bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Johnny Tam

Stuart Lau

An article on the Education Bureau's website claiming "Cantonese is not an official language" has been removed after criticism.
The article was posted on the website's Language Learning Support section on January 24.
It aimed to promote the importance of bilingualism and trilingualism as the city "develops alongside the rapidly growing China" and "the daily usage of Mandarin [in Hong Kong] becomes common".
It said: "Although the Basic Law stipulates that Chinese and English are the two official languages in Hong Kong, nearly 97 per cent of the local population learn Cantonese (a Chinese dialect that is not an official language) as their commonly used daily language."
The article was removed yesterday. The webpage is now "being updated".
Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen said the bureau had "done wrong" because it was not its business to define what language was official. But he commended it for quickly removing the article and apologising.
People took to various online forums to express their anger. "Another issue after the national education saga?" wrote one user.
Horace Chin Wan-kan, assistant Chinese professor at Lingnan University, said the bureau had fuelled mainland-Hong Kong tensions.
"The bureau's move is to promote teaching Chinese in classrooms using Mandarin, which violates the bilingualism and trilingualism policy," Chin said.
"Defining Cantonese as not official doesn't make sense. We never say if British English is official, although many prefer the British accent and spelling."
A Facebook group "Hong Kong language learning" has appealed to people to e-mail the bureau to urge the government to admit "a blunder" and "apologise to the public".
Another bureau article posted yesterday said it had made "an inaccurate interpretation of Cantonese" in the feature and apologised for any misunderstanding.
The Basic Law says that as well as written Chinese, English may be used by the executive, legislature and judiciary. But there is no rule about verbal language, such as Cantonese.
Eric Cheung Tat-ming, principal law lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, said the law related only to the written word in terms of "official languages".
"There have never been attempts to define what official languages mean in the oral context," Cheung said. "And in Hong Kong courts, as well as other official circumstances, the choice of the spoken language has been one based on commonality, so Cantonese is preferred."
To say Cantonese was not an official language therefore had "no legal justification".
It would have been safer to call Cantonese "a non-official language in the People's Republic of China", Cheung added.


Cantonese, English use in Hong Kong schools ‘biggest problem’ for new migrants

Rising above racism: the Nigerian Instagram blogger sharing bits of his life in Cantonese

How British-born Chinese singer Mui Zyu is taking back her heritage, one song at a time

At Hong Kong’s Tam Jai noodle joint, waitresses are the stars

Cantonese

Education Bureau rapped over Cantonese 'not an official language' gaffe

The article claiming 'Cantonese is not an official language' was removed from Education Bureau's website yesterday.

News

Hong Kong

Claim Cantonese 'not an official language' leaves public lost for words


An article on the Education Bureau's website claiming "Cantonese is not an official language" has been removed after criticism. The article aimed to promote the importance of bilingualism and trilingualism as the city "develops alongside the rapidly growing China" and "the daily usage of Mandarin [in Hong Kong] becomes common".
