Around the world, 80 million Chinese people speak Cantonese. Cantonese is among the languages within China's boundaries that are in decline since Beijing promotes mandarin, another widely spoken Chinese language, as the nation's official language for its 1.4 billion citizens.

 That has motivated some people to work to preserve the language, including not only in Hong Kong where Cantonese is spoken widely but also in the United States. 

It's quite sad that there is a push to essentially eradicate Cantonese, a language that is so rich, diverse, and demanding. 

In Hong Kong, for instance, 90% of the people here still speak Cantonese, although Mandarin, a form of Chinese Beijing standardised and promoted, is becoming more widespread on the streets.

In China, the majority of the people speak Mandarin

Greater numbers of mainland Chinese have relocated to Hong Kong without learning Cantonese. 

In addition, the local government has a preference towards Mandarin in the educational system.

 Next door in Guangzhou, the situation is considerably worse.

Mandarin has largely replaced other languages as the language of instruction in schools as a result of Beijing's campaign for linguistic unification, which is alarming.

 In the past, visitors to Guangzhou from all over the world would be able to communicate in Cantonese thanks to their peers. In the past, their friends would teach them Cantonese, but now only Cantonese families can teach their children the language.

China has instructed schools to only use Mandarin as the official language of instruction

The language is also a less appealing option for many students who are keen to learn Chinese back in San Francisco. 

Since learning Mandarin is thought to be better for conducting business in China, it is by far more popular. The majority of the pupils in schools study Cantonese for familial reasons.

Cantonese speakers are fully aware of the threat to their language in the city's well-known Chinatown. To preserve their culture for as long as possible, they attempt to employ it wherever possible.

In Hong Kong, Cantonese is the dominant language but there are fears that the situation might be changing

We're talking about a language that is widely used in Chinese communities in the UK and is spoken by 80 million people worldwide, making it more than simply a small dialect in China. also in the US. 

Because it was once a commercial language in Southeast Asia, people in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia will also be familiar with it. That explains why some elderly Malaysians continue to use the language.

Additionally, it has been asserted historically that Cantonese is a considerably earlier language. 

It is believed to have started around 220 AD. It is significantly more similar to the ancient Chinese that was spoken at that time.

 Mandarin was first documented in the 14th century, I believe, but it wasn't until the Communist Party seized control in 1949 that it began to spread throughout China.

Initially in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City, the majority of the Chinese immigrants were Cantonese speakers

Cantonese and Mandarin have quite different tones. In actuality, the grammar and vocabulary of Cantonese and Mandarin are wholly dissimilar. 

As a result, someone who solely speaks Cantonese would not be able to understand someone who only Mandarin, and vice versa. 

Furthermore, the question of whether Cantonese is a dialect of Mandarin has long been contested. No, they are not mutually comprehensible, according to linguists, hence they are two distinct languages. 

However, it is politically permissible to refer to several Chinese languages, such as Cantonese and Mandarin, as dialects within mainland China.

Well, it has garnered some criticism and has already received it twice. And Douyin, TikTok's sister app, which is China's most popular video platform, recently experienced a backlash. When their Cantonese live streams were cut off, their Cantonese speakers announced that they were leaving the platform. 

Douyin, a sister app of TikTok has been telling users to "use Mandarin as much as possible"

Now, Weibo, another Chinese popular media site, has since posted this video. Additionally, it received strong backing from other users;

Additionally, the platform is unable to provide responsibility if there is extreme content and the government requests it. 

Social media businesses are coming under growing pressure to regulate online speech, which may be made more difficult by the number of different languages.

The state of other languages and minorities in China

When discussing control in China, it's important to point out to those hearing that other Chinese languages are also experiencing issues. 

In actuality, the Tibetan, Mongolian, and Uyghur populations are more seriously threatened inside Chinese territory. And in the sense that Xi Jinping desires this national unity, I believe it accentuates the one language principle.

It is not just Hong Kong or Cantonese, China is trying to suppress minorities everywhere

So how can various languages develop distinctive identities?

Language is never merely a means of communication, after all. It's always connected to regional identity and culture. Take Hong Kong as an illustration. 

The fact that Cantonese is a distinct language from the rest of China in some way contributed to the perception that the city is unique.

 People there comprehend Mandarin far better than they did previously, even though it is now much more widespread. 

Many people still find it difficult to use the language because, to them, it somehow conjures up images of what they refer to as Hong Kong's "mainlandization."

Languages can decline not just as a result of governmental pressure, but also when speakers freely switch to another tongue as that tongue gains social and economic prestige. And that's certainly not what I hope to happen.

Is China trying to kill the Cantonese language?

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