Why has Cantonese fallen out of favour with Guangzhou youngsters?

Cantonese is being spoken by fewer children and teenagers in Guangzhou, with locals and defenders of Cantonese heritage concerned that middle-aged and older Cantonese speakers are having to communicate with their children and grandchildren in Mandarin at home.

The reasons for the rapidly declining popularity of Cantonese – spoken by more than 60 million people round the world – among the Pearl River Delta’s young people were complex and linked to political and economic changes in the area, they said.

At taxi queues, bus stations, restaurants and street corners in delta cities such as Guangzhou, the Guangdong provincial capital formerly known as Canton, Shenzhen and Dongguan, grandparents can often be heard speaking to their grandchildren in strongly accented Mandarin, while young parents also switch from Cantonese to Mandarin when talking with primary pupils and teenagers.

“It’s a pity but it’s necessary because most kids nowadays don’t like speaking Cantonese even though they were born and are growing up here,” said 40-year-old Luo Bihua, the mother of an eight-year-old boy in third grade at school.

“The schools and the government have been discouraging Cantonese in the community for a long while. My son and almost all his classmates are unwilling to learn both traditional and simplified characters because they think they are useless for daily life.”