Linguists concerned as regional languages dwindle amid push to strengthen uniform national identity
Summary
- When he tried to speak to his cousin’s children in the local dialect, Qi was surprised.
- The decline in local dialects among the younger generation has become more apparent in recent years as China’s president, Xi Jinping, has sought to strengthen a uniform Chinese identity.
- But the popularisation of a standard national language is often at the expense of regional languages, including dialects of the Han majority and ethnic languages such as Mongolian and Uyghur.
- It is not just ethnic languages that are being affected.
- In 2020, a local political representative urged the Shanghai government to invest in promoting the local dialect.