The Guangdong National Language Regulations are a set of laws enacted in 2012 by the

Government of Guangdong The Government of Guangdong were governments formed in the province of Guangdong several times from 1917 to 1936 by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, before their retreat/evacuation to Taiwan. # The First Government of Guangdong ...

to promote the use of

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...

in broadcast and print media at the expense of the local

varieties of Chinese There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...

—namely

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

and Teochew. It has been labelled as "pro-Mandarin, anti-Cantonese" legislation (). The law was signed and came into effect on 1 March 2012.

Law

The regulations generally require broadcasts in Guangdong to use

, with programs and channels in other varieties able to broadcast if approved by the national or provincial government. In addition, public signage is to be written using

simplified characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by t ...

, with exceptions for historical sites, pre-registered logos, or when approved by the state. In addition, government employees, including teachers, conference holders, broadcasters, and TV staff are required to use Standard Chinese. Public brands, seals, documents, websites, signs, and trade names are not to use

traditional characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the ''Standard Form of ...

character variants Chinese characters may have several variant forms—visually distinct glyphs that represent the same underlying meaning and pronunciation. Variants of a given character are ''allographs'' of one another, and many are directly analogous to allog ...

. Guangdong governor

Zhu Xiaodan Zhu Xiaodan (; born January 1953) is a Chinese politician who served as Governor of Guangdong from 2011 to 2016. A lifelong Communist functionary, Zhu was appointed Vice Governor of Guangdong in February 2010 and became acting Governor in Novembe ...

signed the law, and set 1 March 2012 as the date for it to take effect.

Responses

The signing has triggered massive negative responses in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. There were talks of raising movements. The effects of the law were characterized as tantamount to the elimination of autochthonous Cantonese culture. On 24 December 2011, the Guangdong government held a press conference stating that the regulation does not in fact ban Cantonese; one official stating that such a ban will never occur. Currently, the Guangdong province has two channels approved to broadcast mainly in Cantonese, while various other channels and radio stations have dialect programs.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Cantonese language Language policy 2012 in China 2012 controversies 2010s in Guangdong

Law

Responses

See also

References