Lim 1

Netty Lim
Kim
Honors 394A
9 May 2015
Midterm Paper
The word Chinese, like many other descriptors of ethnicity and language, can be a
blanket term. It is assumed to refer to Mandarin or Putonghua Chinese, the legal standard
language of the Peoples Republic of China as outlined by the Standard Spoken and Written
Chinese Language Law (Peoples). However, it can be misleading, as those who speak Chinese
can not only be speakers of Mandarin, but also Cantonese, Hakka, and more under the Chinese
language family. Cantonese in particular, is spoken across areas of Southern China, mainly the
Guangdong province, Hong Kong, and Macau (Lewis). In addition, Cantonese is a language
spoken in areas of my life. Although I fully identify my heritage as Korean, Cantonese-Chinese
culture has been integrated in my life through the addition of my step-father and his extended
family. Many holidays are spent with them, and the inheritance of the language through the
generations is directly observable. In addition, my familys recent move to Shanghai, China,
where Mandarin is predominately spoken and taught, has prompted me to wonder about my
younger sisters future in which she will balance Korean, English, and Mandarin as spoken
languages with her Cantonese-Korean upbringing. Due to these personal connections to this
language, I chose Cantonese as my topic language for this research project. More specifically, as
Cantonese is overshadowed by the growing demand for and enforcement of Mandarin, I wish to
explore in which contexts Cantonese can be used by speakers that can aid its maintenance
prospects in the community and family.

Lim 2
Cantonese, also known as Yue Chinese, is of the Sino-Tibetan language family (Lewis).
Ethnologue.com gives the language a 2-Provincial classification as it is the de facto language of
the Guangdong Province and Hong Kong (Lewis). As a language, it is unique in that it shares
relatively many characteristics as of Ancient Chinese, retaining much of the final consonant
sounds found in the Ancient language (Cantonese). Chinese languages are known for their
tonal distinctions and pronunciations to distinguish between possibly very different meanings.
Whereas Mandarin has four main tones, Cantonese in comparison employs at least six
(Handbook). Though Mandarin has legal prominence, written Cantonese has gained certain
autonomy from the Standard Written Chinese and has functionally elaborated to the point that it
has developed a rising social role, showing Cantoneses regional standard role throughout Hong
Kong and the Guangdong Province (Snow). In terms of spoken Cantonese, there are around 55
million Cantonese-speakers in China, and another estimated 20 million around the world
(Cantonese).
Though Cantonese is mainly limited to Southern parts of China, many Chinese
immigrants to North America are Cantonese-speakers. This can be attributed to the fact that
Hong Kong, a mainly Cantonese-speaking city and a former British colony, was a prime location
for much of the trans-Pacific immigration and trade to ports of the United States and Canada
(Yu). The Gold Rush and Transcontinental Railroad during the 1850s to 1880s attracted many
Chinese and Hong Kong immigrants to the US (United). However, the sudden influx of Chinese
immigrants met resistance, with anti-Chinese legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of
1882 and the Reed-Johnson National Origins Act of 1924, which limited the quota of Chinese
laborer immigrants and implemented language tests, respectively (Yu). Following World War II
and the Cold War, the United States receded into a further state of isolationism, bringing on the

Lim 3
Yellow Peril and Red Scare, social trends that furthered the stereotyping of Chinese immigrants
as dangerous agents of the Communist agenda (Yu). Finally, in 1965, the Immigration and
Nationality Act helped quell Anti-Chinese sentiment by setting larger quotas for China and Hong
Kong immigrants, with the goal of family reunification (United).
It is slightly more difficult to trace immigration patterns of Cantonese-speaking Chinese
immigrants to the United States and Seattle area due to the generalization of the different
languages under Chinese as mentioned previously. However, a study led by the University of
British Columbias department of History titled The Cantonese Pacific, uncovers much data on
Cantonese-speaker immigration to certain areas of Canada, such as Vancouver, BC, only a threehour drive away from Seattle. In a graphic representing the number of Chinese immigrants by
destination from 1910 to 1923, Victoria and Vancouver BC combined attracted about 70%
(26,149 out of 36,408 people) of immigrants documented in the data (Yu). In addition, a
visualization tool created by Stanford University under their Spatial History Project shows the
Chinese Canadian Immigration trends from 1912-1923, using data from the Head Tax Database
that recorded all the Chinese immigrants that paid the imposed tax during that time. Within the
tool, it breaks down immigration to Nanaimo, Canada (approximately five hours away from
Seattle) by the district of origin, specifically most of the immigrants coming from the districts of
Taishan and Kaiping, located in the Guangdong Province of mainly Cantonese speakers
(Steiner). Though the data on Chinese-Canadian immigration makes an assumption that similar
trends can be found in the Seattle area, the usefoundation.org released a 2000 census report
specifically on Cantonese-speakers in the United States. According to this report, not only did
Washington state rank 5th in the largest amount of Cantonese speakers, but King County ranked

