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114-428: Northern China ( Chinese : 中国北方 or 中国北部 ; lit. 'China's North') and Southern China (Chinese: 中国南方 or 中国南部 ; lit. 'China's South') are two approximate regions that display certain differences in terms of their geography, demographics, economy, and culture. The Qinling–Daba Mountains serve as the transition zone between northern and southern China. They approximately coincide with

228-589: A linguistic discrimination that has also contributed to social conflicts between the two sides, with a growing number of Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese ) of Cantonese background defending the historic Chinese-American culture against the impacts of increasing Mandarin-speaking new arrivals. In Northern California , especially the San Francisco Bay Area , the California Cantonese have historically dominated in

342-837: A rhotic accent. Ethnic groups are comparatively more diverse in southern regions. Rhotic accent is usually absent from the Mandarin spoken there. Different dialects are less mutually intelligible, and additional languages such as Cantonese or Hokkien are spoken. Patrilineage organizations are larger and more integrated in rural southern regions, possibly due to merges and competition for territory. A series of studies on regional differences in China suggest that people from places that grow wheat have different social styles and thought styles from those in rice-growing regions. Respondents from northern China are found to be more individualistic, think more analytically, and more open to strangers. Those from

456-657: A Chinese community. The majority of Cantonese-speakers in Canada live in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver . There are sufficient Cantonese-speakers in Canada that there exist locally produced Cantonese TV and radio programming, such as Fairchild TV . As in the United States, the Chinese Canadian community traces its roots to early immigrants from Guangdong during the latter half of

570-434: A conversion table. While exercising such derivation, the following rules should be observed: Sample Derivations : The Series One List of Variant Characters reduces the number of total standard characters. First, amongst each set of variant characters sharing identical pronunciation and meaning, one character (usually the simplest in form) is elevated to the standard character set, and the rest are made obsolete. Then amongst

684-547: A distinct classical literature was developed in Cantonese, with Middle Chinese texts sounding more similar to modern Cantonese than other present-day Chinese varieties, including Mandarin. As Guangzhou became China's key commercial center for foreign trade and exchange in the 1700s, Cantonese became the variety of Chinese interacting most with the Western world. Much of the sources for this period of early Cantonese, such as

798-479: A lesser extent) and the Western world, such as California . Despite the considerable overlap in vocabulary between Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as other varieties of Chinese , these Sinitic languages are not mutually intelligible. This is due to a combination of factors, including phonological differences and variations in grammar and vocabulary. Notably, there are instances where the sentence structure, particularly with regard to verb placement, differs between

912-582: A more important status by the natives than ever before as a common identity of the local people. This has led to initiatives to revive the language such as its introduction into school curricula and locally produced programs on broadcast media. Cantonese has historically served as a lingua franca among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, who speak a variety of other forms of Chinese including Hokkien , Teochew , and Hakka . Additionally, Cantonese media and popular culture such as cinema of Hong Kong

1026-610: A newly coined phono-semantic compound : Removing radicals Only retaining single radicals Replacing with ancient forms or variants : Adopting ancient vulgar variants : Readopting abandoned phonetic-loan characters : Copying and modifying another traditional character : Based on 132 characters and 14 components listed in Chart 2 of the Complete List , the 1,753 derived characters found in Chart 3 can be created by systematically simplifying components using Chart 2 as

1140-469: A practice which has always been present as a part of the Chinese writing system. The official name tends to refer to the specific, systematic set published by the Chinese government, which includes not only simplifications of individual characters, but also a substantial reduction in the total number of characters through the merger of formerly distinct forms. According to Chinese palaeographer Qiu Xigui ,

1254-551: A relatively minor presence compared to other Southeast Asian nations, being the fourth most spoken Chinese variety after Hokkien, Hakka and Teochew. Despite the majority of Chinese Filipinos are Fujianese , there are also sizeable Cantonese population in the Philippines, with many of them mainly came from Taishan , Guangdong . Many of the Cantonese people and their descendants live in Baguio and its province Benguet , where

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1368-421: A separate Hong Kong identity. A similar identity issue exists in the United States, where conflicts have arisen among Chinese-speakers due to a large recent influx of Mandarin-speakers. While older Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster integration within the traditional Chinese American populations, more recent arrivals from the mainland continue to use Mandarin exclusively. This has contributed to

1482-536: A significant proportion of the entertainment industry in China migrated to Hong Kong in the early decades of the 20th century, the Hong Kong-based entertainment industry underwent a transformation to suit overseas as well as domestic audiences. With the bifurcation of the film industry into Cantonese and Mandarin, the use of the Xiguan accent of Guangzhou as a conservative prestige accent of standard Cantonese

1596-404: A single standardized character, usually the simplest among all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. The Chinese government has never officially announced the completion of the simplification process after the bulk of characters were introduced by the 1960s. In the wake of

1710-440: Is actually more complex than eliminated ones. An example is the character 搾 which is eliminated in favor of the variant form 榨 . The 扌   'HAND' with three strokes on the left of the eliminated 搾 is now seen as more complex, appearing as the ⽊   'TREE' radical 木 , with four strokes, in the chosen variant 榨 . Not all characters standardised in the simplified set consist of fewer strokes. For instance,

