Anna Fan, media planning director at Guangdong Advertising, says YES
“The Guangdong provincial Government conducted an online survey and only 20 per cent of the interviewees supported this proposal. There are already dozens of CCTV channels and two or three regional Satellite TV channels that broadcast in Mandarin in Guangdong.
There is no shortage of Mandarin TV programmes. For national broadcasting, the language medium is always in Mandarin. At the same time, there are many provincial TV stations which are broadcasted in local dialects.
Guangdong has its own is tradition and culture, which has no need for changes. The people here are quite bilingual.
China is a big country, which should be able to accept different cultural and regional differences.”
Clement Lau, consultant, former senior VP of digital at Ketchum Beijing, says YES
“Using Cantonese on TV is an issue mainly in the south of China – Guangdong in particular. One is hard pressed to find Cantonese speakers in other parts of the country.
Of course, all satellite TV stations have almost exclusive Mandarin programming. In the Guangzhou area, traditionally Cantonese programming has been favoured over Mandarin language programming. This is one of the few regions in China where CCTV does not enjoy the highest ratings. Preservation of local dialect is not unique to Cantonese.
There are many ethnic minorities and regional dialects that are equally part of the Chinese heritage.
For example, Shanghainese is also another local dialect that is still quite prevalent in the the Shanghai area and faces similar issues.
In my opinion, these regional dialects should be preserved as they are a part of our Chinese culture but we should take discussions about any particular one in the context of the bigger picture.”
Joy Lee, senior director marketing at DHL- Sinotrans International Air Courier, says YES
“I am a supporter of local dialects and believe that a civilised culture should consist of rich varieties and differences. It should be the value and belief that unites a country, not language.
I am all for having more different voices, varieties and enriching cultures, and of course support Cantonese. This is all a commercial operation. If Cantonese TV programmes have low or no TV ratings, then there will be changes. What they have been doing is good enough.
It you want TV programmes and TVCs to have high ratings, you need to be closer to the mass viewers and using their daily language. The Cantonese speaking market has about 60 million people, which justifies Cantonese TVC’s return-on-investment. There is no need to worry about Cantonese disappearing, as people Chinatowns in many other countries speak Cantonese.”
Ben Su, tactical planning director at MEC Global Guangzhou, says MAYBE
“My stand is more neutral. Cantonese is mainly spoken in the Guangdong region. Those who say Cantonese has no role in China almost certainly speak Mandarin. The Government officials who suggested changing Guangdong TV Channel 34 from broadcasting in Cantonese to Mandarin, and upgrading it to a national satellite TV channel, did this perhaps so they could monitor the 6:30pm national and political news coverage in a language that they understand.
However Cantonese TVB programmes from Hong Kong are actually more popular among audiences in Guangdong as they like to follow trends and showbiz star news from Hong Kong. Even ratings of national TV dramas in Mandarin, increase if they are dubbed in Cantonese.
We request clients get a Cantonese TVC voice-over version. Mandarin with non-Cantonese speakers in Guangzhou as there are more and more people from other provinces have settled in Guangdong, so any changes should be organic.”
This article was originally published in the 26 August 2010 issue of Media
