The Great Cantonese Debate

Singapore got slammed recently by Sir David Tang. Sir David Tang, in case you are not aware, is the founder of Shanghai Tang. Over the last few weeks, there have been many discussions for and against the preservation of Cantonese. One particular reader wrote in to the South China Morning Post with his rather offensive view of Cantonese. In his defence of Cantonese, Sir David Tang asserted that Singaporean residents speak three languages badly. Hey, that's not fair!

So it was with glee (ooh, my favourite show GLEE) that K.Y. Tan of North Point replied as follows:

"I am not a Singaporean but I would like to take issue with David Tang Wing-cheung, a knighted Anglo-Chinese, who asserts that Singapore residents speak three languages badly.

His inappropriate remark was made in the context of the recent saga over the use of Putonghua and Cantonese.

I don't see why Sir David had to drag four million Singaporeans into the debate. Neither could I find any passable justification or compelling evidence that the seven million Hongkongers have a better command of language when we speak than Singaporeans.

We expect the majority of Putonghua speakers to respect our right to speak Cantonese in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. We should also respect Singaporeans' language preferences."

Yea, yea!

Frankly, I am all for the preservation of dialects.  They are, after all, an integral part of our intangible heritage. And for me, dialects have special place - I reserve it for speaking with family and close friends (even though I speak it poorly. Blame it on the Singapore government....). Somehow, I feel a special bond.

And it feels especially good to speak it when playing mahjong. I wonder why.