Ah, but therein lies the rub. What is "100% Mandarin?" :). Is it broadcast news Chinese? Which essentially is just the written vernacular standard just read out

Ah, but therein lies the rub. What is "100% Mandarin?" :). Is it broadcast news Chinese? Which essentially is just the written vernacular standard just read out loud? Is it the Mandarin that a Northern shop-keeper uses to talk to (Chinese) out-of-towners? Is it the Mandarin that he uses among his friends? Is it the Mandarin that kids learn in public school curriculum? Once these questions start to be relevant, I'd say that it's all just "Mandarin" for the purposes of this discussion. Ooo... that's interesting. I knew that there's been a rise in regional dialect pride in general and that Hong Kong in general has never really been too fond of the Mandarin-speaking Chinese tourist masses, but hadn't realized it'd spread to modern Canto-pop. Might have to take a gander at some of the latest songs.