MCLC: Shanghainese comeback

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Shanghainese comeback
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Source: SCMP 
(2/9/13):http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1146286/revered-and-reviled
-shanghai-dialect-making-comeback-among-youth

Revered and reviled, Shanghai dialect is making a comeback among youth
City's educated youths are rediscovering the linguistic heritage of their
haughty local tongue
By Daniel Ren

Even as Shanghai strives to be a more international city, locals insist
that its unique dialect must be saved to preserve its cultural identity.

Pessimistic linguists and cultural experts have warned that Shanghainese,
a dialect that few people from other parts of the country understand, is
showing signs of dying out as Putonghua and English gain ground amid an
influx of mainland and global talent.

Shanghai dialect, which differs from Putonghua in its tones and
vocabulary, was once essential to learn for an outsider hoping to live in
the city. Non-locals living in Shanghai tried to grasp the dialect because
the natives would look down on them if they spoke Putonghua in shops,
restaurants and offices.

The local dialect also used to be a symbol of Shanghai chauvinism and was
partly to blame for the city's fraught relationship with other parts of
the country. In other mainland cities, people would be upset if two
Shanghai people spoke the dialect in public.

But the Shanghainese-speaking population has been decreasing since 1985,
when a new law was introduced requiring local schools to adhere strictly
to teaching in Putonghua as part of a policy of promoting linguistic unity.

The role of the Shanghai dialect was further dented in the 1990s when the
city stepped up its efforts to become a world-class metropolis. Shanghai
people attributed the declining popularity of the local dialect to the
booming economy, with thousands of other mainlanders and expats moving to
the city.

A study by Shanghai's Academy of Social Sciences found that only 60 per
cent of pupils in local primary and junior middle schools were able to
speak the local dialect. Only a few were fluent and anecdotal evidence
showed that some children of native parents were not able to speak a
single word of Shanghainese.

As the local dialect fades away, worries about the threat its decline
poses to Shanghai's unique culture are mounting among locals.

Their increasing awareness of the need to protect their dialect has been
reflected in the success of Shanghai comedian Zhou Libo, whose
Shanghai-dialect talk shows over the past four years have struck a chord
with millions of locals.

In 2011, a group of young people, mostly university students, launched a
campaign to promote the local dialect. The group, called Hu Cares, gathers
at the People's Square every week, calling on people to preserve the
Shanghai dialect. The word Hu is the short form of Shanghai in Chinese.

Their efforts attracted the attention of local education authorities, who
introduced the dialect in music and art lessons in the September semester
and provided students with new textbooks featuring poems and folk songs in
Shanghainese.

As Shanghai tries to preserve its cultural identity, it must strike a
balance between local pride and its international ambitions.

For a long time, Shanghai people referred to those from other parts of the
mainland as "country folk", reflecting the sense of superiority among
Shanghainese who lived in the mainland's most affluent city.

Unlike people in Guangdong, who insist on Cantonese's superiority because
it has a richer linguistic history than Putonghua, educators in Shanghai
suggest that outsiders learn Shanghainese because a command of the local
dialect will make them more confident residents of the city.