The Rise of Putonghua

There is a common saying that you don't need to speak Cantonese to get around Hong Kong. And it's true. Hong Kong is an English friendly city. Street signs are in English. The MTR is laid out in Chinese and English. Hong Kong is a bilingual city.

But now, it's being pushed (maybe even forced) to become a trilingual city: Cantonese, English and Putonghua/Mandarin. With the rapid growth of China knocking on Hong Kong's door and the opening up of the Hong Kong-China border, the city is seeing a huge influx in immigrants from China, and in some places in Hong Kong, Putonghua is the more dominant language.

To cope with the changing language scene, primary schools are putting a greater emphasis on Putonghua education. Whereas before, schools focused on Cantonese and English, they are now placing greater importance on Putonghua. In fact, the "Teaching in Rural Hong Kong" program I'm doing through my school, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), not only had high demand for English teachers but for Putonghua teachers. All the locals seem to know that Cantonese will die out soon and Putonghua will become the dominant language.

Similar scenes of mainlanders overpowering Hong Kong-ers are happening in other Chinese hot spot cities around the world. Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Los Angeles were once settling spots for Cantonese-Chinese, who are defined as being from Guangzhou or Hong Kong. But now, these cities have become overrun by mainlander Chinese, many of whom are now rich enough, thanks to China's open economy, to move across the Pacific.

Cantonese-Chinese people in the above cities are now being outnumbered by mainlander Chinese, and they have no choice but to adapt to the changing language scene, whether they like it or not. My grandparent's generation refused to learn it, my parent's generation knows a little, and the younger generation in Hong Kong knows enough to get by, most can understand it even if they can't fluently speak it.

But overseas Chinese and Hong Kong-ers aren't the only ones who need to learn Putonghua. People around the world seem to be realizing that, with 1/6 of the world's population, China and Putonghua will probably soon take over the world. The future of business is in China so that's why everyone is flocking there.

China has set up Confucius Institutes, which are centres that specifically teach Putonghua, in many cities around the world in response to the interest and demand in learning the Chinese language. With centres set up in South Korea, Serbia, and Rwanda, amongst other countries, the Chinese government is hoping to teach 100 million non-Chinese the Chinese language and culture. However, another result of these Confucius Institutes could be the growth of China's soft power. Soft power is when a country has influence through its culture and language, and with so many Institutes around the world, China is really building up soft power, which is going to help it in issues of public diplomacy...but could this mean that foreign countries will become less strict towards it, its problems with human rights, and its ignorance of social development?