GnuDoyng

Yesterday, my Malaysian friend William Lau sent me an email asking about the status quo of Foochowese in Foochow. He couldn’t understand why Foochowese has become a “forgotten dialect” in its place of origin, while it is still widely spoken amongst oversea Foochow descents. Well, I’d like to briefly share my understanding, though perhaps not very objective, with all my friends interested in this topic.

There are 6 main reasons accounting for this phenomenon (ordered according to importance):

1. Cultural identification: Foochow citizens generally identify themselves as Chinese, and most of them take it for granted that a Chinese should speak his national language only, and that all other regional dialects should be abandoned. These people, even including my parents, have willingly given up teaching their children to speak the local language.
2. Language policy: Mandarin is the only official language in China, so the use of Foochowese is discouraged in media, education and other formal occasions. Therefore, most highly educated people only speak Mandarin as their daily language.
3. Low degree of mutual intelligibility: Foochowese is not mutually intelligible even within its many varieties. In order to communicate with people from other regions, Foochowese speakers would have to learn Mandarin.
4. Population structure: The second half of the 20^th century has witnessed a large immigration into Foochow, which greatly altered the structure of its population. This local language, which is archaic and full of seemingly irregular changes, is indeed difficult for newcomers. Therefore, they and their offspring only speak Mandarin.
5. Lack of self-confidence: Even the Foochowese speakers themselves find this language uncivilized, let alone those who don’t speak it. Such self-contempt can be attributed to the relatively lower economic status of Foochow (in contrast with those of Amoy, Canton, and Shanghai).
6. Lack of written form: Having been evolving separately for thousands of years, Foochowese is basically an oral language and lacks its unified written form. Although it does have a Chinese character writing system and a romanization scheme, they may be too abstruse to master.

Still something I should clarify:

1. The decline of Foochowese takes place merely within downtown Foochow, whereas in the suburban and rural areas, Foochowese is still the daily language, living up to its name “平話” (Bàng-uâ).
2. In linguistic principle, Foochowese is a de facto independent language, and so are hundreds of other southern Chinese languages. The official term “方言”  (dialect) misleads people to underestimate their significance.

I strongly suggest you read these articles: 1, 2, 3 and 4, which will help you understand more profoundly how a language and its culture fall out of favor. Well of course, any further questions and discussions are welcome!

Some of my friends who have subscribed “Language Utopia” (my former main blog in MSN Spaces) wrote me emails complaining that they can’t read my blog anymore. The most “frequently asked questions” were: “Why don’t you set it public?” and “Did MSN delete it because of your reactionary viewpoints?” Ha, really amused me… In fact, I never blog for private purposes; and I don’t think my “Language Utopia” was notorious enough to attract the government’s attention (although MSN did have done such filthy things). But anyway, I should provide an explanation for its death - I deleted it myself.

First of all, I have to admit, there were too many “counterrevolutionary” articles on it (that site wasn’t only about languages), which were immature, radical, yet demagogic. However, the world is rapidly changing, so are my opinions. When I eventually realized I was too weak to be responsible for what I had said, I felt much obliged to delete it. The second reason is perhaps more important: I gradually lost my interest in blogging. Some blog readers, most of whom were stupid Chinese patriots, never intended to have a constructive discussion but only shouted abuses and curses at me (shouting with the keyboard, of course); and much to my disappointment, those cowards just disappeared without leaving an email address or a link! As a blogger I’ve always been frank and honest, but not all my readers are. If this is an unfair game for me, I’d better quit it. And so I did it.

After more than one year’s blogging, it suddenly occurred to me, that it still needs time to rebuild my understanding of the world, before I write again anything concerning politics. At present I maintain two blogs, which are mainly for practicing foreign languages: English and German. (Writing Chinese has become quite a boring stuff for me, though I do have a Chinese blog in Lilybbs.) I began to learn English when I was 7 years old; however, I still speak and write Chinglish. As a university student, I chose German as my second foreign language owing to some sort of Liebe auf den ersten Blick, but I soon realized that I have picked up a hamburger, so large and hard that I must spend all my life eating it.

Anyway, I’m still a blogger, who always welcomes his guests and never hides his feelings. So don’t feel sorry about “Language Utopia”: it’s still there! It’s still in my heart, and maybe also in yours…

God, please hear the prayer of a humble Chinese…

Negligible though I am, I won’t give up my hope, for there are millions of “negligible” men in this country, whose efforts will never prove futile. I believe, in a few decades or longer, Chinese people will live in a better world, where there are neither luxury vehicles nor impoverished beggars, where life will be fairer, need will be rarer, and greed will not pay. Our freedom will no longer be taken away by any evil regime. No one will depress us, deprive us, or deceive us. And we will learn to be more open and more reasonable to all different ideas. We will not be blinded by the irrational pride and hatred which only belong to the history marked by nationality. We will forgive the crimes a few Japanese had committed in the last century. We will regard Taiwanese and Tibetans as a separate nation, if independence is really better for them. We will not launch any wars or conflicts because all nations are our brothers and sisters, even though we don’t live in the same country…

For nearly 3 months, YAM Blog has been blocked by GFW because of too much information of Taiwanese independence on it, so I can’t write any more entries in “Nguāi Muōng Gōng Nṳ̄ Muōng Tiăng“. A few days ago I set up a new blog in MSN Spaces to write exclusively Foochowese Bible. Transcribing Bible is no easy job, but the blog will be gradually updated.