Mandarin begins displacing Cantonese as dialect of choice
Mandarin begins displacing Cantonese as dialect of choice - Boston Globe.
Boston has one of the old Chinatowns, where Cantonese has been predominate because that's where the immigrants came from. Mandarin was only spoken in the government and around Beijing, but since the 1920's it's been pushed by the governments of China (Republic, KMT, and Communist) as a way to unify China and it has become widely used in China. With the hand over of Hong Kong to China, in my opinion Cantonese is becoming a household language, with Mandarin being the Chinese to learn.
With my business I have seen the same thing. I stocked some Cantonese items for a while because lots of people asked about them, but when I finally got stock they took forever to sell. So now I just sell Mandarin items.
In the US, there has been a tremendous amount of immigration from China that has increased the Mandarin speakers in the older Chinatowns.
Boston has one of the old Chinatowns, where Cantonese has been predominate because that's where the immigrants came from. Mandarin was only spoken in the government and around Beijing, but since the 1920's it's been pushed by the governments of China (Republic, KMT, and Communist) as a way to unify China and it has become widely used in China. With the hand over of Hong Kong to China, in my opinion Cantonese is becoming a household language, with Mandarin being the Chinese to learn.
With my business I have seen the same thing. I stocked some Cantonese items for a while because lots of people asked about them, but when I finally got stock they took forever to sell. So now I just sell Mandarin items.
In the US, there has been a tremendous amount of immigration from China that has increased the Mandarin speakers in the older Chinatowns.
Labels: chinatown
posted by Ray at
8:49 PM
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