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There's plenty of blame to go around
By Guo Min |
February 17, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
MR Wang Yong's observations (February 11, Shanghai Daily) about some Shanghai readers' reaction to the recent debate over Shanghai dialect are very fair and objective.
I agree with him that the newspaper, the Community Edition of Xinmin Evening News, didn't publish the article in question to undermine the significance of Shanghai dialect or to disparage local residents who don't speak Mandarin Chinese well.
On February 4, Xinmin Evening News published an excerpt from a book ("The Lives of Ordinary Folks in Shanghai"), in which the author said: "It shows a lack of culture to speak in Shanghainese in Pudong."
It was an error in the choice of articles, a very big one indeed, to feature such prose that cannot provide much useful information or pleasure to readers. Several sentences deeply hurt the feelings of local readers, including me, who love the city, the dialect and the Shanghai cultural vintage Xinmin Evening News so much.
However, as a keen observer of the development of this issue, which mostly happens online, I think the greater significance of this incident goes beyond the newspaper. Some of the messages on the newspaper's online forum are self-explanatory:
"Those out-of-towners have grabbed our jobs, driven up our housing prices and stolen our native (Shanghainese) girls to be their wives. Now they even ban us from speaking our dialect in our city!''
"Shanghai was once a clean city inhabited by good-mannered native people. Now it's those out-of-towners who spit and litter on the streets, sell poisonous food, jaywalk and break all kinds of traffic rules."
The newspaper article became the flashpoint of an outpouring of cultural exclusionism, a phenomenon I would call dangerous if left unchecked.
First of all, there is no scientific proof whatsoever that all these ills are caused only by out-of-town people. Many Shanghai people spit, litter, jaywalk and commit crimes, too.
It is correct to criticize people's bad behaviors, especially in the public. It is never justified to look down upon someone not because of what she or he does, but only because of where they are from.
Secondly, the influx of non-local population is a natural outcome of the city's development. The grandparents of most of Shanghai's current population were not born in Shanghai either. They came here as the city needed an ever-increasing number of workers, tailors, servants, barbers and traders to support its sizzling growth in early 20th century.
The majority of us are all descendants of people who moved to the city and stayed on. As a matter of fact, Shanghai dialect itself is a result of a mix of the dialects of neighboring cities and provinces.
Migrants
Economists would also say that a migrant population also brings economic benefits to local residents. Those entrepreneurs opened businesses in Shanghai and created jobs for local workforce. White-collar workers need to rent apartments and in most cases it's Shanghai landlords who are getting paid.
The secret of Shanghai's success as an economic hub is that it's been mostly open in its recent history to all the people who are fit to work and live here. The constant competition and introduction of new ideas and business models maintain the vitality of the city's economy.
And I truly hope Shanghai World Expo 2010 will offer opportunities to explore how a local population can interact harmoniously with a migrant population, especially when many migrants come from less developed areas and have fewer educational opportunities.
(Guo Min is editor of the New Media Center of Shanghai Daily.)
I agree with him that the newspaper, the Community Edition of Xinmin Evening News, didn't publish the article in question to undermine the significance of Shanghai dialect or to disparage local residents who don't speak Mandarin Chinese well.
On February 4, Xinmin Evening News published an excerpt from a book ("The Lives of Ordinary Folks in Shanghai"), in which the author said: "It shows a lack of culture to speak in Shanghainese in Pudong."
It was an error in the choice of articles, a very big one indeed, to feature such prose that cannot provide much useful information or pleasure to readers. Several sentences deeply hurt the feelings of local readers, including me, who love the city, the dialect and the Shanghai cultural vintage Xinmin Evening News so much.
However, as a keen observer of the development of this issue, which mostly happens online, I think the greater significance of this incident goes beyond the newspaper. Some of the messages on the newspaper's online forum are self-explanatory:
"Those out-of-towners have grabbed our jobs, driven up our housing prices and stolen our native (Shanghainese) girls to be their wives. Now they even ban us from speaking our dialect in our city!''
"Shanghai was once a clean city inhabited by good-mannered native people. Now it's those out-of-towners who spit and litter on the streets, sell poisonous food, jaywalk and break all kinds of traffic rules."
The newspaper article became the flashpoint of an outpouring of cultural exclusionism, a phenomenon I would call dangerous if left unchecked.
First of all, there is no scientific proof whatsoever that all these ills are caused only by out-of-town people. Many Shanghai people spit, litter, jaywalk and commit crimes, too.
It is correct to criticize people's bad behaviors, especially in the public. It is never justified to look down upon someone not because of what she or he does, but only because of where they are from.
Secondly, the influx of non-local population is a natural outcome of the city's development. The grandparents of most of Shanghai's current population were not born in Shanghai either. They came here as the city needed an ever-increasing number of workers, tailors, servants, barbers and traders to support its sizzling growth in early 20th century.
The majority of us are all descendants of people who moved to the city and stayed on. As a matter of fact, Shanghai dialect itself is a result of a mix of the dialects of neighboring cities and provinces.
Migrants
Economists would also say that a migrant population also brings economic benefits to local residents. Those entrepreneurs opened businesses in Shanghai and created jobs for local workforce. White-collar workers need to rent apartments and in most cases it's Shanghai landlords who are getting paid.
The secret of Shanghai's success as an economic hub is that it's been mostly open in its recent history to all the people who are fit to work and live here. The constant competition and introduction of new ideas and business models maintain the vitality of the city's economy.
And I truly hope Shanghai World Expo 2010 will offer opportunities to explore how a local population can interact harmoniously with a migrant population, especially when many migrants come from less developed areas and have fewer educational opportunities.
(Guo Min is editor of the New Media Center of Shanghai Daily.)
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