|
This page aims to give an overview of how common Cantonese is in particular areas round the world.
Also of interest for Asian countries is whether the local script is in
Traditional or Simplified Chinese.
Ideally, each region's text should be written by a resident of that country so if your country does not appear, please post your information to
this
thread.
Europe
England and the UK: The majority of Chinese in the UK speak Cantonese due to the close ties between Hong Kong. Certainly, most BBCs (British Born Chinese) will be likely to speak Cantonese with a HK or Macau style.
London, Manchester, Cardiff and Birmingham all have a Chinatown area although London's is unsurprisingly the largest.
Chinese restaurants and takeaways are extremely popular and may be found in most towns.
Dim Sum restaurants are less common and tend to only appear when there is a large enough Chinese community to sustain them. For example, Cambridge and Milton
Meynes.
Chinese newspapers and magazines will usually be in Traditional Chinese,
direct from Hong Kong, as will Chinese restaurant signs and menus.
Like most countries, Mandarin is certainly becoming more common, helped in part by an influx of students from China.
Students from HK, Macau and China are not just going to University, many Chinese families now send their teenagers over to study GCSEs. This means smaller towns often have a Chinese student population.
Television: The UK's main satellite provider is BSkyB and they currently run two Chinese channels.
- Phoenix (PCNE) used to be predominantly Cantonese but in recent years the balance has shifted towards Mandarin. They sometimes run Mandarin learning programmes.
- CCTV-9. This is a mainland Chinese news channel targeted towards people outside of China and is therefore Mandarin or English.
France
French missionaries travelled to southern China to spread the gospel. Arriving by sea the first harbour
they met was Macau, (Hong Kong was not even developed) and then the area of "Canton" Guangzhou - one of the first one
to be open to foreigners. They were learning Cantonese for good the first 1-2 year(s) and then were going from place to place to spread the gospel and build churches. Some
spent their whole life in the region.
Did you know that the flag of Hong Kong has on it the Bauhinia flower that was discovered by
Fench missionaries in the late 19th century? (Although the name of the flower was given by
British for Blake Anna - Sir Blake)
In the early 20th century, Chinese people began to arrive in Paris' 3rd district (not
the 13th district as is sometimes thought).
Some French cities now have strong links with China, like Lyon which is linked to
GuangZhou.
In Paris there are no University courses for Cantonese, apart from ones for
students who already speak Mandarin.
You can find private courses or associations, but there is no real degree
for Cantonese.
Remember, France is not only mainland France. There are people from
the more remote islands that speak perfect Cantonese. For example, Madagascar (which
was previously under French influence), Mauritius and Reunion Island.
Interesting trivia: Maggie Cheung speaks french!
Finally, around 6000 french are now living in HK, but very few of them speak the language.
There is a French mailing list for Cantonese : cantonais-subscribe@yahoogroupes.fr
Submitted by JB
Germany (taken from a comment by Helmut in the forum)
Only very few people speak Cantonese. Compared to English speaking countries, Germany is more tuned to the northern Mandarin speaking mainland
than to HK or Guangdong, for a number of reasons (colonial past, emigration preferences
of Cantonese, relations between the 68 student revolt and Maoism,
mentality).
The university of Heidelberg does sometimes offer Cantonese language courses.
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Netherlands etc
<we need people's help here!>
Canada and North America
Canada
For more information about Chinese in Vancouver, Richmond and Toronto
please see this dedicated page.
South America
Brazil
Most Asian people are Japanese (nearly 80%). Most Chinese
people come from Guangdong Province or Taiwan, and most of these are in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
In Sao Paulo, the "Liberdade" town quarter is also known as
"Sino-Japanese Town". In there, shops and announcements are written in Japanese or Chinese (traditional).
Liberdade is a meeting point of Asian-Brazilian students or anime fans.
Chinese immigration is a relatively recent occurrence in Brazil.
Submitted by Arashiro
Asia
China
The home of the Cantonese language is of course Guang Dong in Southern
China.
"Cantonese is spoken through the Eastern half of Guanxi province,
all the way down to the peninsula opposite Hainan Province" - Terry
S, September 2005
Japan
Japan uses Japanese script, known as kana but also uses Kanji, which are Chinese characters (possibly simplified nowadays). Not all of the meanings have remained unchanged but a student of Chinese should be able to get an idea of some kanji, which will be helpful for shop signs etc.
Ailie wrote in June 2004 :
"I can say something about Cantonese in Japan, as my Japanese ex-flatmate
is a big fan.
