A calligraphy show is held in Yunnan Province to promote the simplified Chinese and Putonghua. Photo: IC

Liu Qiling was outrageous when she read the news that Cantonese speaking and the writing of traditional Chinese characters are soon to be eliminated in her hometown of Foshan, South China's Guangdong Province.

"The directive read that TV hosts will no longer speak Cantonese and even menus at restaurants should be written in simplified Chinese. This is ridiculous. Why are they doing that? Are they trying to kill our culture?" Liu raised her voice.

The 17-year-old teenage student's Putonghua sounded awkward when she spoke to the Global Times on the phone. She said that she would write her Sina Weibo posts in traditional characters as a way to protest against the reported ban. Many other Net users have also switched from simplified Chinese to the more complicated writing to express similar feelings.

The original report of Nandu Daily that angered Liu and many others could no longer be found on the Internet as of Sunday, but a cached copy showed that it read that over 80 percent of the city's TV programs should be broadcasted in Putonghua, students are required to speak Putonghua from kindergarten, and teachers should not write in traditional Chinese characters.

According to Foshan Daily, the city is simply getting braced up for the provincial evaluation on language usage at government bodies, schools, and media and public service sectors. "Half of the city's population are non-local. The standardized usage of language can facilitate the communication," vice-mayor Deng Canrong was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

However, such standardized usage naturally looks like an assault on Cantonese, which has been spoken for generations in Foshan. Meanwhile, questions have once again arisen as how to strike a balance between the preservation of local dialects and languages, and the popularization of Putonghua.

Repeated debate

This is not the first time that Cantonese has been threatened in its birthplace. A peaceful but loud protest was launched in July 2010 after a proposal was suggested by the local committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to increase programs in Putonghua on Guangzhou TV's news and satellite channels, which are mainly in Cantonese.

Hundreds of young people put on T-shirts reading "I love Guangzhou" written in Cantonese during the protest and shouted "Protect Cantonese, Love Guangzhou." Some others also sang popular Cantonese songs.

Although local authorities claimed later that the move was not intended to abandon or weaken Cantonese, the proposal still gave rise to public concerns that the local government would completely abandon Cantonese in favor of Putonghua in the near future. And to many, the latest measure is simply another proof of the authorities' malign intentions for their language.

A local resident in Foshan called for an end the present ban on Cantonese at school and limitation on Cantonese programs via his Weibo account. "Many young children, including my own, can speak little or even no Cantonese, which has even affected their communication with their grandparents. They should at least be allowed to speak Cantonese after class. But I am hoping for Cantonese courses for children."

The post went viral on Sunday with many supporting his proposal on the protection of the distinctive culture of Guangdong and a guarantee on "proper communication between the younger and senior generations."

"It is not a big deal to speak Cantonese on news broadcasts or write in traditional characters on menus. It would not overthrow or humiliate the authorities, but this is the most sensitive part of the public," wrote Chen Yang, a Guangzhou-based columnist with the Nandu Daily on his Weibo account.

He added that Cantonese is only one part of Chinese language culture that is under threat. "This was not the original intention when the nation began promoting Putonghua. Putonghua and dialects should coexist with each other instead of being at odds."

The authorities allowed more Cantonese TV programs and channels in the past to attract a larger Hong Kong audience and introduce more about mainland issues to them, Wan Qingtao, a Guangzhou-based cultural observer, told the Global Times.

Some 70 million people speaking Cantonese across the world. Cantonese and traditional Chinese characters are acceptable to handle issues involving Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao as well as oversea Chinese, according to the Guangdong provincial government.

Nationwide promotion

Putonghua has been promoted since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, with a renewed push in the early 1980s. It became the official and legal standard spoken Chinese language in the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language promulgated in 2001.

Language usage evaluation started in 2001 nationwide. The law notes that local dialects may be used under several circumstances including official duty performance of civil servants and broadcasting with the approval of the administration under the State Council or at the provincial level.

"Guangdong started the evaluation work in 2006 and a complete evaluation on second-tier cities should be completed before 2015 at all provincial regions nationwide," the Department of Education of Guangdong Province said in an email reply to the Global Times on Friday,

Other provinces are also bracing up their second-tier cities for the evaluation, including Henan, Guizhou and Fujian.

"I hope local residents do not politicalize or get over-sensitive about the evaluation, which is not targeting Guangdong or Cantonese. However, authorities might consider loosening up the strict rule in Foshan, where almost everyone speaks Cantonese, unlike in Guangzhou where the Hakka or Chaoshan tongues are also used," Han Zhipeng, a member to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Guangzhou Committee told the Global Times.

Han pointed out that Cantonese may be different from other local tongues, as the wide-spread language has become a connecting bond among Chinese worldwide. "Two thumbs up for the urge among local residents in Guangdong to protect their 'mother tongue,'" Han said.

Dry words

Wan said that Putonghua only serves as a communicative bridge between people speaking different dialects, but lacks the rich context of local tongues.

"Nor can Putonghua represent the rich cultural meaning. Undoubtedly, some dialects are being assimilated by Putonghua and many people see Putonghua as a more useful language as more populations are on the move for job opportunities elsewhere."

China has launched some rescue efforts on local dialects and languages. As early as 2008, the nation has launched the construction of the Chinese Language Audio Database Resources to preserve the multiple dialects and languages of ethnic minority groups.

Beijing Linguistics Committee launched a pilot program to record the Beijing dialect in 2012, the same year Shanghai began to use textbooks in the Shanghai dialect at primary schools.

 The first comprehensive work on Suzhou dialect pronunciation was published early July to keep track of the dialect in Jiangsu Province. A kindergarten in Zhuhai, Guangdong, vowed to launch bilingual teaching as a measure to protect Cantonese in February.

"More needs to be done to protect dialects while promoting Putonghua.  Dialects are irreplaceable in Chinese culture," Wan noted.