Why Cantonese is the Most Powerful Chinese Dialect in the World

I firmly believe Cantonese is the most powerful Chinese dialect. As not everyone is familiar with the Chinese language and its innumerable dialects, let me start with an exposition on the concept of dialects and whether or not some can be considered separate languages altogether.

English and Spanish are probably the most well known languages on this side of the world. In fact, they're the two most commonly used languages in the world.

But are they really just two languages?

In America alone, we have English from the West Coast, English from the East Coast, English from the South, and so on. I assume anyone reading this article has had the good fortune of speaking with someone from a different region. Did you understand them? My guess is that aside from a few colloquialisms and an occasional urge to giggle, you understood them quite sufficiently.

What about Britain and Australia? You don't have to have been there to know what a British accent or Australian accent sounds like. I can understand Brits pretty well but have a little trouble with Aussies. Still, it doesn't sound like a different language to me. A whole different set of vocabulary, but not quite different enough to classify it as a different language.

So, English is English, right? This is not a rhetorical question, but for the sake of my argument in this article, I'm going to say a simple yes. You can have your own opinions.

Onto Spanish. Now this language is a little trickier. With so many different countries that have Spanish as their official language, it's no wonder that there's a variety of regional speeches, but are they dialects in the sense that if you speak standard Castilian Spanish you can't understand them? Probably. Catalan is a tough one. And that's the only example I can think of. I have no problem understanding Mexicans, Costa Ricans, Guatemalans, Peruvians, and Argentineans.

That's enough preamble. My point is that most Chinese dialects are different enough that if you don't speak it, you won't understand it (unless you're someone of Chinese descent who grew up listening to your parents speak in your native dialect but responding in English, but that's a whole other issue).

Why did Chinese dialects develop so distinctly from each other? Well, China hasn't had a good history of being united for one thing. Many dialects are just spoken in villages and within families. I've seen many American families who have expressed a wish to have their own family coded language. Well, many Chinese families do.

I am a native speaker of Cantonese. I do not understand Shanghainese, Fujianese, Teo Chew, Taiwanese, and so on. That's why we have standard Mandarin. Most Chinese speak at least standard Mandarin and their native dialect. Except Cantonese people.

Why?

Because we can. There are places within the greater Chinese world where people who speak only Cantonese can survive. Many Chinatowns in the world speak Cantonese only and barely if any Mandarin at all, including the ones in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris. To be fair, the ones in Seoul and Yokohama speak Mandarin. But most importantly, there are two words that have always established Cantonese as the most powerful Chinese dialect in the world: Hong Kong.

If you haven't at least taken a high school economics class, then I'll forgive you if you have no idea that Hong Kong has been one of the world's economic powerhouses for decades. Although international business in Hong Kong is done mostly in English, you can't roam the streets of this dazzling city and have fun without speaking the language. Well, if you hang out in young crowds, then you might be okay just speaking English, since it's a language that is compulsory from elementary school. A number of Hong Kong university students have gone to international schools since their elementary days and speak better English than Mandarin.

Outside of economics, Cantonese has always held a strong presence in Chinese and international popular culture. Have you seen The Departed? It's a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong hit Infernal Affairs, the original film completely in Cantonese (well, Hong Kong people usually throw in some English words here and there anyway). Ever heard of Tsui Hark, director of such films as Swordsmen and the man often likened to Steven Spielberg? He's from Hong Kong. And Chow Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Replacement Killers)? He's an actor from Hong Kong, but now he has become so much more. The Matrix? You know the guy who showed Keanu Reeves how to look like he knows how to do kung fu? The martial arts choreographer, Yuen Wo Ping, born in Guangzhou, China (capital of the province Guangdong, formerly romanized as Canton, place of origin of Cantonese), works in Hong Kong. Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer and Kung FuHustle) was born and raised in Hong Kong. Oh yes, last but not least, ever heard of a little martial artist named Bruce Lee? Yup, he was born in San Francisco, and he was Cantonese, usually working for Hong Kong cinema.

Although Cantonese songs have become a little last millennium since the advent of tremendously popular Taiwanese pop artists (Jay Chow, Lee Hom, etc.), Cantonese was the language of movies and music in the greater China of the 90's. Many of my Taiwanese friends grew up watching Hong Kong movies dubbed in Mandarin. My old roommate in college (Mexican guy), upon my telling him that I am Chinese, asked me, "So what do you speak? Cantonese?"

In the past several years, though, Cantonese's singularity as the representative language of Chinese popular culture has certainly declined, since Taiwan has produced many talented artists and entertaining dramas, and cinema from mainland China has enjoyed a much wider level of appreciation thanks in no small part to director Zhang Yimou (Hero and House of Flying Daggers) and actresses like Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha-she's the hot Hatsumomo-and Colin Farrell's love interest in Miami Vice) and Zhang Ziyi (I'll assume I won't have to introduce her).

Many Hong Kong actors have recently taken up roles in mainland and Taiwanese films, which is something that has happened in the past, but only actors who couldn't find work in Hong Kong really bothered with Taiwan or the mainland in the 90's. Now, director, producers, and actors from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are collaborating to make some very good films. Many Hong Kong actors have picked up Mandarin. It used to be that mainland or Taiwanese actors would come to Hong Kong for work, struggling to grasp the much-harder-to-learn Cantonese, which is still the case today for mainland students coming down to Hong Kong for higher education.

Obviously, standard Mandarin Chinese is the number one Chinese language, with Cantonese at a fairly close second, and Taiwanese at a distant third. You can survive in Taiwan without knowing any Taiwanese. Most of my Taiwanese friends don't even speak Taiwanese (although you are required to if you run for high office, I think). You can't survive in Hong Kong without knowing Cantonese-well, you can try to stay in more expensive areas where people are more than likely to speak English, but that's not real Hong Kong.

To experience the real Hong Kong, you need to speak Cantonese.