An outsider's thoughts on 'plight' of Shanghainese
- By Zachary Lowell
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, December 28, 2015
By many measures (investment flows, student exchanges, cross-border trade, international air routes, ect) it would seem that the city and its people are becoming even more globally-oriented — which would belie a correlation between dialect usage and internationalization.
As a foreigner, I sense that Shanghainese is often a tool to divide "insiders" from "outsiders." This is hardly a controversial observation, since this has been a key function of dialects for millennia.
In shops and convenience stores, I've on rare occassions seen Chinese people with thick, erhua-laden northern accents being refused service in Mandarin (whether through ignorance or excessive local pride is anyone's guess). And when my landlord and her husband are haggling with me over the coming year's rent, they (conveniently) switch from Mandarin to Shanghainese, which they known I don't understand.
On a larger scale, foreign business friends tell me they often bring Shanghainese and Mandarin translators to negotiations to prevent any shenanigans. I wish that I could share Ge's fondness for the local dialect, but sadly I think this is not to be.
But then there is also the question of whether Shanghainese is really in the precarious situation that many suggest. Stories about the importance of local culture get a lot of attention in the local media these days, but I wonder if the press hasn't overblown the waning of Shanghainese.
As Ge herself mentions, Shanghainese is having somewhat of a revival at present. There are now schools, lessons and textbooks aimed at teaching the language to a new generation. I certainly hear a more-or-less equal mix of Shanghainese and Mandarin every day at work — with the former often coming from speakers in their early-20s. Also, Shanghainese announcements are now heard on several of the city's buses, a recent development heralded as an important step to keep the language alive. There are also plenty of Shanghainese radio and television programs.
Finally, I can't help but wonder if the new-found emphasis on Shanghainese reflects a sense of anxiety among the people of Shanghai themselves. As Ge mentions, migrants are increasingly finding success and rising to high-status positions in the city. Migrants are gaining in many areas where Shanghainese might have once fancied themselves leaders. Could the current discourse on the local dialect be a way to reassert identity and reestablish their unique character?
As this discussion continues, I would encourage people to look carefully at assumptions which are taken for granted.
The author is a copy editor at Shanghai Daily.
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