1824-535: Is also available in the nation and Cantonese is prevalent in locally produced Chinese television. Cantonese spoken in Malaysia and Singapore often exhibits influences from Malay and other Chinese varieties spoken in the country, like Hokkien and Teochew. The Singapore government uses Mandarin as the official Chinese variety and has a Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) seeking to actively promote using Mandarin at

1938-533: Is also widely spoken as well in the town of Sekinchan in the district of Sabak Bernam located in the northern part of Selangor state and also in the state of Perak , especially in the state capital city of Ipoh and its surrounding towns of Gopeng , Batu Gajah , and Kampar of the Kinta Valley region plus the towns of Tapah and Bidor in the southern part of the Perak state, and also widely spoken in

2052-520: Is an official language alongside Portuguese . As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in everyday life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in the mainland city of Guangzhou , although there exist some minor differences in accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Cantonese first developed around

2166-628: Is becoming increasingly concentrated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, also known as Little Fuzhou , which is causing the city's growing Cantonese and Fuzhou enclaves to become increasingly distanced and isolated from both each other and other Chinese enclaves in Queens. Flushing's Chinatown , which is now the largest Chinatown in the city, and Elmhurst's smaller Chinatown in Queens are very diverse, with large numbers of Mandarin speakers from different regions of China and Taiwan. The Chinatowns of Queens comprise

2280-454: Is derived. Merging homophonous characters: Adapting cursive shapes ( 草書楷化 ): Replacing a component with a simple arbitrary symbol (such as 又 and 乂 ): Omitting entire components : Omitting components, then applying further alterations : Structural changes that preserve the basic shape Replacing the phonetic component of phono-semantic compounds : Replacing an uncommon phonetic component : Replacing entirely with

2394-527: Is growing, with a number of educational institutes offering Cantonese as an elective language course. Cantonese is widely used as the inter-communal language among Chinese Cambodians , especially in Phnom Penh and other urban areas. While Teochew speakers form the majority of the Chinese population in Cambodia , Cantonese is often used as a vernacular in commerce and with other Chinese variant groups in

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2508-514: Is largely a countermeasure against Hong Kong's influence, as the autonomous territory has the right to freedom of the press and speech and its Cantonese-language media have a substantial exposure and following in Guangdong. Nevertheless, the place of local Cantonese language and culture remains contentious, as with other non-Mandarin Chinese languages. A 2010 proposal to switch some programming on Guangzhou television from Cantonese to Mandarin

2622-579: Is largely influential in the local Chinese media and is used in commerce by Chinese Malaysians. Due to the popularity of Hong Kong popular culture , especially through drama series and popular music, Cantonese is widely understood by the Chinese in all parts of Malaysia, even though a large proportion of the Chinese Malaysian population is non-Cantonese. Television networks in Malaysia regularly broadcast Hong Kong television programmes in their original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. Cantonese radio

2736-407: Is mostly used in informal settings like social media and comic books. In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. "Cantonese" as used to refer to the language native to the city of Canton, which is the traditional English name of Guangzhou , was popularized by An English and Cantonese Pocket Dictionary (1859), a bestseller by the missionary John Chalmers . Before 1859, this variant

2850-813: Is now discouraged. A State Language Commission official cited "oversimplification" as the reason for restoring some characters. The language authority declared an open comment period until 31 August 2009, for feedback from the public. In 2013, the List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters was published as a revision of the 1988 lists; it included a total of 8105 characters. It included 45 newly recognized standard characters that were previously considered variant forms, as well as official approval of 226 characters that had been simplified by analogy and had seen wide use but were not explicitly given in previous lists or documents. Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification , eventually arriving at

2964-446: Is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people also call it "provincial capital speech" ( 省城話 ; 省城话 ; Saang2 seng4 waa2 ; Sáangsèhng wá ) or "plain speech" ( 白話 ; 白话 ; Baak6 waa2 ; Baahkwá ). In academic linguistic circles, it is also referred to as "Canton prefecture speech" ( 廣府話 ; 广府话 ; Gwong2 fu2 waa2 ; Gwóngfú wá ). In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities,

3078-406: Is only non-verbatim with respect to vernacular Cantonese, it is possible to read Standard Chinese text verbatim in formal Cantonese, often with only slight changes in lexicon that are optional depending on the reader's choice of register. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may appear similar but are pronounced differently. Conversely, written (vernacular) Cantonese

3192-463: Is popular throughout the region. In Vietnam , Cantonese is the dominant language of the main ethnic Chinese community, usually referred to as Hoa , which numbers about one million people and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the country. Over half of the ethnic Chinese population in Vietnam speaks Cantonese as a native language and the variety also serves as a lingua franca between

3306-617: Is simple and not resilient to droughts. Many southern regions are subtropical and green year round. The winters are short. They often experience typhoons and the East Asian monsoon in the summer. The ecology is complex, and floods are more common. The northern regions are easier to cultivate . Hardy crops such as corn , sorghum , soybeans , and wheat are grown, and one to two crops are produced each year. The growing season lasts four to six months. Wheat-based food such as bread, dumplings , and noodles are more common. Cultivation of

