Cultural phenomena are never just cultural phenomena. Cultural self-confidence is often based on economic strength. Hollywood blockbusters, Disney animations, Japanese animations, Korean dramas, and Hong Kong and Taiwan songs are and have been as brilliant as this in mainland China.
When Hong Kong’s martial arts, movies, TV series, and songs became popular, it was the time when Hong Kong’s economy was stronger than that of the mainland. In the early 1990s, in my hometown, which is located on the northeastern border of the motherland, I could often hear songs by Beyond, Jacky Cheung and others, and watch movies by Stephen Chow, Chow Yun-fat and others, but it was not easy to see duo performances.
Things have changed. Today, Hong Kong’s economy is not much stronger than that of the mainland. Hong Kong stars have also come to the mainland to make money, so Hong Kong movies and songs are gradually declining. Although Hong Kong has declined, Guangdong opposite Hong Kong has risen. We often say that Guangdong accounts for two of the four first-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is clear at a glance how well Guangdong's economy is developing.
With the rise of Guangdong's economy, Guangdong people have gradually become more confident in their culture. The pinnacle of self-confidence is ignorance. When you are not confident, ignorance will be buried in your heart. When you are confident, the ignorance in your heart will keep pouring out like spring water.
When I was studying at Guangxi University in Nanning, some of my Guangxi university classmates mentioned this ignorant argument to me, saying, "Only when you read poetry in Cantonese can you get the rhythmic feeling." ”, I also read Huang Zhan’s doctoral thesis discussing the musicality of Cantonese based on the nine tones of Cantonese.
These arguments are really ridiculous. Any Chinese can feel the musical beauty in the poems when reading ancient poems in their hometown language. People from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who speak Wu dialect can feel it. , Northeasterners who speak Northeastern dialect can also feel it. So, which one of Cantonese, Wu dialect and Northeastern dialect is the language for reciting poetry?
The reason why we can feel the musical beauty in ancient poems when reading them aloud is not because we use Cantonese, Wu dialect or Northeastern dialect, but because ancient poems originally have musical beauty! No matter how musically beautiful you read aloud something without musical beauty, you still won’t feel the musical beauty!
As for Huang Zhan’s argument, it is also ridiculous. If we take the nine tones in Cantonese as an example, I also said that current music only has seven notes, and ancient music only had five notes? The two or four extra tones you have cannot match the notes, so it is very difficult when writing lyrics. Sophistry, are you the only one who knows how to do it?
The reason why more and more people are talking about the superiority of Cantonese is simply because it involves professional issues such as linguistics. Many people have no say at all. In Guangdong, an economically developed area, The aborigines are naturally very ignorant, but because of their economic development, they have become extremely confident. When they get carried away, they forget their ignorance. Out of the desire to protect their "mother tongue", they use Cantonese indefinitely. Elevate.