I've never heard anyone say cantonese is not chinese, but maybe thats because I grew up in SF and most of the chinese people there speak cantonese. I have heard however, people say that cantonese sounds kinda funny and that mandarin sounds nicer. I think people have problems with that NGO sound....you know the word for "I".
man i agree with the original post. I've heard some manderin people before say really ignorant things, and here in Toronto Canada, for some weird reason cantonese speakers fear the manderin. I dont like this one bit. Also there is an increasing amount of manderin people entering canada, makes me think if this keeps up they are gonna out number us cantonese and we'll just fade away... so make more babies and teach them cantonese, to fight back !
lol yea that happend to me before too... i speak cantonese and they kinda like...exclude me coz thes ppl at my school all speak mando..... dammit! i dont have any canto friends like me so i end up hanging around the white ppl at my school sigh sigh!!
interesting,, thank God we only have one language here =) hey ever wondered whats happening in India?? they have about 40 languages?! looks like they fight every day XD
yea..im in new york and i often get a bunch of mando speaking friends needing me to repeat what i just said in english. I could understand mando, y shouldnt dey understand canto?
i tried learning mandarin.. its quite the impossible.. & i dont have an ear for toi san either.. i basically suck aka ABC.
Cantonese is Chinese. There are over 50 different dialects in China. Mandarin is the main/official language, but there are so many other dialects out there! If people feel that Cantonese isn't Chinese, it just means they are ignorant!
Here's a thought though: i've had cantonese people say to me: "I'm not chinese, I'm hong kong." WTF? That's like me saying "I'm Canada." But besides that, I agree with you. I've had people tell me I'm not chinese because I don't speak mandarin. makes me sad thinking about it. people discriminating within their own race. how is racism between groups supposed to go away if there is discrimination within a group?
does it matter anymore? seems like in another couple of generations or so, it'll all be the same.... mandarin-dominated...
there are over 70 million cantonese speaking chinese people in this world. gonna take more than a few generations to kill us off. haha
It's kinda funny that chinese people kinda hate each other. I'm chinese (cantonese speaker)and I found that most of us don't seem to get along. like in hk, some hk people look down on people from mainland china. In canada, most chinese people (mandarian and cantonese speakers) get along but still stereotypes like ang.
Hong Kong is more economically developed, and since the majority of the citizens speak Cantonese in Hong Kong, I must agree and say... natural Cantonese people are more economically upheld.
half of hong kong live in public housing, that leaves at most half who can even afford to buy a flat. cantonese are not richer than mandarin speakers. you should head up to the big cities in china. with the exception of li ka shing the richest chinese ppl on earth are all from mainland. but regardless, whats the point of segregating who's rich and who's not? most people are only rich because the exploit the poor.
The reason that mandarin is the official language is because there are more people speaking mandarin simple. You can see this on the internet as well. Canto people read and write traditional Chinese while people from China read and write simplified Chinese, this is also true on the internet, most Chinese sites are in simplified.
Let me correct you again. First off, in my original post I referred to Cantos & Mandos by the culture which they represent. You are living in a fantasy world if you believe that there is no difference in culture. Yet you repeatedly like to thwart my statements around. Like I said, stop twisting around what I said. I told you I'm not referring to the geographical division between Cantos & Mandos; I'm referring to their cultural differences that you blatently ignore. Also, Singapore adopted Mandarin as her language for trade purposes. There are still Cantonese dominated. Do a google search or read any current textbook. ~60% speak Cantonese & 40% speak Mandarin. And it is not until recently with new waves of Mando influx that the percentages changed. Back in 1990, it was about 70% Canto & 30% Mando of those who spoke Chinese. Look closely at my previous post, I referred to Cantonese 華橋, not 華橋 in general. If you really did study Chinese history, you should know that the earliest and most prominant overseas Chinese are Cantonese, NOT mandos. It isn't until that past couple decades after China instituted it's open door policy that there was a mass exodus of Mandos and mainland Cantos migrating overseas. Why do you think ALL the original Chinatowns are Canto run? For the LASTtime. STOP puttig words into my mouth. I have been dichotimizing Cantos & Mandos by culture the entire time, not geographically. Second of all, did I ever say that Cantonese are not Han? No! Did I say the difference between Cantos & Mandos are internationally recognized? No! All I wanted to do was make the distinction between the two cultures. This is equivalent to "West coast" culture of California vs "East coast" culture of New York. It's not internationally recognized, but the difference exists and people refer to it as such. This I will not argue with you on because I'm not Taiwanese. I am not suggesting that the Taiwanese are Cantonese who speak Mandarin; However, they are much more similar to Cantos than the Mainland Mandos. If you ask any Taiwanese, they would rather be around someone from HK than someone from the mainland. They would probably also agree that they are more akin to HK culture than mainland culture. No, you are wrong. Foreigners traded EVERYWHERE in China so long as there was a free port, they were there. The Ching government couldn't not have done much to stop them as they were a weak military power at the time. Proof: if you've ever been to shanghai, the people there still refer to different parts of town by their former foreign concession zones. Just because foreigners traded in an area doesn't make it an experimental economical ground. It just makes it a trading port or site. Just because Shanghai was a larger trading port than HK does NOT mean it was technologically superior. Yes, they were a large trading port before the Commies took over, but HK's technology burgeoned way past Shanghai after the British took over. Please tell me who some of these so called big shot Shanghainese business men were who you claim "made" HK economically? As far as I can tell, all the major companies in HK that have been around since after British takeover are either British owned or Cantonese owned. It's not until recently (past few decades) that mainland investers have dumped money into HK's economy in a significant manner. Since you are not from HK, I don't think you can say that the Brits did not improve the city. They gave HK it's just legal system, it's police system, it's system of trade & commerce. How do you think HK became so advanced compared to China before it's open door policy? Tsk tsk, getting a little hotheaded aren't you? I will not stoop down to your general baseless insults. You have no idea what I know about China's political system. Just because my opinion on China's politics differ from yours doesn't mean I'm wrong. The fact that you are getting so defensive & just openly insulting me proves that you probably are not familiar with China's political system. And for your information, I actually do have relatives in BOTH northern & southern China. However my family has disowned them due to our cultural differences. Hey you like that?......That's right, I said it's due to our cultural differences! What a shallow and childish way to take a last jab at someone. Western & modern values do include freedom of speech & technological advances. However that is by no means the only part of the definition. The way westerners interact & the things westerners value also are part of their definitions. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't feel embarrassed at all; In fact, look over your own posts and I think you will see the contrary. Ohhh, you can access the website from China. Big deal. I never said you couldn't, nor did I know or care where you are accessing this site from. But the fact that you had to bring it up without provocation shows how insecure you are. Sure, bring it on. I can argue with you indefinitely.
Well, it's probably cause many HK people say they're NOT a part of China, hence Chinese. They say they're HK people instead. SO not part of China. I hear that ALL the time. It use to be more the HK pple making fun of Mandarin Mainland people. I assume over time, China mandarin pple are just like, "fine, you HK pple.. YOu're not Chinese then". Yeah.. I don't care much. I was born and still am in Canada. I can speak Cantonese and some of Mandarin. Oh, china + HK can fuk all they want, I don't care now.