3420-483: Is spoken by ethnic Chinese in Portugal who originate from Macau , the most established Chinese community in the nation with a presence dating back to the 16th century and Portuguese colonialism . Since the late-20th century, however, Mandarin- and Wu-speaking migrants from mainland China have outnumbered those from Macau, although Cantonese is still retained among mainstream Chinese community associations. Cantonese

3534-647: Is the lingua franca of the Chinese province of Guangdong (being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta ) and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. It is also the dominant and co-official language of Hong Kong and Macau . Furthermore, Cantonese is widely spoken among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia , as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to

Northern and southern China - Misplaced Pages Continue

3648-460: Is the translation to Hanyu Pinyin of certain terms which originated from southern Chinese varieties. For instance, dim sum is often known as diǎn xīn in Singapore's English-language media, though this is largely a matter of style, and most Singaporeans will still refer to it as dim sum when speaking English. Nevertheless, since the government restriction on media in non-Mandarin varieties

3762-547: Is used instead of 叠 in regions using traditional characters. The Chinese government stated that it wished to keep Chinese orthography stable. The Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese was published in 1988 and included 7000 simplified and unsimplified characters. Of these, half were also included in the revised List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese , which specified 2500 common characters and 1000 less common characters. In 2009,

3876-473: The ⼓   ' WRAP ' radical used in the traditional character 沒 is simplified to ⼏   ' TABLE ' to form the simplified character 没 . By systematically simplifying radicals, large swaths of the character set are altered. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms that embody graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. In addition, variant characters with identical pronunciation and meaning were reduced to

3990-499: The Cultural Revolution , a second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977—largely composed of entirely new variants intended to artificially lower the stroke count, in contrast to the first round—but was massively unpopular and never saw consistent use. The second round of simplifications was ultimately retracted officially in 1986, well after they had largely ceased to be used due to their unpopularity and

4104-595: The Hong Kong Basic Law . The Chinese language has many different varieties , of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals. It is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation also exists in neighboring Macau , where Chinese

4218-554: The Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) the character meaning 'bright' was written as either 明 or 朙 —with either 日 'Sun' or 囧 'window' on the left, with the 月 'Moon' component on the right. Li Si ( d.  208 BC ), the Chancellor of Qin, attempted to universalize the Qin small seal script across China following the wars that had politically unified the country for

4332-503: The Sacramento River Delta (see Locke, California ). It is a Yuehai variety much like Guangzhou Cantonese but has "flatter" tones. Chinese is the second most widely spoken non-English language in the United States when both Cantonese and Mandarin are combined, behind Spanish. Many institutes of higher education have traditionally had Chinese programs based on Cantonese, with some continuing to offer these programs despite

4446-639: The emergent Chinese American enclaves in eastern Los Angeles County and other areas of the metropolitan region. Cantonese is the most common Chinese variety spoken among Chinese Canadians . According to the Canada 2016 census , there were 565,275 Canadian residents who reported Cantonese as their native language. Among the self-reported Cantonese speakers, 44% were born in Hong Kong, 27% were born in Guangdong Province in China, and 18% were Canadian-born. Cantonese-speakers can be found in every city with

4560-531: The states of ancient China , with his chief chronicler having "[written] fifteen chapters describing" what is referred to as the " big seal script ". The traditional narrative, as also attested in the Shuowen Jiezi dictionary ( c.  100 AD ), is that the Qin small seal script that would later be imposed across China was originally derived from the Zhou big seal script with few modifications. However,

4674-402: The "Dot" stroke : The traditional components ⺥ and 爫 become ⺈ : The traditional component 奐 becomes 奂 : Cantonese Cantonese is regarded as an integral and inextricable component of the cultural identity of its native speakers across a vast expanse of southeastern China , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in overseas communities . In mainland China , Cantonese

Northern and southern China - Misplaced Pages Continue

4788-513: The 0 degree Celsius isotherm in January, the 800 millimetres (31 in) isohyet , and the 2,000-hour sunshine duration contour. The Huai River basin serves a similar role, and the course of the Huaihe has been used to set different policies to the north and the south. Historically, populations migrated from the north to the south, especially its coastal areas and along major rivers. After

4902-927: The 18th century rime dictionary Fenyun Cuoyao ( 分韻撮要 ; Fēnyùn Cuòyào ; Fan1 wan5 Cyut3 jiu3 ) and the 1828 Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect by the missionary Robert Morrison , were written in Guangzhou during this period of prosperity. After the First Opium War , centuries of maritime prohibitions ( 海禁 ; hǎijìn ; hoi2 gam3 ) ended. Large numbers of Cantonese people from the Pearl River Delta, especially merchants, subsequently migrated by boat to other parts of Guangdong and Guangxi. These migrants established enclaves of Cantonese in areas that primarily spoke other forms of Yue or even non-Sinitic languages such as Zhuang , for example in

5016-469: The 1919 May Fourth Movement —many anti-imperialist intellectuals throughout China began to see the country's writing system as a serious impediment to its modernization. In 1916, a multi-part English-language article entitled "The Problem of the Chinese Language" co-authored by the Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982) and poet Hu Shih (1891–1962) has been identified as a turning point in

