so that major question
of the essay is the analysis of the replacement of Mandarin a language of Hong Kong with
Cantonese as a form of social control (Yang, Chen and Chen, 2020).
Hence the term Mandarin is the traditional Chinese language which belongs to a group of
Sintic languages that is spoken within the areas like south western and northern regions of China.
This group involves the Beijing dialect which is the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese.
Mandarin is originated in North China and majority of the dialects and Mandarin language is
being found within northern region only and because of this sometimes it is referred to as
Northern Chinese.
On the other side, the term Cantonese is a type of language among the Chinese branch of
Sino- Tibetan languages which have been originated with the Guangzhou city. This language is
viewed as the inseparable and vital part of the cultural identity for the native speakers that is
among South eastern China, Macau, Hong Kong and other overseas communities. This is very
dominant and co- official language of Macau and Hong Kong.
MAIN BODY
Analysis of replacement of Mandarin over Cantonese in Hong Kong of social control
At the time when Hong Kong was occupied by China from UK in the year 1997 at that
time only a quarter of population of the country could spoke Mandarin. But even after getting
better in communication within Mandarin language also known as Putonghua this language was
just a taboo (Liu and et.al., 2017). As per professor of Chinese and Bilingual Studies that is Chan
Shui- duen at the University stated that among their students is a taboo. Among the young mass

standard of speaking in Mandarin language is increasing but in against of this some of the people
just rejected the language. This was majorly because of the reason that some of the people
thought this is not a good language as this is a sign of unwanted notice of increase in the
mainlandisation of Hong Kong (Cantonese v Mandarin: when Hong Kong languages get
political, 2021). The language Mandarin got the social rejection as people had a question and
fear that their identity as Chinese will be affected within the mainland Chinese government and
Hong Kong as well.
The language Cantonese is expected to have its origins after the decline in the Han
Dynasty at the time 220 AD. This was the time when long period of wars resulted in north
Chinese to run away to south and to take their older language back to them (Hong Kong culture:
an interesting guide to Hong Konger, 2021). On the other side, Mandarin was documented a
little later at the duration of Yuan Dynasty that is in 14th century. Mandarin language was
promoted afterwards by the Communist party when they took power in the year 1949. On the
official note, the government of city encouraged the students to become bi- literate in two
languages that is English and Chinese. On the other side, they also promoted trilingual that is
involve three languages which are Mandarin, Cantonese and English (Tu and et.al., 2020). But in
against of this Robert Bauer who is an expert in Cantonese language teaching at various Hong
Kong universities said the Education Bureau and other scholars were providing bribe to the
schools in order to change their language to Mandarin from Cantonese as a medium used to
instruct language classes relating to Chinese students. The people who supported the view that
Cantonese set Hong Kong apart from Mainland and due to this it was reflected that language
cantonese belongs to Chinese dialect and this is not the language official to the country.
But against of this the Chinese government interpretation relating to the reform of
language was angered by the public. After this many of the citizen were brought to streets for an
unprecedented protest in 2014. As a result of this the new proposal this was vetoed form the side
of politician belonging to pro- democracy in the year 2015 but in today parlance Hong Kong is
seemed to be stuck in political stalement. In against of this backdrop, Cantonese was not able to
survive and thrived in unexpected manner. In according to the experts the Cantonese language is
not dying (Wong and Lee, 2018). As per the views of Mr Lau said that from the dialectal point of
view this language is not in situation of endanger and it is working and being spoken in better
manner as compared to the different other languages. But the experts are worried relating to the

