Is Hong Kong about to implode?

Upfront
Street Talk
So you think you know
Cantonese? Translator and
etymologist Dr. Chapman Chen
is putting together a book,
“A Comprehensive Dictionary of
Orthodox Cantonese Characters
and Phrases,” which explores
the history of Cantonese that
we use today. He tells Adrienne
Chum about the elegance of the
language and the need to keep
things local.
HK Magazine: So what’s the book about?
Chapman Chen: Cantonese has about 3,000 years of history,
so I’m making a comprehensive dictionary with about 1,500
entries. The purpose of the dictionary is to prove that
Cantonese is an elegant language—rather than a colloquial
dialect, as Beijing claims. Many Cantonese phrases come
from Chinese classics. They have an extremely ancient
origin, so the correct written forms are often forgotten.
Modern Cantonese speakers have invented informal
characters for them, which look uncouth. The dictionary
will show the correct way to write them.
HK: What’s so great about Cantonese anyway?
CC: Cantonese reflects orthodox Chinese culture, and is
a carrier of Hong Kong’s identity. Hong Kong is to China
what Ukraine is to Russia. Putonghua is an artificial language
imposed by the Chinese Communist Party, not a naturally
evolved language.
HK: What inspired you to put this book together?
CC: We Hongkongers are trying to preserve Cantonese,
just as the Scots are trying to preserve their language,
and the Barcelonans are trying to preserve Catalan.
Putonghua is actually the colloquial language—for example,
to eat in Cantonese is sik faan ( 食 飯 ), which is classical
Chinese—but in Putonghua, they say chī fàn ( 吃 飯 ), which
is actually a northern colloquialism. Cantonese inherited
final consonants from Tang Dynasty speech, so reading old
poems in Cantonese sounds much better, more musical.
Putonghua doesn’t have these sounds.
HK: Why not?
CC: Putonghua was seriously contaminated by barbarians,
by the languages of the Mongolians and the Manchurians.
Their phonemes are very lacking. An example is hap ( 盍 ),
to close—Putonghua reads it as hé, which doesn’t actually
close your mouth. Many four-character idioms have also
been preserved through our language, but are very difficult
to say in Putonghua.
HK: Do you think there’s pressure for Hong Kong to
switch from Cantonese to Putonghua?
CC: The government says they don’t force schools to teach
Putonghua, but provides many millions of dollars to support
Putonghua education. The Education Bureau encourages
schools to teach Chinese classes in Putonghua and to adopt
it as the medium of instruction—schools get subsidies.
Linguist Robert Bauer conducted a study showing that
currently more than 70 percent of primary schools teach in
Putonghua, and at least 25 percent of secondary schools
do. He estimates that in 10 years, Cantonese will become
a sub-class and sub-culture language, similar to how it is
in Guangdong. So I need to make this dictionary to save
the language!
HK: What should people do about it?
CC: To be clear, there is no problem with learning
Putonghua, but we are against using it as the medium of
instruction. We need to educate parents too: Some parents
think that learning Putonghua as the main language will
give their kids an advantage in academics or when looking
for work, but it’s not true. We need to give priority to and
protect local interests.
HK: How do you feel about the way Cantonese has
evolved in recent years?
CC: Hong Kong does not need to follow China in
everything; we don’t need to adopt northern colloquialisms
and slang in our writing. And yet, people have been
using them. Of course, young people are also using
“lazy tones”—replacing ng with n, things like that.
HK: So is Cantonese a language, or a dialect?
CC: It’s definitely a language, not a dialect.
Dr. Chen collaborates with cultural preservation charity
C for Culture. For more information on supporting
the dictionary, visit facebook.com/cforculture or email
admin@cforculture.org.
Blowing Water
(chui sui ), v. Cantonese slang. To chat, bullshit.
HongKabulary
duk6
naam4
“POISON MAN”
“Dweeb/nerd/geek.” A socially awkward,
unattractive man interested in anime and comics,
who is incapable of talking to women. Sounds similar
to duk naam ( 獨 男 ), “single/lonely man.”
Nor’vester (nɔːvɛstər), n.
Weather which dips below 24°C, after which the whole of
Hong Kong breaks out North Face jackets and vintage furs.
“It’s getting a bit chilly. Guess I should put on my cardigan—wait,
why is everybody in Arctic survival gear?”
“Aye, there be a cruel Nor’vester blowing in this month.”
HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 9