WRITER Chong Zi Liang said he could not take part in
conversations with 50-year-old members of his extended family
because he could not speak Cantonese, which prevented him from
bonding with them ("Confessions of a Canto flop"; last Saturday).
He was also unable to order roast duck in a Cantonese restaurant in
New York.
These are really the least of our Chinese language worries.
In 30 years' time, Cantonese will be extinct in Singapore. We
are allowing a beautiful language to die in Singapore.
Listen to a pop song that is sung in Cantonese, then in
Mandarin, and you can hear the difference.The Cantonese version
sounds so elegant and sonorous, the Mandarin one, clinical and
flat.
When I visited Shantou last year, it was joyous to hear my
mother tongue, Teochew, spoken everywhere. It was such a culturally
enriching experience. Street life was just that much more
colourful, because of the use of that language.
The death of the major Chinese dialects here (Cantonese,
Teochew, Hokkien, Hainanese) would mean their respective operas
would be dead here too.
A big part of our collective culture is dying.
Chia Buk Chua
Revive the dialect threads when you are free.
