Investigating Cantonese speakers' language attitudes in Mainland China

Abstract

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has often been considered a monolithic, monolingual state but, in fact, it is linguistically and culturally diverse. Despite the size, there is still a lack of sociolinguistic studies on the Han Chinese in the PRC. Therefore, this study focuses on the language attitudes of Cantonese-speaking students in Mainland China towards Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Surveys were conducted to assess the language attitudes of Cantonese-speaking university students. The results showed students' strong integrative attitudes towards Cantonese, whereas Putonghua and English were recognised as instrumental tools for career advancement and international communication. Although the respondents of this study positively supported multilingualism, the active language policy of the PRC does not adequately promote a multilingual environment or cultural development of Han Chinese languages. Therefore, the authors call for policies that equally value official, minority and regional languages in China.