Cultural Dimensions of Language and Communication
Shanghainese in Hong Kong:
An Analysis of Language Shift
Analysis 2
Medium and gradual shift from Shanghainese
There are four informants in this analysis.
Ed
First generation
Cheung
First generation
Lily
Second generation
Dominik
Third generation
Refer to figures 9 and 10 for the family tree and their portfolio
What are their stories? Let's begin with the family tree and portfolio!
First generation
Second generation
Third generation
Figure 9 Family tree
Figure 10 Portfolio of the four informants
L1/2/3: First/second/third language
C: Change of geographical boundary
The first generation is from Shanghai. 85-year-old Ed and 82-year-old Cheung have Shanghainese as their first language. Mandarin is their second language. Ed also acquired a bit of English when he was young. Ed and Cheung migrated to Hong Kong in the late 1970s and early 1980s respectively. They started to learn Cantonese from their friends and colleagues, because of the need to communicate with others in the local language. Cantonese eventually becomes their third language. They still speak Shanghainese when communicating with each other all the time, no matter in which domain.
The second generation, Lily, is in her fifties. Lily went over a period of unstable multilingualism. Due to her Shanghainese origin, she brings her first language, Shanghainese, to Hong Kong when she migrated with Cheung to Hong Kong during the 1980s, demonstrating that language is not confined to geopolitical boundaries (Austin & Sallabank, 2011). After her settlement, she started learning Cantonese and English from her friends. Over time, she claims that at present, Cantonese becomes more widely and frequently used, and even takes over the role of Shanghainese, turning into the dominant language in daily communication.
The third generation, Dominik, is a born-and-raised teenager in Hong Kong. Identifying himself as a 100% Hongkonger (i.e. without any identification with Shanghainese origin), he has Cantonese as his first language. From education, he acquired English to be his second language; additionally, Mandarin is his third language. Because of his Shanghainese mother, Lily, and Shanghainese maternal grandparents, Ed and Cheung, he acquired Shanghainese from them. Nevertheless, he admits that even though he understands Shanghainese perfectly, he seldom employs it, unless he is forced to show his knowledge and competence in it, for example, in front of relatives or the interview of this project. Other than that, Cantonese remains dominant and Shanghainese is of no use to him. Thus, Shanghainese should not be considered a third language of Dominik.
Language use in the family domain
First generation
Figure 11 Language use in family domain
Second generation
Third generation
Between first and second generations: Ed and Cheung - Lily
During the communication with Lily, Cheung and Ed use half Shanghainese (i.e. 50%) and half Cantonese (i.e. 50%) randomly because of this geographic environment, though they switch to one another when confusion or misunderstanding occurs. However, other than that, code-switching happens randomly (i.e. without any preference to a certain language in certain domain).
Between first and third generations: Ed and Cheung - Dominik
Ed and Cheung believe that their grandchild, Dominik, speaks a little Shanghainese. They prefer to use Cantonese with him, claiming that "無必要講上海話" 'there is no need to use Shanghainese', because they do not find it problematic to accommodate their interlocutor, Dominik. The third generation, Dominik, chooses to use Cantonese to talk to Ed and Cheung, as he is more comfortable using it rather than Shanghainese.
Between second and third generations: Lily - Dominik
During normal conversations most of the time, Cantonese is the dominant language that Lily and Dominik employ. Occasionally, Lily chooses to speak to Dominik in Shanghainese and Mandarin, for the purpose of reminding him of these languages. On the other hand, when Dominik responds to Lily, he uses Cantonese; gradually, Lily also switches to Cantonese. Therefore, it is concluded that Cantonese remains the dominant language choice between them.
Communicational difficulties
Because of the differences in first languages, Dominik occasionally finds language and communicational barriers during communications with the oldest generation (i.e. Ed and Cheung), since they do not proficiently understand Cantonese, particularly Cantonese slangs. Yet, Ed and Cheung do not find barriers and big difficulty when talking to Dominik. They claim that they understand 90% of what Dominik says. They imagine using Shanghainese all the time with Dominik, supposing that he would only understand up to 50% of the content. All in all, within the family domain, Cantonese is a more efficient and advantageous language choice.
Language shift
It is observed from the family conversations that Cantonese remains the dominant language within the three different generations. Although Shanghainese is present in between the older generations, language shift does occur gradually over the three generations in this case. Shanghainese is not frequently employed in this family and Cantonese takes over a more significant and important role in communication. According to the UNESCO's Language Vitality and Endangerment Framework (Austin & Sallabank, 2011), in this family, Shanghainese is categorized as definitely to severely endangered (see figure 12). It is because the Dominik, as the youngest child at home, no longer learns Shanghainese as the mother tongue and he speaks Shanghainese neither to his parent nor grandparents. It is remarkable that even the oldest generation (i.e. Ed and Cheung) chooses to accommodate Dominik by using Cantonese, which is believed to be less comfortable to them than Shanghainese. It is even worse that between the older first and second generations (i.e. Ed, Cheung and Lily), Shanghainese only occupies 50% of the conversations. All of these confirm the gradual shift from Shanghainese to Cantonese in this family. Shanghainese is no longer considered vital in such environment and will possibly become critically endangered in the soon future.
