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The title of this song attracted my attention:  "Fāngyán de ànshāng 方言的黯伤" ("The sadness of topolect"). 

I listened to it here, but couldn't catch everything that the singer was saying.  I asked Zhaofei Chen what she heard, and here's what she gleaned from listening to the recording:

tà shàng zhè tǔdì huáichuāizhe mèngxiǎng qiānxǐ 

gùxiāng de fāngyán chuǎngjìn xīnlǐ mòmò suíxíng 

xuānxiāo zhōng ǒu'ěr màochū jǐ jù shúxī 

yèwǎn níhóng shǎnshuò zhàoliàng chéngshì de lúnkuò 

fánhuá lǐ nà fāng shuǐtǔ de qìxí jiǎnruò 

chénshì de jiézòu rú cháoshuǐ bān xiōngyǒng 

mòshēng de yǔyán rú fēng bān sìyì fàngzòng 

wǒmen nǔlì róngrù què zài xīnlǐ shēn chùliú 

liú yīfāng kōngjiān gěi gùxiāng de yīn ruò (?) 

chéngshì de gāolóu què jiāng zhè měihǎo tōu 

fāngyán de yīnliàng suízhe shíjiān zài xiāoshòu

踏上这土地 怀揣着梦想迁徙
故乡的方言 闯进心里 默默随行
喧嚣中偶尔冒出 几句熟悉
夜晚霓虹闪烁 照亮城市的轮廓
繁华里 那方水土的气息减弱
尘世的节奏 如潮水般汹涌
陌生的语言 如风般肆意放纵
我们努力融入 却在心里深处 留
留一方空间 给故乡的音若（？）
城市的高楼 却将这美好偷
方言的音量 随着时间在消瘦

Set foot on this land and migrate with dreams in mind 

The dialect of my hometown enters my heart and follows me silently 

A few familiar words occasionally emerge in the hustle and bustle 

Neon lights flicker at night, illuminating the city's silhouette 

In the bustling city, the breath of the land and water has weakened 

The rhythm of the world surges like the tide 

Unfamiliar language is as unbridled as the wind 

We try to fit in, but deep in our hearts we stay 

Leave a space for the sound of hometown (?) 

The tall buildings in the city steal this beauty 

The volume of topolect diminishes over time

—–

(partial transcription; modified Google translatio

Zhaofei tells me that, from what she could catch, the song seems to be about someone who moves to a big city for work, and over time stops using their fāngyán 方言 ("topolect") because no one around them speaks it. But they could occasionally hear a few words of their fāngyán 方言 ("topolect").

Zhaofei is from Shenzhen, the third largest city in China (after Beijing and Shanghai), with 17.5 million population.  At the beginning of the 80s, it was a county-level town with only about 30,000 (!) population, but then the central government decided to turn it into a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to rival nearby Hong Kong, which was still a British colony at that time.

People, including Zhaofei's family, poured into Shenzhen by the millions (!) from all over China.  One can imagine the linguistic cacophony of the city in those early years.  Zhaofei says the song reminds her a lot of Shenzhen during the Opening-Up period. So many workers from all over China moved there, and people mostly speak Mandarin now because, as the national "common language" (pǔtōnghuà 普通话).

The gradual erasure of one's native tongue is inevitable when one moves to a place where another language is spoken.

 

Selected readings

• "'Topolect' is in China!" (4/14/18)
• "Fangyán = topolect in DC" (6/20/23)

[Thanks to Charles Belov]

July 7, 2025 @ 3:17 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and music, Topolects

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