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Shenzhen losing Cantonese somewhat makes sense due to the sheer number of migrants moving in from different regions of China. They likely outnumber the populati
by stone-monkey 9y ago
Shenzhen losing Cantonese somewhat makes sense due to the sheer number of migrants moving in from different regions of China. They likely outnumber the population several-fold now. It was only declared a special economic zone back in the 80's - Before that, it was a relatively small town. Now it has a population of about 20 million.
Compare that with Guangzhou, which also has a ton of migrant inflow from other provinces but with a large local populace - if you walk down any given street you'll still hear Cantonese spoken pretty often, though Mandarin is more frequently used (since it's the common tongue.)
- eggy 9y agoI still have bias in my heart for Cantonese having heard it growing up in Brooklyn, and visiting NYC Chinatown. That and all of the kung fu movies I used to go see at the Coliseum theater back in Sunset Park Brooklyn and Times Square when I was a kid in the 70s. I learned some Cantonese living over in Macau for over 7 years. Not as much as I would have liked compared to my other languages when living for less time in other places. I wound up learning Indonesian more than Cantonese. I love the HK 80s movies - cop dramas, ro-coms, etc... I like to make the completely silly comparisoin that Cantonese is like Brooklyn english compared to Mandarin which is like British english. It's got so much flavor. I love HK and Macau for that, and I wish I has spent more time in Guangzhou where some of my buddies were from and Cantonese is spoken.