All is well with the Cantonese dialect in Hong Kong. Despite the rapid social and economic integration with the mainland, Hong Kong's people have obstinately clung to their native tongue.

Of course, many Hong Kong parents have seen the need for their children to learn Putonghua as a second language largely for pragmatic reasons. But they continue to speak Cantonese at home and at work. Canto-pop has remained in the mainstream and Hong Kong-produced movies tend to lose much of their appeal when dubbed into Putonghua or any other language.

However, there is no reason for us to participate in the protest by some people in Guangzhou to preserve the dialect in their city, who are worried that the change to Putonghua in public broadcasting threatens to push Cantonese to extinction.

The Guangzhou government explained that the move was aimed at making the city more friendly to visitors from other parts of the country during the Asian Games. But a few hundred people in Guangzhou staged a demonstration in protest last week, and a group of Hong Kong citizens are reportedly organizing a march in Hong Kong to show support.

Before we rush out to join the march, we should realize that Guangzhou is an industrial hub on the mainland. A large portion of its population came from other parts of the country, including many migrant workers from nearby provinces. Most people in Guangzhou speak fluent Putonghua which is the medium of teaching in every school. What's more, putonghua is the official language of the government and the courts.

I was actually quite surprised to learn that Cantonese was still widely used in public broadcasts in Guangzhou. Of course, we Cantonese are pretty proud of our own unique culture. In Hong Kong, non-Cantonese speaking northerners (those include everyone from the other side of the Shenzhen River and beyond) are sometimes treated with suspicion and condescension. When it comes to food, nothing can take the place of a proper Cantonese meal in treating important guests. But we would have thought that such regional chauvinism should have been largely suppressed in Guangzhou as in most other major mainland cities.

But the domination of Putonghua does not necessarily augur the extinction of the local dialects. In Shanghai, the local dialect, which is just as colorful and expressive as Cantonese, is widely spoken by native Shanghai people. Standup comedian Zhou Libo captured the hearts of thousands of Shanghai fans for making fun of them in their own dialect. He wrote a book on Shanghai idioms and slang which I found to be most entertaining and revealing of Shanghai's grass roots culture.

Local dialects, especially the ones that are so well developed as Cantonese, are constantly enriched by idioms borrowed from other languages. They have a life of their own, not easily snuffed by government edict. There is no need for public demonstrations to protect the native tongue. Just speak Cantonese to family and friends.

(HK Edition 07/30/2010 page2)