Due to the boom of HK films (esp those from John Woo) and Cantopop in 80s
and 90s Japanese (mostly girls) started learning Cantonese. Now most
private language school offer courses of Cantonese. Lots of Japanese learn
Cantonese because it sounds interesting, as well as for convenience when
they travel and shop in Hong Kong (bargaining, sure).
Lots of Japanese residents in Hong Kong (workers and their families) can
speak good Cantonese. In late 80s there was a Japanese guy (who studied in
HKU) who wrote racing news in Chinese for a newspaper!
And many Japanese authored homepage dedicated to colloquial Cantonese
(swearing especially...), and it is not difficult to find Cantonese
textbooks in major bookstores, both in Japan and Hong Kong (e.g. Asahi
Bookstore in Sogo)."
Malaysia
"The predominant Chinese “dialect” in Malaysia is Hokkien,
although there are two major branches: north Peninsula type (where “rice
飯” is pronounced /p~ui/) and the rest of the country (where
“rice 飯” is pronounced /png/)." read
more about Cantonese in Malaysia.
Singapore
"In Singapore, Hokkien is the more dominant dialect. Taiwan
influence the culture of Singapore to a great extent. The dominant dialect
race is also Hokkien (Min-nan). Although there are a significant figure of
Catnoese, Hokkien is spoken more widely than Cantonese" - Howl,
Jun 2004
"When I visited Singapore in 2004, I was able to use Cantonese in
the Chinatown area. The elderly locals that I spoke to their were really
pleased to hear that I was learning and I received extra food and nice
service as a result!" - /\dam
Taiwan
"Taiwan has a larger population than HK and also larger
purchasing power than HK. Even HK artists are producing albums in Mandarin
to penetrate the Taiwanese market. As such, Cantonese in Singapore and
Taiwan are not that significant. And also, Hakka are the next main dialect
spoken in HK and Taiwan." - Howl, June 2004
"I live in a smallish part of Taiwan called Chiayi
嘉義 and I can safely say that in the southern parts of
Taiwan, there is almost no Cantonese spoken. There may be one or two
people here and there who can speak it or may be expatriates from Hong
Kong but other than that the only time you might hear it is when you walk
past a shop playing HK Pop music or if you happened to be at a KTV you
might hear someone singing a Cantonese pop song. I have not yet ventured
to Taipei but i would guess that cantonese would be similarly uncommon
there" - JayR, July 2004
Thailand
<more info needed, also, do these countries use simplified, traditional or non-Chinese scripts?)
Africa and the Middle East
Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion Island (French)
Cantonese is spoken in these places.
In Reunion, almost all came from Guantong Province, either Hakka (from Meixian district) or
Cantonese people called "Namsun" (from Namhoi & Suntak districts.)
Most of them came in the 30s because of the war with Japan & communism.
Chinese immigration to Reunion stopped in the 50s & with marriages between the 2
Chinese communities or with others non-Chinese communities, nowadays Cantonese & Hakka are mainly spoken only by the older people.
Submitted by "Er"
Israel
Not too much information but there is apparently a Hong Kong Cantonese
community there. See this
thread for more details.
Australasia
Australia
"Australia's Cantonese community largely dates from the gold rush period (1850s) when Australia was known as the "New Gold Mountain" after the original "gold mountain", California. Many of these early sojourners returned home, however significant numbers established themselves in Sydney and Melbourne.
" - Read more on the dedicated Australia
page.
New Zealand
Cantonese is widely spoken by Chinese people in New Zealand, although the
Cantonese speaking population is pretty much all concentrated in Auckland (I have recently moved down to Wellington - the capital city of NZ - and have not spoken a word of
Cantonese except to my family back home in Auckland!). The majority of
Cantonese speakers are from Hong Kong (the relative HK population here is quite large for a western country). I don't have any figures, but to give you an idea of the substantial
Cantonese speaking population here in NZ, a number of "big" Hong Kong singers have performed/are perfoming concerts here - including Andy Lau, Jackie Cheung (you know who I mean), Alan Tam, and Sally Yeh and George Lam (I think Sammi has done a concert here too).
Cantonese music CDs, VCDs, radio stations, newspapers/magazines etc are widely available here, mainly stuff from Hong Kong. A
cantonese-speaking TV channel is also available through cable, featuring recent shows/drama from
TVB, and broadcasting daily news from Hong Kong.
submitted by "cheery"
This is a work in progress, so if you have any
suggestions, corrections or advice, please post in the Discussion
Forum.
|