There are several factors (see figure 13 for a concise table) which contribute to the language shift. Migration to Hong Kong is the primary factor in this context. It is not surprising that Ed, Cheung and Lily have acquired a new language, Cantonese, after arriving Hong Kong. Geographic location and language domination also serve as crucial factors following migration and physical dislocation (Fishman, 1991). Due to the language and educational policies (Chik, 2010), Hong Kong's official language is Cantonese and the majority of people speak Cantonese, it is normal for the Ed, Cheung and Lily to shift from Shanghainese to Cantonese. Without doubt, there is pressure from the society - speaking Cantonese grants them social, economic and cultural advantages in the society. In other words, they benefit from speaking Cantonese, rather than Shanghainese, for example, in terms of employment, friendship and engagements. All of these result in "dialectal convergence" (Chik, 2010). Language usefulness of Cantonese also hinders Dominik to learn Shanghainese. It is rather "無用" 'useless' in Hong Kong and not beneficial at all. Thus, he believes that Cantonese should be used in such environment, given that Cantonese is the official and dominant language in the society. Shanghainese weak ethnolinguistic vitality is concluded to be associated with its social and economic statuses in Hong Kong. Moreover, Dominik lives only with his parents and sibling, rather than also with the extended family (i.e. grandparents and probably other (Shanghainese) relatives). This nuclear family environment, without frequent and regular contact, makes it less easy and convenient for Ed and Cheung to pass down the home language.
Figure 12 UNESCO's Language Vitality and Endangerment framework (Austin & Sallabank, 2011)
黎到香港, 講廣東話好正常, 好多人聽唔明上海話; 講廣東話先有用, 搵工, 做野, 買野, 生活都係用廣東話好 'when we came to Hong Kong, it is normal to speak in Cantonese, as a lot of people don't understand Shanghainese; it is beneficial to speak in Cantonese, [for instance,] using Cantonese is much better in finding a job, working, buying things, living [in Hong Kong]'
Ed and Cheung (first generation)
Hong Kong
上海話無用 'Shanghainese is USELESS [in Hong Kong]'
Dominik (third generation)
Hong Kong
Figure 13 Factors of language shift
Attitude to language shift and preservation of Shanghainese
Dominik regards Shanghainese as an unimportant language in Hong Kong and asserts that there is merely a small group of Shanghainese speakers. Regarding the language shift in his family, Dominik does not feel pity for it and does not believe that it requires any preservation in Hong Kong; though he thinks that it is more reasonable to do so in Shanghai or any other Shanghainese-speaking areas. Cheung echoes Dominik's arguments, being tolerable to the loss and shift from Shanghainese due to the necessity and pressure of using Cantonese. On the other hand, Ed and Lily align against Dominik and Cheung, arguing that it is better for Dominik to learn some Shanghainese. One of the proposed solutions by Ed is to teach him some Shanghainese while talking to him. Lily also hopes that Dominik can be able to speak more Shanghainese, since an additional language (of wider communication) to a multilingual repertoire (Holmes, 2013) can be advantageous and valuable. As globalization encourages transnational businesses and communications without geographical boundary, Lily suggests that "到時佢 [Dominik] 去上海做野, 佢識用上海話, 咪好過其他同事" 'it could be useful when he [Dominik] goes to Shanghai to develop business, it is a natural advantage of him over other colleagues'. Normally, she teaches Dominik Shanghainese with the translation of Cantonese, during the domains of jokes and parody.
到時佢 [Dominik] 去上海做野，佢識用上海話，咪好過其他同事 'it could be useful when he [Dominik] goes to Shanghai to develop business, it is a natural advantage of him over other colleagues'
Lily (second generation)
Hong Kong
唔洗講上海話, 因為呢到係香港, 講廣東話 'it is not necessary to speak in Shanghainese, because it is Hong Kong here, [where people] speak Cantonese'
Cheung (first generation)
Hong Kong
After the interview...
In general, after the interview, the awareness of using Shanghainese by the older two generations (i.e. Ed, Cheung and Lily) during communications with Dominik is higher, despite the fact that all of them indicate having no idea about any fraternity association and institutional support toward Shanghainese in Hong Kong except Lily showing knowledge of Kiangsu Chekiang and Shanghai Residents (Hong Kong) Association (go to Socio-historical Background Information of Shanghainese). They pledge to use more Shanghainese but less Cantonese within family in order to promote and preserve this language. Last but not least, Lily believes that Shanghainese should be promoted and preserved in all Shanghainese families so as to avoid this language to become endangered. Ed, likewise, argues that due to their family's Shanghainese origin and the increased number of Shanghainese people in Hong Kong, Dominik and other Hongkongers should learn more Shanghainese. Dominik discloses that he goes to Shanghainese restaurants with family once a month and is positive about learning Shanghainese food terms, such as Xiao Long Bao (小籠包), which might help maintain higher ethnolinguistic vitality, even though he identifies himself as a Hongkonger and still uses Cantonese at such restaurants.
