More than 1,000 pro-Cantonese protestors rallied in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and scuffled with the police in a protest to support the local dialect.
Protestors were opposing Government's plans to switch much programming on local television to the national language Mandarin. Protestors were claiming that the planned move would wipe out the Cantonese language and culture.
Cable TV reported that about two dozen protestors were forcefully taken away by the police and detained. A number of Hong Kong journalists were also reportedly detained for questioning.
Speaking on the topic, rally-organizer Choi Suk-fong said, "We want to show our support to our Guangzhou friends in their campaign to protect Cantonese against any threat of elimination.
However, the Guangzhou city government denied reports that they were planning to ditch Cantonese in favour of Mandarin. A spokesperson for the government claimed that they were committed to promote Cantonese language and culture.
China has been promoting the national language Mandarin, which is country's official language, for the last many decades to unite the country that has thousands of minority languages and dialects.
Cantonese is the first language of as many as seventy million people in Macau, China's southern Guangdong province and Hong Kong. In addition, Cantonese is widely spoken by overseas Chinese communities.
Source: Top News 2nd August 2010
http://topnews.co.uk/210227-pro-cantonese-protestors-rally-guangzhou-and-hong-kong
