Saving dialects with pop culture

Preservation campaigns have been aided by the boom in artificial intelligence

One night in late October, Zhao Yuhe found herself standing onstage at a film festival in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, flabbergasted to have just received the best actress award. The 83-year-old told the audience that she was surprised to have won, because she is a farmer, illiterate, and cannot speak Mandarin.

While her lack of language skills and education might have resulted in trouble finding jobs or communicating with her compatriots, it was not an issue at the Zurong Dialect Film Festival, which began as one of the campaigns to preserve language diversity that are becoming increasingly popular in China.