5130-482: The 1986 General List of Simplified Chinese Characters , hereafter the General List . All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Chart 1 and Chart 2 in the 1986 Complete List . Characters in both charts are structurally simplified based on similar set of principles. They are separated into two charts to clearly mark those in Chart 2 as 'usable as simplified character components', based on which Chart 3

5244-520: The 1986 mainland China revisions. Unlike in mainland China, Singapore parents have the option of registering their children's names in traditional characters. Malaysia also promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, though completely identical to the mainland Chinese set. They are used in Chinese-language schools. All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Charts 1 and 2 of

5358-546: The 19th century. Later Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong in two waves, first in the late 1960s to mid 1970s, and again in the 1980s to late 1990s on fears arising from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and impending handover to the People's Republic of China. Chinese-speaking immigrants from conflict zones in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam, arrived as well, beginning in the mid-1970s and were also largely Cantonese-speaking. The overwhelming majority of Chinese speakers in

5472-726: The 2010 proposal put forth by Guangzhou Television , which called for an increase in Mandarin broadcasts at the expense of Cantonese programmes. This, however, resulted in protests in Guangzhou, which ultimately dissuaded the authorities from pursuing the proposal. Furthermore, there are reports of students being punished for speaking other Chinese languages at school, which has led to a reluctance among younger children to communicate in their native languages, including Cantonese. Such actions have further provoked Cantonese speakers to cherish their linguistic identity in contrast to migrants who have generally arrived from poorer areas of China and largely speak Mandarin or other Chinese languages. Due to

5586-488: The Australian Bureau of Statistics listed 336,410 and 263,673 speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, respectively. By 2016, those numbers became 596,711 and 280,943. Spoken Chinese exhibits a multitude of regional and local varieties, many of which are mutually unintelligible . The majority of these varieties are not widely spoken outside of their native regions, although they may be encountered in other parts of

5700-514: The Cantonese authorities in the early In the 20th century, proponents of the regional uniqueness of their local language and the commercial importance of the region argued that Cantonese should be preserved. In contrast to other non-Mandarin Chinese varieties, Cantonese persists in a few state television and radio broadcasts today. Nevertheless, there have been recent efforts to reduce the use of Cantonese in China . The most notable of these has been

5814-477: The Cantonese made up the majority of the city's and province's Chinese Filipino residents, with some of them have residences in Metro Manila. They speak Cantonese and its dialects such as Taishanese at home or in their circles, though they also learned Hokkien —a community lingua franca and trade language among Chinese Filipinos—to interact with the majority of Chinese Filipinos for business purposes, even to

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5928-631: The Chinatowns of San Francisco and Oakland , as well as the surrounding suburbs and metropolitan area, although since the late 2000s a concentration of Mandarin speakers has formed in Silicon Valley . In contrast, Southern California hosts a much larger Mandarin-speaking population, with Cantonese found in more historical Chinese communities such as that of Chinatown, Los Angeles , and older Chinese ethnoburbs such as San Gabriel , Rosemead , and Temple City . Mandarin predominates in much of

6042-470: The Chinese government published a major revision to the list which included a total of 8300 characters. No new simplifications were introduced. In addition, slight modifications to the orthography of 44 characters to fit traditional calligraphic rules were initially proposed, but were not implemented due to negative public response. Also, the practice of unrestricted simplification of rare and archaic characters by analogy using simplified radicals or components

6156-552: The Chinese-run schools, colleges and universities currently employs Mandarin as the subject and medium of instruction for teaching Standard Chinese class subjects, often nearly replacing Hokkien and Cantonese, due to the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese influence in the country since the late 20th century. This also made Cantonese, Hokkien and other Chinese variants endangered languages in the country. However, there are efforts to preserve Cantonese Chinese culture and language in

6270-562: The North. Simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language , with the other being traditional characters . Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy, and their use in ordinary circumstances on

6384-493: The People's Republic, the idea of a mass simplification of character forms first gained traction in China during the early 20th century. In 1909, the educator and linguist Lufei Kui formally proposed the use of simplified characters in education for the first time. Over the following years—marked by the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty , followed by growing social and political discontent that further erupted into

6498-458: The Philippines by volunteers within the Cantonese community to teach it to younger fellow Cantonese. Over a period of 150 years (from 1850 to the 2000s), Guangdong has been the place-of-origin for most Chinese emigrants to Western nations; one coastal county, Taishan (or Tóisàn, where the Sìyì or sei yap variety of Yue is spoken), alone may be the origin of the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to

6612-754: The Thai Chinese commercial sector, it serves as a common language alongside Teochew or Thai. Chinese-language schools in Thailand have also traditionally been conducted in Cantonese. Furthermore, Cantonese serves as the lingua franca with other Chinese communities in the region. In Indonesia , Cantonese is locally known as Konghu and is one of the variants spoken by the Chinese Indonesian community, with speakers largely concentrated in certain major cities like Jakarta , Medan , Surabaya , Makassar , Semarang , Manado and Batam . However, it has

