China’s linguistic landscape is changing now faster than ever. Under ever-increasing pressure from Standard Mandarin, many people are opting to abandon their native languages and dialects in favour of Standard Mandarin in hopes that it will help secure a better future for their children. This does not bode well for languages like Shanghainese and Cantonese. Already, many people under 20 years of age in places like Shanghai are not learning the language of their parents and grandparents. Combined with continued immigration from other parts of China, in as little as 20 years we may have a very different situation than what we see today, with the language being used by only a small portion of people in the city.

In this talk, Kellen Parker will introduce some of the linguistic diversity found among the Chinese languages today, and some of the loss that is already underway. He will also discuss some of the grassroots efforts to keep these languages from disappearing, as well as his own efforts to document the incredibly dialectal diversity though Phonemica, an online platform for dialect-based story telling, told by native speakers from across China and the Chinese diaspora. (http://phonemica.net/)

He is also the Creator and co-founder of Phonemica, an online crowd-sourced effort to document and preserve under-represented dialects and languages.

RSVP: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

ENTRANCE:  Members 70 RMB - Non Members 100 RMB

Includes a glass of wine or soft drink

Priority for RAS members. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.   

MEMBERSHIP applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.

WEBSITE:  www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn