Banning Cantonese
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Here is an Instagram link to a young Cantonese teacher, Zita Wong, talking about a restaurant in Guangzhou that banned Cantonese and describing the backlash that ensued. She also goes into the efforts to downplay all topolects.
The situation with this particular establishment is especially ticklish because it is a Japanese restaurant operating in China, but the same holds true for many other restaurants, not only in Guangzhou, but in other cities as well.
I have not directly embedded the Instagram link because it takes up too much space on the first page, but it is well worth your while to read it and watch the video of Zita Wong giving her explanation of the threat to her mother tongue, not to mention that she does so in crystal clear Cantonese.
Selected readings
- "Cantonese under threat at Stanford" (2/27/21) — with extensive relevant bibliography
- "Death knell for Cantonese" (12/18/21)
- "Hong Kong Cantonese in jeopardy" (9/12/21)
- "A quick exit for Cantonese" (7/22/15) — how hard it is nowadays to find a decent elementary school in Hong Kong that offers instruction in Cantonese, rather than in Mandarin
[Thanks to Jeff DeMarco]