Young people breathe new life into Shanghai dialectーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
With Beijing promoting Mandarin as the national standard, some regional dialects can find themselves getting squeezed out. But now, young people in Shanghai are showing interest in the local language, Shanghai. Even the latest technology is being employed to preserve it for future generations. NHK’s Nakamagenta reports. If we want to say hello in Beijing, you would say, but in Shanghai, you would say, “This comedy show in Shanghai has everyone’s stitches, but the jokes aren’t in mandaring. The MC and performers are cracking wise in Shanghai, the city’s native tongue. Events like this are cropping up all over the city as more and more young people find pleasure in the local language. There were jokes that only make sense in the local language. It felt fresh and at the same time familiar. Shanghai news is deeply rooted in the region’s history, but these days it’s heard less and less on the streets. As China’s financial hub, Shanghai attracts people from all over the country, but many don’t speak or understand the native tongue. I don’t speak it. I just use Mandarin. Even locals don’t use Shanghai much now. You never know if the other person is from Shanghai. Amid worries about losing the language, some people are starting to rediscover its value. This instructor teaches Shanghai here and at other schools. He says that over the past few years, the number of classes he teaches has grown from two to as many as six. Leo Liier moved from a city near Beijing to Shanghai over 20 years ago to attend university. In companies in local neighborhoods, there are still quite a few Shanghai natives, including many older folks. When I speak Shanhinese with them, it just feels more friendly, like the distance between us disappears right away. Like Liil, most of the students come from outside Shanghai. Many of them say learning Shanghai helped them fit in better. I think the idea that we all have to speak Mandarin is starting to change. In recent years, more people have started to realize that dialects are closely connected to local culture. It’s not just people who are learning Shanghai. Artificial intelligence is also an avid student. This is Xiau, an air model developed by Shanghai University based on its vast collection of Shanghai materials. Even if fewer people speak Shanghai, AI can preserve it digitally and potentially be used as a teaching aid in schools. We can use multimedia tools to preserve Shanghai materials, especially audio data. We believe our Xiao model has a strong advantage in preserving and promoting the language. Once at risk of fading from its own streets, Shanghai is blooming again as more and more find pleasure and youthfulness in this rich language. NHK ward.
Fewer people are speaking Shanghai’s dialect. Young language learners and a university’s AI model are helping to preserve and carry on the region’s unique tongue. #china #ai #culture #language #education #university
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