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Southern Chinese dialects as a medium for reconciliation within Greater China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Mary S. Erbaugh
Mary S. Erbaugh
Affiliation:
Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
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Abstract

Southern Chinese dialects – Cantonese, Taiwanese, and Hakka – have received little official support from the governments of the nations where Chinese is spoken; they are not mutually intelligible with Mandarin, and are often deeply stigmatized. Although China's language wars have paralleled cold war hostilities, unofficial forces in the 1990s are rapidly enhancing dialect prestige, as an economic boom increasingly links the “Greater China” of the People's Republic, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. (Chinese dialects, Mandarin, Cantonese, Min, Hakka, bilingualism, Hong Kong, Taiwan, official language)

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1995, pp. 79 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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