Gift of mother tongues
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Haifeng is a small county in the southeast of Guangdong province, and the Haifeng dialect, something between Cantonese and Hokkien, is only spoken in that area.
However, a folk band called Wutiaoren from Haifeng, who sing all their songs in Haifeng dialect, has made a name for itself outside of its home county and been enthusiastically welcomed by audiences across China.
The group won the award for "best folk musicians" at the Chinese Music Media Awards in May this year and toured Taiwan in July.
A large part of their appeal lies in the fact that they sing in the Haifeng dialect. If they used Putonghua instead, their songs wouldn't be so vivid and realistic. It's an essential part of their songs, which depict the lives of people in a small town, such as brokers of Hong Kong dollars, motorcycle taxi drivers, and a middle-aged man who is too poor to find a wife.
Few people speak Putonghua in daily life except in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Those Chinese films set in small cities or the countryside in which every one speaks perfect Putonghua seem fake.
For many years we watched films like this, which were created with the belief that "art is from life but higher than life", then a few years some directors began to make films using local dialects. It was only then that we were reminded that art shouldn't be divorced from real life.
The overwhelming education and media promotion of Putonghua have long relegated local dialects to an inferior status, something to be used in a local context and irrelevant to art. The fact that all traditional folk songs were sung in the specific tones, idioms and rhythms of the local dialects was forgotten.
But compare a traditional folk song from Gansu province and one from Fujian province, and you'll realize how different they are, because languages are not just the lyrics, they are music as well.
The richness of Chinese music is lost if one just listens to the so-called minzu (national) style that appears on TV every day, as they all sound equally characterless. Wutiaoren reveal the charm of local dialects in music and they are not alone in taking pride in their cultural identity. Their colleagues include hip-hop singers from all over China who rap in their respective local dialects.
A few years ago there used to be TV dramas produced by different TV stations in their local dialects. I used to watch them because they were very helpful in learning about the local culture. Nowadays these TV dramas are almost extinct due to regulations from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television on the use of Putonghua in TV dramas.
TV programs in Cantonese are probably the only exception, thanks in great part to Guangdong's vicinity to Hong Kong. Now these too are under threat.
A recent proposal by the Guangzhou committee of CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) to change the Cantonese-speaking TV channels of Guangzhou to Putonghua-speaking channels has caused heated debate. According to an on-line survey by the Guangzhou committee of CPPCC, over 90 percent of Guangzhou citizens objected to the suggestion. Some Guangzhou citizens even took to the streets to call for the protection of the right to use Cantonese.
Although I'm not a Cantonese speaker, I fully support Guangzhou people in their call for the preservation of Cantonese-speaking TV channels. As Wutiaoren put it, "singing in your mother tongue is your greatest gift to life".