consequences for a long- term of the increase in Mandarin as the language in Hong Kong
especially within the schools as the language used in the schools is Mandarin.
Currently the writing and speaking of language Cantonese has resulted in becoming of an
act relating to politics as said by Robert Bauer. If this current trend will continue then as a result
of this people and children in school and universities will not be in position to speak Cantonese.
Subsequently this will result in language Cantonese to become endangered. in addition to this a
Chinese culture was spilled within the streets of southern city to defend their local language
(Languages as tool of political power: the threat of Cantonese extinction, 2021). There was a
proposal for Guangdong’s main television company as they were broadcasting in Mandarin
which is China’s official language and this angered the citizen. The citizen got angry because of
the reason that they had the fear that Cantonese will be side lined and other language will take
place of Cantonese. They had so much of love with Cantonese because of the fact that for half
people of 14 million use this language that is Cantonese and the rest half of the people speak
Mandarin within the city of Guangzhou.
In favour of Cantonese around thousands of protesters gathered and shouted slogan and
the public generally included the people of twenties and also included people belonging to
middle age group. This resulted into a controversy which resulted at the time when political
consultative conference which involves local committee insisted higher people to make sure that
language Mandarin is being used over the whole country and the and within the main TV shows.
This was also promoted in order to ensure the unity is promoted and this will help athletes and
tourist to arrive at the city for the Asian games will have a common language. In a poll relating
to committee’s own website it was identified that 80 % of the total of 30000 respondents it was
interpreted that Guangzhou TV station must be broadcasted in Cantonese (Protesters gather in
Guangzhou to protect Cantonese language, 2021). Further people praised their local culture but
they though that the resident must improve their Mandarin and use of this language on the formal
occasion and in public places as well.
On the other side from some secondary sources it was also analysed that the characters
within both the languages are share the same roots that is from ancient China. But the characters
of Mandarin are more simplified and these are set as standards by the Chinese government in the
year 1950. In against of this the Cantonese language still makes the use of the traditional
characters which are more complex as compared to the Mandarin language characters. On the

basis of speaking both the languages are not mutually intelligible. But the essence, there is same
character syllable base used but the pronunciation sometimes varies and this affects
communication (Mu, 2020). Due to this reason any person who only speaks Mandarin will not be
able to understand Cantonese in easy manner.in the end it can be stated that replacement of
Mandarin over Cantonese on basis of social control was not good. The reason pertaining to this
fact is that most of the people liked Cantonese as their language.
CONCLUSION
The above report summarised that language is the key term which is essential for any
person in order to interact with other one. This is pertaining to the fact that language is the only
aspect through which a person can share their feelings, views and thoughts with the other person.
Hence, the common language is very important for people to interact in clear manner so that
people can interact with other people. The above report evaluated the fact that Mandarin and
Cantonese are the two languages which are spoken in Hong Kong. Both these languages are
good but replacement of Mandarin over Cantonese was good as the characters of Mandarin was
better and easier to understand. Hence, the replacement was better but as a social control this was
not good as people preferred Cantonese as their language.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Liu, X., and et.al., 2017. Onset age of L2 acquisition influences language network in early and
late Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals. Brain and language, 174, pp.16-28.
Ma, J., and et.al., 2020. Neural substrates of bilingual processing in a logographic writing
system: An fMRI study in Chinese Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals. Brain research, 1738,
p.146794.
Tu, L., and et.al., 2020. Age of Acquisition of Mandarin Modulates Cortical Thickness in High-
Proficient Cantonese–Mandarin Bidialectals. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, pp.1-
14.
Wong, T.S. and Lee, J.S., 2018, March. Register-sensitive Translation: a Case Study of
Mandarin and Cantonese (Non-archival Extended Abstract). In Proceedings of the 13th
Conference of the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (Volume 1:
Research Track) (pp. 89-96).
Yang, Y., Chen, S. and Chen, X., 2020. F0 patterns in Mandarin statements of Mandarin and
Cantonese speakers. Proc. Interspeech 2020, pp.4163-4167.
Online
Cantonese v Mandarin: when Hong Kong languages get political. 2021. [Online]. Available
through: < https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40406429 >
Hong Kong culture: an interesting guide to Hong Konger. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.chinahighlights.com/hong-kong/culture.htm>
Languages as tool of political power: the threat of Cantonese extinction. 2021. [Online].
Available through: < https://www.altalang.com/beyond-words/cantonese-extinction-threat/
>
Protesters gather in Guangzhou to protect Cantonese language. 2021. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/protesters-guangzhou-protect-
cantonese>