About Cantonese

Cantonese People, Language, and Culture

The History of the Cantonese People

• Part 1 of a documentary produced by aTV (本港台), a TV station in Hong Kong
• Another Part of the documentary

The Origin of the Cantonese Language

• A documentary produced by aTV
• Tone correspondences between Cantonese and Mandarin

The Origins of Common Cantonese Expressions

• An episode of a TV show produced by Foshan TV
• Another episode of the same show

Debate about Cantonese

• 2010-07-12 TVS Background to the "Defend Cantonese Protests" in Gwóngjāu
• 2010-07-25 TVB Report on the "Defend Cantonese Protests" in Gwóngjāu
• 2011-12-18 BBC "廣東規定媒體使用方言播音需報批"
• 2014-01-28 TVS "廣東方言播音需報批，點解大家咁大反應?"
• 2013-08-29 UPenn Language Log "Spoken Hong Kong Cantonese and written Cantonese"
• 2016-03-27 RTHK "鏗鏘集：廣東話 VS 普通話"
• 無線電視 "内地廣州有小學製教材教粵語"
• 2015 有線寬頻 "【一首香港廣東話歌】掀起內地保衛粵語爭論"
• Is Cantonese a dialect or a language?
  • China Digital Times,2014, "Is Cantonese a Dialect or a Language?"
  • UPenn Language Log, 2016, "Uyghur, Cantonese, and other valuable languages of China"
  • BBC, 2017, "Cantonese v Mandarin: When Hong Kong languages get political"
  • UPenn Language Log, 2014, "Is Cantonese a language, or a personification of the devil?"
    • Both log entries written by renowned sinologist Professor Victor Mair,who proposed the term "topolect" for regional Chinese languages (方言).
  • The Economist,2014, "How a dialect differs from a language"
  • The Atlantic, 2016, "What’s a Language, Anyway?"
  • The UCLA Language Materials Project: Cantonese Profile
  • The British Museum

Using Mandarin to teach Chinese (普教中) in Hong Kong

• 2016-06-26 【經緯線】"普教中 進與退"
• 2016 "港府推行「普教中」八年，為何父母仍憂心忡忡?"
• 2016 US-China Today, USC "The State of Cantonese Language in Hong Kong 香港的粤语使用现状"

Cantonese and Classical Chinese

• 2017-01-07 【澳門大學】粵語專家鄧景濱談如何傳承粵語
• 2017-04-06 The Stand News 是「樽」不是「瓶」，是「凍」不是「冷」 — 訪粵語專家鄧景濱

Synchronic Sound Change in Cantonese

Sound change is a natural phenomenon. In Cantonese, the initial /n/ is gradually being replaced by /l/ and the final /ng/ being replaced by /n/ or /m/. However, resistance to such change is also a normal reaction by the general public, which misconstrues such change as lazy pronunciation (嬾音). The items listed below start with papers describing typical changes in Hong Kong Cantonese, followed by links to 粵講粵啱, a popular show produced by Radio Television Hong Kong to address legitimate mispronunciation as well as perceived "errors":

• Production and perception of a sound change in progress: Tone merging in Hong Kong Cantonese by Peggy Mok, Donghui Zhou, and Peggy Wong
• Innovative sound changes in Hong Kong Cantonese by Mary Chan
• Cantonese sound change across subgroups of the Hong Kong speech community by Yanyan Sui
• Podcast: 粵講粵啱一分鐘
• An episode of 粵講粵啱 on TV
• Another TV episode

Cultural Units

Asian American Identity

• Handout
• "Asian American Identity - Unraveling Asia America" directed by Calvin Sun at Columbia University
• Scot Nakagawa: "Asian America's Overlooked Diversity"
• CNN "Are Asian students smarter?"
• Promo to "Model Minority" aired on PBS and PBS World
• Video segments translated and recorded in Cantonese:
  • Definition of Asian American
  • Ms. Su talks about model minorities
  • Dr. Kumashira talks about model minorities

Code-mixing in Hong Kong

• Present yi ge project (2005) by Catherine Chen and Gary Carper
• Handout 1 and Handout 2

Gender Roles in Hong Kong

• Open Forum in Hong Kong, 2011, Part 1;Handout
• Open Forum in Hong Kong, 2011, Part 2;Handout
• Open Forum in Hong Kong, 2011, Part 4;Handout

The Harvest Moon and the Legend of the Moon Goddess

• The Moon Unit for Beginning Learners Handout
• The Moon Unit for Intermediate Learners Handout
• The Moon Unit for Advanced Learners Handout
• The Legend of the Moon Goddess Handout

Mahjong as a Cross-Generational Bridge

• An interview with Andrew about mahjong as a cross-generational bridge.
• VIDEOS: Andrew explains how to play mahjong:
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4
• Andrew explains superstition in mahjong.
• Introduction to Mahjong on Wikipedia

Rituals in Weddings

A collection of 7 videos posted to YouTube by YanStevenUT about a wedding in Taishan. The videos correspond to 7 major stages of a Cantonese wedding.

1. Party of bachelor escorting the groom to the bride's house
2. Lucky money for opening the door to the bride's house
3. Sending the bride away
4. Receiving the bride in a sedan
5. The bride entering the groom's house
6. Wedding reception
7. Toasting at the reception

Major Cantonese Centers

Hong Kong

• Part 1 of a documentary produced by Radio Television Hong Kong
• Part 2 of the documentary
• Part 3 of the documentary

Guangzhou

• An overview of Guangzhou created by Next Horizon
• Scenery of Guangdong produced by CCTV

Taishan

• History of emigration from Taishan produced by aTV
• An immigrant talks to fellow Taishanese

San Francisco Chinatown

• This website provides a brief history of SF Chinatown with a short discussion of contemporary challenges.
• This website lists this year's Chinese New Year's activities in SF Chinatown.
• Handout for a tour of SF Chinatown in Yale Romanization, characters, and English
• Below are photos of major stops along the route described in the handout.