6726-576: The U.S. before 1965. As a result, Yue languages such as Cantonese and the closely related variety of Taishanese have been the major Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in the United States. In 2009, 458,840 Americans spoke Cantonese at home according to an American Community Survey. The Zhongshan variant of Cantonese, which originated from the western Pearl River Delta, is spoken by many Chinese immigrants in Hawaii, and some in San Francisco and

6840-574: The United Kingdom use Cantonese, with about 300,000 British people claiming it as their first language. This is largely due to the presence of British Hong Kongers and the fact that many British Chinese also have origins in the former British colonies in Southeast Asia of Singapore and Malaysia. Among the Chinese community in France , Cantonese is spoken by immigrants who fled the former French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) following

6954-444: The body of epigraphic evidence comparing the character forms used by scribes gives no indication of any real consolidation in character forms prior to the founding of the Qin. The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) that inherited the Qin administration coincided with the perfection of clerical script through the process of libian . Eastward spread of Western learning Though most closely associated with

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7068-447: The broadest trend in the evolution of Chinese characters over their history has been simplification, both in graphical shape ( 字形 ; zìxíng ), the "external appearances of individual graphs", and in graphical form ( 字体 ; 字體 ; zìtǐ ), "overall changes in the distinguishing features of graphic[al] shape and calligraphic style, [...] in most cases refer[ring] to rather obvious and rather substantial changes". The initiatives following

7182-407: The chosen variants, those that appear in the "Complete List of Simplified Characters" are also simplified in character structure accordingly. Some examples follow: Sample reduction of equivalent variants : Ancient variants with simple structure are preferred : Simpler vulgar forms are also chosen : The chosen variant was already simplified in Chart 1 : In some instances, the chosen variant

7296-467: The conflicts and communist takeovers in the region during the 1970s. While a slight majority of ethnic Chinese from Indochina speak Teochew at home, knowledge of Cantonese is prevalent due to its historic prestige status in the region and is used for commercial and community purposes between the different Chinese variety groups. As in the United States, there is a divide between Cantonese-speakers and those speaking other mainland Chinese varieties. Cantonese

7410-595: The confusion they caused. In August 2009, China began collecting public comments for a revised list of simplified characters; the resulting List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters lists 8,105 characters, including a few revised forms, and was implemented for official use by China's State Council on 5 June 2013. In Chinese, simplified characters are referred to by their official name 简化字 ; jiǎnhuàzì , or colloquially as 简体字 ; jiǎntǐzì . The latter term refers broadly to all character variants featuring simplifications of character form or structure,

7524-656: The country. In 1935, the first official list of simplified forms was published, consisting of 324 characters collated by Peking University professor Qian Xuantong . However, fierce opposition within the KMT resulted in the list being rescinded in 1936. Work throughout the 1950s resulted in the 1956 promulgation of the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme , a draft of 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified components, whose simplifications would be present in most compound characters. Over

7638-634: The different Chinese dialect groups. Many speakers reflect their exposure to Vietnamese with a Vietnamese accent or a tendency to code-switch between Cantonese and Vietnamese. In Malaysia , Cantonese is widely spoken among the Malaysian Chinese community in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas in the Klang Valley ( Petaling Jaya , Ampang , Putrajaya , Cheras , Selayang , Sungai Buloh , Puchong , Shah Alam , Kajang , Bangi , and Subang Jaya ). The language

7752-405: The early 1900s. Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Mandarin Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region. While the Chinese government encourages

7866-462: The eastern Sabahan town of Sandakan as well as the towns of Kuantan , Raub , Bentong , Temerloh , Pekan , Jerantut as well as Cameron Highlands in Pahang state, and they are also found in other areas like Sarikei , Sarawak, and Mersing , Johor. Although Hokkien is the most natively spoken variety of Chinese and Mandarin is the medium of education at Chinese-language schools , Cantonese

7980-447: The economic problems in China during that time. Lu Xun , one of the most prominent Chinese authors of the 20th century, stated that "if Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die" ( 漢字不滅，中國必亡 ). During the 1930s and 1940s, discussions regarding simplification took place within the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party. Many members of the Chinese intelligentsia maintained that simplification would increase literacy rates throughout

8094-416: The ethnic Chinese population of the two territories largely originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories. On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi even after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in

8208-728: The expense of other Chinese varieties. A little over 15% of Chinese households in Singapore speak Cantonese. Despite the government actively promoting SMC, the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community has been relatively successful in preserving its language from Mandarin compared with other dialect groups. Notably, all nationally produced non-Mandarin Chinese TV and radio programs were stopped after 1979. The prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew , then, also stopped giving speeches in Hokkien to prevent giving conflicting signals to

8322-629: The fall of the Han dynasty , The Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–589) ruled their respective part of China before re-uniting under the Tang dynasty . During the Qing dynasty , regional differences and identification in China fostered the growth of regional stereotypes. Such stereotypes often appeared in historic chronicles and gazetteers and were based on geographic circumstances, historical and literary associations (e.g. people from Shandong , were considered upright and honest) and Chinese cosmology (as