Lim 4
16th nationally, competing with other major immigration port cities such as New York City and
various Californian cities (Many).
Because Cantonese is not my heritage, I do not have any experience of the public
Cantonese community in Seattle. However, from personal experience of dining Chinese cuisine
in Seattle with my parents, I have found that my step-father was able to communicate in his
limited Cantonese with the staff in most of the restaurants we frequented. This information is
contrasting to the fact that I was only able to find one school, the Chong Wa Education Society,
in the Seattle area that offers Cantonese lessons, but only for adults. The representative I
contacted from the school mentioned that the school switched from youth Cantonese instruction
to Mandarin many years ago. This is not uncommon, as many Chinese schools in the United
States will mostly teach Mandarin Chinese as it is the standard implemented and enforced in
China. In other forms of community effort, there is the Chinese Information and Service Center
(CISC) that offers support to Chinese and other Asian immigrations in King Country by
providing information, referral, advocacy, social, and support services in many languages that
include Cantonese (About).
As I have alluded to previously, my motivation for choosing Cantonese originated from
my step-father, Francis Lo, who is a heritage Cantonese speaker I had the opportunity to
interview. He was born as a U.S. citizen to both first-generation immigrant parents from
Cantonese-speaking provinces. I particularly chose Francis as an interview subject because of his
dynamic history of moving back and forth from the U.S. to China, once to Beijing during his
teenage years, and currently to Shanghai as part of his role within the Starbucks corporation. In
my interview, I focused on researching the context in which he applied his limited Cantonese
knowledge, especially on the comparison between during his childhood and presently with his

Lim 5
overseas profession. As a child, Francis mostly spoke Cantonese for the sake of discrete public
conversations with parents and his grandparents whom had limited English-skills. However
currently, his Chinese-language skills have taken a more significant seat as he utilizes both
Mandarin and Cantonese (depending on his current location within China) as form of business
communication and a de facto language to build interpersonal connections. When asked if he felt
that he was being forced to sacrifice his Cantonese for Mandarin, he stated that it did not because
it instead put him in a Chinese language frame of mind that had an application for both
Mandarin and Cantonese conversations, seeing as he was a predominately and natively an
English speaker. Franciss stance on Cantonese against the rise of Mandarin seems different from
many other heritage speakers that struggle with language maintenance, and is much more open
and optimistic.
Overall, although data on specifically Cantonese-speaker immigration is limited, there is
a great presence of Cantonese speakers in the United States as well as the greater Seattle area.
However, that does not mean that the language is not struggling, not only because of naturally
hindered inheritance from generation to generation, but also due to competition with another
language that has legal and widespread implementation. It is interesting to see how my stepfather holds a more positive view in spite of the obvious decline of Cantonese in comparison to
current college-level heritage speakers who often express a concern and desire to either stop the
decline or make an effort to continue the inheritance of the language. Regardless of opinion, it is
fact that Cantonese not only competes with the dominance of English in the U.S. as other
heritage languages do, but also with its neighboring language of Mandarin. Moving forward, I
would like the opportunity to either observe a Cantonese classroom or community setting to gain

Lim 6
exposure in which areas and contexts heritage and non-heritage speakers alike are seeking to use
Cantonese.

Lim 7

Works Cited
"About Us." CISC Chinese Information and Service Center. United Way of King County, n.d.
Web. 09 May 2015.
"Cantonese." Alsintl.com. Accredited Language Services, n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of
the World, Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
Handbook for Teaching Cantonese-Speaking Children. Sacramento: California State Department
of Education, 1984. ProQuest Social Science Journals [ProQuest]. Web. 9 May 2015.
Many Languages, One America. Publication. U.S. English, n.d. Web. 9 May 2015.
People's Republic of China. Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and
Written Chinese Language (Order of the President No.37). By Jiang Zemin. N.p.: n.p.,
n.d. Print.
Snow, Don. "Cantonese as Written Standard." Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 18.2
(2008): 190-208. ProQuest Social Science Journals [ProQuest]. Web. 9 May 2015.
Steiner, Erik. Chinese Canadian Immigration Pipeline. Digital image. Spatial History Project.
Stanford University, n.d. Web. 9 May 2015.
United States. Center for Disease Control. Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. Promoting
Cultural Sensitivity. Cdc.gov, 1 Sept. 2012. Web. 9 May 2015.
Yu, Henry. The Cantonese Pacific. Princeton University, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 9 May 2015.