A Hong Konger's perspective on what Shanghainese means to Cantonese
I
conducted a brief interview with a native Hong Konger to substantiate on what the example of Shanghainese means for Cantonese.
Ms. Lam visits Shanghai for work and has had a chance to observe the
role of Shanghainese in the city.
As the interview reveals, she
finds some similarities between Shanghainese and Cantonese, but later
comes to the conclusion that both on a linguistic level and on account
of Shanghai politics, Shanghainese is more closely oriented to Mandarin
than Cantonese.
In this way, she insists that while it is proper for
Shanghai people to learn Mandarin, the same arguments cannot be applied
to Hong Kong people.
She notes, however, that as Hong Kong integrates
more with the Mainland, Hong Kong people will likely learn Mandarin for
some of the same reasons being told to Shanghai people.
I included the salient details of her interview below.
