Interesting video mixing Min and Shanghainese
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一个叫KAHO的日本小姐姐模仿上海和潮汕口音，太好玩了。不但口音学得像，表情和面相都会跟着一起变😀 pic.twitter.com/Ye1IN9BVDK
— iPaul (@iPaulCanada) April 29, 2026
The speaker is a Japanese girl named Kaho.
Comment from Xinyi Ye, who is living and working in the area where some of the languages in the video are spoken:
Oh wow that’s super impressive! Her Chaoshan accent sounds exactly like my colleagues from this area speaking!
The words she use are also very accurate: Shanghai aunties call young ladies 小姑娘 and Chaoshan merchants use the word 檔口 while Shanghainese don’t use this (they probably say 攤位).
It’s also impressive that she imitated Chaoshan accented mandarin. It is different from a Cantonese accented mandarin, which applies to people from Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Though most people I know from 潮州 and 汕頭 speak both Teochew and Cantonese.
I’ve watched a lot of videos from this Shanghainese vlogger recently.
Xinyi adds this fascinating observation:
On the internet w sometimes write 上海长宁区方言*, which refers to Japanese. It’s a joke because there are many Japanese people living there, and also because of the stereotype that young people in Shanghai speak better Japanese than Shanghainese these days (which is true to some extent!)
*VHM: Shànghǎi Chángníng qū fāngyán 上海长宁区方言 (Shanghai Changning District Topolect)
As for the Shanghainese vlogger Xinyi mentions, I warmly recommend that anyone who is interested in Shanghainese watch it carefully. After listening to this and similar videos, I have come to the conclusion that vlogging in topolects will be their salvation. Apparently, the central government is as yet unwilling or unable to shut down these beacons of local language.
Selected readings
- "Shanghainese" (5/16/13)
- "A recent Shanghainese movie" (12/27/21)
- "A Potpourri of Materials on Shanghainese" (5/15/09)
- "Writing Shanghainese, part 2" (7/22/16)
- "Language in Shanghai during World War II and now" (4/15/19)
In the past, relative to Cantonese, we have paid little attention to Shanghainese, so I'm trying to make up for it a bit here.
[Thanks to Hiroshi Kumamoto]
Philip Taylor said,
May 1, 2026 @ 1:33 am
May I ask about the "w" in "On the internet w sometimes write 上海长宁区方言*" ? Is "w" to be interpreted as "people", and if so, what is its etymology. And if it is not, then how is it to be interpreted ?
Victor Mair said,
May 1, 2026 @ 7:39 am
I just guessed that it meant "we".
katarina said,
May 1, 2026 @ 9:40 am
Wu or ngu means I in Shanghainese. It's wo in Mandarin.
Peter B. Golden said,
May 1, 2026 @ 10:02 am
My wife, a native of Shanghai, who spent her middle school and high school years in Hong Kong, says that the speaker's Shanghainese is good but makes some mistakes.
Philip Taylor said,
May 1, 2026 @ 12:44 pm
« I just guessed that it meant "we" »— ah, yes, definitely possible. I had missed that interpretation, tho' who "we" are seems more than a little unclear. The speaker, obviously, but what cohort ?
Chris Button said,
May 1, 2026 @ 5:10 pm
It might be implicit from her background, but she also speaks Japanese at points too. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere.
I had no idea Shanghai had a big Japanese community.
I remember when I used to live in São Paulo that there was an enormous Japanese community there.
Not a naive speaker said,
May 1, 2026 @ 6:07 pm
@ Chris Button
A detailed history of Japanese immigration to Brasil:
https://www.ndl.go.jp/brasil/e/index.html
John Rohsenow said,
May 2, 2026 @ 6:26 pm
A native SH spkg Chinese friend comments:
This young lady's Shanghainese is native-level. My educated guess is that her parent / parents is/are Shanghai native. This is pretty common because many Shanghai natives went to Japan in the late 1980s or 1990s and have stayed there ever since. Many of their children were born there and grew up bilingually.
Chas Belov said,
May 2, 2026 @ 11:51 pm
¿Is there a link to the video that doesn't involve using X?
As for lovers of Shanghainese, the most beautiful language I've ever heard, I recommend the song Love Can't Be Caught (Shanghainese) by Lin Bao.