|
 |
New novel in written Cantonese | ||
Tags: Cantonese | Literature | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 1 of 6 22 July 2013 at 8:51am | IP Logged | ||
This makes me so happy I had to return from my long absence from these forums to tell you the good news about a recently published novel written in Cantonese. Anyone who knows me is aware of my love for Cantonese and its written language, which is stigmatized, underused, underestimated and often simply isn't recognized at all. There was a brief movement of literature in Cantonese in the 20th century, but it pretty much died out in the 90's. The Internet has, however, been a huge boost for the language, with young people using it to talk on web forums, Facebook, Twitter etc. So it comes as no surprise that the revival of Cantonese literature starts with a book which began as a series of posts on the influential HKGOLDEN web forum. Here's the book:
It's called 男人唔可以窮, "Men cannot be poor". I hope this is the start of another movement of literature in Cantonese and a revival of literary interest in Hong Kong, which has never been a big hub of literature despite its great cultural status (understandable, since all the books are written in a foreign language!). I'm so happy right now and I'm gonna buy the hell out of this book. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5733 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 2 of 6 22 July 2013 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Wow Ari, amazing find! Is there any way to order this online?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5600 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 3 of 6 22 July 2013 at 11:57pm | IP Logged | ||
|
There were 370.000 books published in China and another 40.000 in Taiwan last year. If 1 (ONE!) book in Cantonese is great news and shows a "boost of the language", I do not dare to imagine, in what state the written language is!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 6 23 July 2013 at 10:15am | IP Logged | ||
http://www.hkbookcity.com/showbook2.php?serial_no=711423 Apparently there's another one, too, with the long title "我將一位宅女變成女神，然 後再將自己變成�� �隻兵", which also started out as a series of posts on the HKGOLDEN forum. Here's hoping this becomes a trend! EDIT: That missing character is supposed to be "keoi5" as in "he, she, it". Can't get it to display properly. Edited by Ari on 23 July 2013 at 10:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 6 23 July 2013 at 10:28am | IP Logged | ||
Well, written Cantonese is healthy and flourishing in web forums, on Facebook and in emails and text messages. There are some comics that use it, as well, and it's used sometimes in advertising for effect. Most young HKers use it on a daily basis, and probably write more Cantonese than they do Standard Chinese (Mandarin). However, the language is heavily stigmatized and "serious" things are not written in Cantonese. Books, articles, information signs, academic papers and just about anything "official" you can imagine is still written in Mandarin. Written Cantonese is seen as very informal, nonstandard and by many people simply incorrect. Still, Cantonese is much healthier than any of the other non-Mandarin topolects in China. With Shanghainese, Hakka or Taiwanese, you probably couldn't even write a book if you wanted to, and if you managed to do it, nobody would be able to read it, since these languages don't have a coherent written language. The great success story of Cantonese has been the grassroots movement of establishing characters for Cantonese-specific morphemes and over time converging on a more-or-less stable standard, which has led to most HKers today being able to read and write their native language, a rare luxury for non-Mandarin speaking ethnic Chinese. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4445 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 6 03 August 2013 at 9:32am | IP Logged | ||
|
The increasing use of Cantonese is very much a sign of change in Chinese attitude. Many
years ago people were happy to be using standard Mandarin expressions when writing Chinese and different regions would speak their distinctive "dialects" like Korean a few hundred years ago. Koreans would write in Chinese characters that many has no equivalent in the spoken language until they made the switch to using an alphabet. In the 1970s & 80s the education curriculum was using textbooks written in standard Mandarin with words & phrases like 他們 tāmen instead of 佢哋 keoi5 dei6 for "they" and 對 duì instead of 係 hai6 for "yes". Some of Cantonese characters were invented after the 1997 handover to Chinese sovereignty to address the issue of HK as a distinct society within the PRC like Quebec is a distinct society within Canada. Some old-timers still think it is inappropriate to see Cantonese being used in local newspapers. Before & during the war there was much closer ties between HK and the neighbouring Guangdong Province. People used to travel back and forth more freely until 1949 when the communists took over. Back then China was still very backward and many places maintain their regional identity because there were few roads or railways to connect between places. Many people were illiterate and didn't use a computer so a written version of Cantonese wasn't used. Over the years the 2 sides separated. In Guangdong Province we're seeing more Chinese migrants from other provinces and Mandarin widely used. But in HK the numbers of Mainlander allowed to travel or stay is limited so created the 1 country-2 systems and many people don't speak fluent Mandarin. On the Internet you are seeing Chinese people dividing themselves when submitting comments in blogs. The Mainland Chinese would be typing in standard Mandarin in Simplified characters, the Taiwanese using Traditional characters and people from HK in Cantonese. Edited by shk00design on 06 August 2013 at 6:55am 5 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