8436-752: The fancy diets of the Southerners, who are physically frail, live in a different environment, and have different stomachs and bowels. During the Republican period , Lu Xun , a major Chinese writer, wrote: According to my observation, Northerners are sincere and honest; Southerners are skilled and quick-minded. These are their respective virtues. Yet sincerity and honesty lead to stupidity, whereas skillfulness and quick-mindedness lead to duplicity. Northern regions of China have long winters that are cold and dry, often below freezing, and long summers that are hot and humid. Transitional periods are short. The ecology

8550-512: The first time. Li prescribed the 朙 form of the word for 'bright', but some scribes ignored this and continued to write the character as 明 . However, the increased usage of 朙 was followed by proliferation of a third variant: 眀 , with 目 'eye' on the left—likely derived as a contraction of 朙 . Ultimately, 明 became the character's standard form. The Book of Han (111 AD) describes an earlier attempt made by King Xuan of Zhou ( d.  782 BC ) to unify character forms across

8664-475: The following decade, the Script Reform Committee deliberated on characters in the 1956 scheme, collecting public input regarding the recognizability of variants, and often approving forms in small batches. Parallel to simplification, there were also initiatives aimed at eliminating the use of characters entirely and replacing them with pinyin as an official Chinese alphabet, but this possibility

8778-430: The founding of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) to universalize the use of their small seal script across the recently conquered parts of the empire is generally seen as being the first real attempt at script reform in Chinese history. Before the 20th century, variation in character shape on the part of scribes, which would continue with the later invention of woodblock printing , was ubiquitous. For example, prior to

8892-556: The history of the Chinese script—as it was one of the first clear calls for China to move away from the use of characters entirely. Instead, Chao proposed that the language be written with an alphabet, which he saw as more logical and efficient. The alphabetization and simplification campaigns would exist alongside one another among the Republican intelligentsia for the next several decades. Recent commentators have echoed some contemporary claims that Chinese characters were blamed for

9006-476: The language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province Speech" ( 廣東話 ; 广东话 ; Gwong2 dung1 waa2 ; Gwóngdùng wá ) or simply as "Chinese" ( 中文 ; Zung1 man2 ; Jùngmán ). During the Southern Song period, Guangzhou became the cultural center of the region. Cantonese emerged as the prestige variety of Yue Chinese when the port city of Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta became

9120-582: The largest port in China, with a trade network stretching as far as Arabia. Specifically, the mutually intelligible speech of the Sam Yap ( 三邑 ; Sānyì ; Sam1 jap1 ), the Three Counties of Guangzhou, namely the historical counties of Panyu ( 番禺 ), Nanhai ( 南海 ), and Shunde ( 顺德 ), came to be heralded as the standard. Cantonese was also used in the popular Yuè'ōu , Mùyú and Nányīn folksong genres, as well as Cantonese opera . Additionally,

9234-478: The linguistic history of Hong Kong and Macau , and the use of Cantonese in many established overseas Chinese communities, the use of Cantonese is quite widespread compared to the presence of its speakers residing in China. Cantonese is the predominant Chinese variety spoken in Hong Kong and Macau. In these areas, public discourse takes place almost exclusively in Cantonese, making it the only variety of Chinese other than Mandarin to be used as an official language in

9348-533: The mainland has been encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s. They are the official forms used in mainland China and Singapore , while traditional characters are officially used in Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan . Simplification of a component—either a character or a sub-component called a radical —usually involves either a reduction in its total number of strokes , or an apparent streamlining of which strokes are chosen in what places—for example,

9462-547: The nation. Chinese-language schools in Cambodia are conducted in both Cantonese and Mandarin, but schools may be conducted exclusively in one Chinese variant or the other. While Thailand is home to the largest overseas Chinese community in the world, the vast majority of ethnic Chinese in the country speak Thai exclusively. Among Chinese-speaking Thai households, Cantonese is the fourth most-spoken Chinese variety after Teochew , Hakka and Hainanese . Nevertheless, within

9576-487: The official variety of Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau, both during and after the colonial period, under the policy of ' biliteracy and trilingualism ' ( Chinese : 兩文三語 ; pinyin : liǎngwén sānyǔ ; Jyutping : loeng3 man4 saam1 jyu5 ). Government and law still function predominantly in Cantonese in these jurisdictions, and officials speak Cantonese even at the most formal occasions. The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in

9690-496: The people. Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Taiwanese dramas are unavailable in their untranslated form on free-to-air television, though drama series in non-Chinese languages are available in their original languages. Cantonese drama series on terrestrial TV channels are instead dubbed in Mandarin and broadcast without the original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. However, originals may be available through other sources like cable television and online videos. Furthermore, an offshoot of SMC

9804-617: The point of assimilating into their Fujianese neighbors, as well as Spanish , English and Philippine languages such as Tagalog / Filipino , Cebuano and Ilocano . Like the Fujianese, newer generations of Chinese Filipinos of Cantonese descent barely speak Cantonese or Hokkien as their second or third languages or none at all due to assimilation into the local Filipino population over the years, making Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages such as Cebuano and Ilocano as their first languages and English as second. Additionally, most of

