My Hong Kong | Learning Cantonese shouldn’t just be about cultural preservation. In places like San Francisco it could save lives
- In cities home to large overseas Chinese communities, Cantonese should be integrated into the very infrastructure to make vital public services more accessible
- Team Cantonese, the fate of the language is in your hands - speak it loud and proud wherever you go and pass it on to your children
Over the last two weeks, I have learned a lot from individuals, cultural groups and organisations, and linguists – to name a few – who have reached out and shed new light on how Cantonese not just enriches lives but could also save lives.
According to an Alan Wong from San Francisco, which is considered the Cantonese capital of the US, the lack of access to vital public services experienced by many within the city’s significant Cantonese population is a growing public concern.
“It is not only about continuing the culture, history and language, but more practically ensuring that the large monolingual Cantonese population here has access to bilingual public safety, health care and social services,” Alan wrote. “In this era of ‘Asian hate’ in the USA, it is a barrier for victims [who can’t speak English] to communicate with first responders or report crimes.”
Promoting and learning Cantonese should be about more than just cultural appreciation or cultural preservation in cities that are home to prominent overseas Chinese- and Cantonese-speaking communities – it should be integrated into the very infrastructure of those cities.
