China Tells

Shanghai Dialect (Called Shanghai Hua) used to be a dialect that is the proud of millions of local Shanghainese. Being able to speak Shanghai Hua is a pass to be recognized as a legitimate Shanghainese, or ‘in the loop’. Otherwise there is a serious caveat that one would be labeled as ‘Peasant’ (Called Xiang Xia Ren), or ‘one that lacks good education or manner’. In the last decade, however, the trend has changed (See Article from Global Times). The Shanghai government has been pushing hard to promote the use of Mandarin as the only used language in schools and public occasions. More and more Shanghai local kids speak mandarin much better that they can speak Shanghai Hua. In addition, the media seems on the side of ‘Peasants’ as well to portrait Shanghainese speaking Shanghai Hua as an unfriendly gesture towards non-Shanghainese. At the same time, however, Shanghai continues to be one of the most attractive cities in China for young people from all over the country to pursue their dreams, despite the complaints from some to claim Shanghai as an unfriendly city. Funny enough, such a change is making Shanghai Hua speaking Shanghainese more and more of a minority. In fact it would be greatly disturbing and disappoiting for Shanghainese to see the local culture being disadvantaged and harmonized while the other culture, such as Cantonese and Hock Kian (Dialect from Fujian province) continue to prosper, not only in South China, but also overseas. Given the current trend, it is very likely that Shanghai dialect and local opera (Called Hu Ju) will no longer exist or be known to the next generation.

上海话曾经是金钱，权力和时髦的象征。特别是在上海，如果不会说上海话，很可能会被冠以‘乡下人’的美名。但是10年河东10年河西，让上海人怎么也想不通的是，曾经有的上海话优势似乎在一夜之间丧失殆尽。现在上海几乎所有的中小学都严格要求学生讲普通话，大部分学生的普通话要比其母语上海话说得更好，同时说上海话也在舆论圈被戴上排外自私的高帽。上海话的境遇和中国一些其他地方的方言，如广东话，福建话和潮州话相差甚远。这些方言不仅在东南沿海发展兴隆，而且在海外各大城市以及唐人街受到广泛追捧。照现在的趋势，上海方言和地方戏很可能在可预见的将来不复存在，或者被逐渐边缘化。