9918-474: The population of Hong Kong and Macau arrived from Guangzhou and surrounding areas after they were ceded to Britain and Portugal , respectively. The influx of such migrants into Hong Kong established Cantonese as the main language of the city, supplanting local Yue Chinese varieties, which were closer to the dialects of neighboring Shenzhen and Dongguan , as well as the Hakka and Southern Min varieties of

10032-492: The port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China. Due to the city's long standing role as an important cultural center, Cantonese emerged as the prestige dialect of the Yue varieties of Chinese in the Southern Song dynasty and its usage spread around most of what is now the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi . Despite the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 and Macau to Portugal in 1887,

10146-787: The primary Chinese variety spoken. Socioeconomic statuses are also a factor. For example, in New York City, Cantonese still predominates in the city's older, traditional western portion of Chinatown in Manhattan and in Brooklyn's small new Chinatowns in Bensonhurst and Homecrest . The newly emerged Little Fuzhou eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's main large Chinatown in and around Sunset Park are mostly populated by Fuzhounese speakers , who often speak Mandarin as well. The Cantonese and Fuzhounese enclaves in New York City are more working class. However, due to

10260-436: The primary cultural center for New York City's Chinese population and are more middle class. While a number of more-established Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster relations with the traditional Cantonese-speaking Chinese American population, more recent arrivals and the larger number of mainland Chinese immigrants have largely continued to use Mandarin as the exclusive variety of Chinese. This has led to

10374-410: The provenance of the prestige accent of Cantonese: that of the district of Xiguan ( 西关 ; 西關 ; Xīguān ; Sai1 Gwaan1 ) in the west of Guangzhou. It is known for its distinctive use of an apical vowel ( /ɿ/ , or in more conventional IPA : /ź̩~ɯ~ɨ/ ) in some cases where modern Cantonese would use a /i/ final. Throughout the 19th century and continuing into the 1900s, the ancestors of most of

10488-430: The public and quickly fell out of official use. It was ultimately formally rescinded in 1986. The second-round simplifications were unpopular in large part because most of the forms were completely new, in contrast to the familiar variants comprising the majority of the first round. With the rescission of the second round, work toward further character simplification largely came to an end. In 1986, authorities retracted

10602-564: The rapid gentrification of Manhattan's Chinatown and with NYC's Cantonese and Fuzhou populations now increasingly shifting to other Chinese enclaves in the Outer Boroughs of NYC , such as Brooklyn and Queens , but mainly in Brooklyn's newer Chinatowns, the Cantonese speaking population in NYC is now increasingly concentrated in Bensonhurst's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong and Homecrest's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong . The Fuzhou population of NYC

10716-481: The region. With subsequent waves of migration into Hong Kong, even as late as the 1950s, the proportion of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong had not yet surpassed 50%; nonetheless, this figure has risen to above 90% since the 1970s. On the other hand, the indigenous variety of Yue Chinese in Macau had been close to that of Zhongshan , and this has had an effect on the tonal phonology of the Cantonese spoken in Macau. As

10830-514: The rest of mainland China and Taiwan and most often speak Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) as their native language, although some may also speak their native local variety, such as Shanghainese , Hokkien , Fuzhounese , Hakka , etc. As a result, Mandarin is becoming more common among the Chinese American community. The increase of Mandarin-speaking communities has resulted in the rise of separate neighborhoods or enclaves segregated by

10944-432: The rise of Mandarin. The most popular romanization for learning Cantonese in the United States is Yale romanization . The majority of Chinese emigrants have traditionally originated from Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Hong Kong and Macau (beginning in the latter half of the 20th century and before the handover ) and Southeast Asia, with Cantonese as their native language. However, more recent immigrants are arriving from

11058-481: The same set of simplified characters as mainland China. The first round was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969, consisting of 498 simplified characters derived from 502 traditional characters. A second round of 2287 simplified characters was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the mainland China system; these were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted

11172-467: The second round completely, though they had been largely fallen out of use within a year of their initial introduction. That year, the authorities also promulgated a final version of the General List of Simplified Chinese Characters . It was identical to the 1964 list save for 6 changes—including the restoration of 3 characters that had been simplified in the first round: 叠 , 覆 , 像 ; the form 疊

11286-505: The south took the lead due to manufacturing and eventually high-tech industries, as well as continued internal migration into the region. A research showed that life expectancy was slightly higher in Southern China compared to Northern China. In 2018, it was 76.66 years for North and 77.35 for South. According to the data from a survey in 2011, people in Southern China were 10.51% less likely to be obese and overweight compared to

11400-591: The south was associated with the fire element, Southerners were considered hot-tempered). These differences were reflected in Qing dynasty policies, such as the prohibition on local officials to serve their home areas, as well as conduct of personal and commercial relations. In 1730, the Kangxi Emperor made the observation in the Tingxun Geyan (庭訓格言): The people of the North are strong; they must not copy

11514-591: The southern regions are more likely to think holistically, interdependent, and draw a larger distinction between friends and strangers. The difference was attributed to the growing of rice, which often requires the sharing labor and managing shared irrigation infrastructure. Traveling between places tends to be easier in northern regions where the terrain is more even. As China modernized, the north initially developed faster due to planned economic policies , Soviet aid , and its concentration of construction and resource extraction industries. After market reforms , however,

