Recording Canton on Winter Festival
Sunday, December 21st, 2008
The G4 program(perhaps acronym for “Guangzhou channel four”) is hosted by a mid-age guy Mr. TSAN Yeung, who is by now arguably the most famous and beloved tv host in Canton.
Canton – an ancient city having an history of 2222 years – had once been the only port in China that opened to the west. Due to a relative stable and isolated environment, the Cantonese people had developed their unique culture in cuisine, language and characteristics amongst others. Endowed with its geographical advantage(neighboring Hongkong, having convenient access to the ocean), Canton was the among the southern cities that experienced the door-opening policy in the late 1980s. Since then, numerous people flooded in from the north, in seek of opportunities of “Fa cai”(to be rich). A large part of this special group, formerly called “Min Gong”(peasant workers) and now known as “Wailai Wugong Renyuan”(alien individuals seeking jobs), had settled down in the city. According to a recent census, its number takes up to around 50% of the total permanent residences in Canton. Accompanied by the drastic speed of development, traditional Cantonese architectures are being torn down to yield space for the World-class buildings(as you will see in this picture).
The most upsetting thing is that you can barely hear standard Cantonese(no lazy sounds, with proper Canton vocabulary) among the younger generation. Subconsciously, the schools are instilling values to the students that their mother tongue is somewhat “inferior” and “uncivilized”. But I will go back to that topic later.
For now, let’s just enjoy the great visual impact brought by modern technologies, while realizing the pain being suffered because of the loss of tradition.
