Nicholas Netzer
Contemporary China 370
Dr. Charles Hammond
Journal #8
Huge news from Hong Kong...the Hong Kong government may soon require that the official language of China – Mandarin, may be used to teach in their schools. This would be a rather large development as it could bring China that much closer together. There may now actually be a day when all of China speaks the same ‘dialect.’ The fact is that they are still debating over this subject, and it could be a short while before it gets approved, or if it does. Even once it does get approved, they are not going to go cold turkey on teaching in Cantonese either. Right now classes for Mandarin are optional in Hong Kong, but the government would like to make it such that everyone taught in Hong Kong is taught Mandarin.
Some feel that it would be natural to move towards the change in teaching since Hong Kong was returned to the ‘motherland’ of China in 1997. It seems that the only real road block involving this matter is how badly does Hong Kong want this to happen. Obviously, if it isn’t that big of a deal, it will not change.