11628-643: The southern regions began later in history. Warm temperatures and abundant rainfall help produce rice and tropical fruits . Two to three crops can be grown each year, and the growing season lasts nine to twelve months. Rice-based food is more common. Jones Lamprey, a British army surgeon in 1868, writes that northerners have lighter skin tones than southerners, although the shade can change greatly from season to season depending on an individual's exposure to sunlight when performing manual labor outdoors. Northerners are often taller than southerners. Variants of Mandarin are widely spoken in northern regions and often with

11742-833: The traditional character 強 , with 11 strokes is standardised as 强 , with 12 strokes, which is a variant character. Such characters do not constitute simplified characters. The new standardized character forms shown in the Characters for Publishing and revised through the Common Modern Characters list tend to adopt vulgar variant character forms. Since the new forms take vulgar variants, many characters now appear slightly simpler compared to old forms, and as such are often mistaken as structurally simplified characters. Some examples follow: The traditional component 釆 becomes 米 : The traditional component 囚 becomes 日 : The traditional "Break" stroke becomes

11856-402: The two varieties. A noteworthy distinction between Cantonese and Mandarin is the manner in which the spoken word is written. Both languages can be recorded verbatim, yet a paucity of Cantonese speakers possess comprehensive knowledge of the written vocabulary. Consequently, a non-verbatim formalised written form is adopted, which bears resemblance to the written Standard Mandarin . However, it

11970-456: The use of Standard Mandarin rather than local varieties of Chinese in broadcasts, Cantonese enjoys a relatively higher standing than other Chinese languages, with its own media and usage in public transportation in Guangdong province. Furthermore, it is also a medium of instruction in select academic curricula, including some university elective courses and Chinese as a foreign language programs. The permitted usage of Cantonese in mainland China

12084-561: The way the Yong–Xun Yue dialect of Nanning emerged. Many Cantonese migrants sailed overseas, bringing the Cantonese language with the overseas Chinese to Southeast Asia, North and South America, and Western Europe. Such enclaves of Cantonese are found in Chinatowns across many of these major cities outside China. During the late 19th century, the pedagogical work Cantonese made easy , written by James Dyer Ball in 1883, articulated

12198-400: The world. Additionally, numerous varieties possess both literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters for newer standard reading sounds. Since a 1909 decree of the Qing dynasty , the government of China has promoted Mandarin for use in education, the media, and official communications. However, the proclamation of Mandarin as the official national language was not fully accepted by

12312-464: The world. Because of their dominance in Chinese diaspora overseas, standard Cantonese and its dialect Taishanese are among the most common Chinese languages that one may encounter in the West. Increasingly since the 1997 handover , Cantonese has been used as a symbol of local identity in Hong Kong, largely through the development of democracy in the territory and desinicization practices to emphasise

12426-470: Was abandoned following massive public protests, the largest since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 . As a major economic center of China, there have been concerns that the use of Cantonese in Guangzhou is diminishing in favour of Mandarin, both through the continual influx of Mandarin-speaking migrants from impoverished areas and strict government policies. As a result, Cantonese is being given

12540-464: Was abandoned, confirmed by a speech given by Zhou Enlai in 1958. In 1965, the PRC published the List of Commonly Used Characters for Printing  [ zh ] (hereafter Characters for Printing ), which included standard printed forms for 6196 characters, including all of the forms from the 1956 scheme. A second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977, but was poorly received by

12654-437: Was maintained in mass media, with films from the 1930s making prominent use of it. However, during this time many phonological changes can be detected, indicating the change from Early Cantonese to Modern Cantonese. In mainland China, Standard Mandarin has been heavily promoted as the medium of instruction in schools and as the official language, especially after the communist takeover in 1949. Meanwhile, Cantonese has remained

12768-599: Was often referred to in English as "the Canton dialect". However, "Cantonese" may also refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang ; this broader usage may be specified as " Yue speech " ( 粵語 ; 粤语 ; Jyut6 jyu5 ; Yuhtyúh ). In this article, "Cantonese" is used for Cantonese proper. Historically, speakers called this variety "Canton speech" ( 廣州話 ; 广州话 ; Gwong2 zau1 waa2 ; Gwóngjàu wá ), although this term

12882-496: Was relaxed in the mid-1990s and 2000s, presence of Cantonese in Singapore has grown substantially. Forms of popular culture from Hong Kong, like television series , cinema and pop music have become popular in Singaporean society, and non-dubbed original versions of the media became widely available. Consequently, the number of non-Cantonese Chinese Singaporeans being able to understand or speak Cantonese to some varying extent

12996-529: Was the dominant Chinese language of the Chinese Australian community from the time the first ethnic Chinese settlers arrived in the 1850s until the mid-2000s, when a heavy increase in immigration from Mandarin-speakers largely from mainland China led to Mandarin surpassing Cantonese as the dominant Chinese dialect spoken. Cantonese is the third most-spoken language in Australia. In the 2011 census,

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