> From: Kenneth Whistler [mailto:kenw@sybase.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 12:55 PM
> I agree with almost everything you said, but I would shade this
> one a little differently.
[lots of interesting stuff snipped]
Note that my post was slanted pretty much exclusively towards the
written form. I don't speak (or more importantly, listen) nearly well
enough to comment on the spoken form except as an outside observer.
It is interesting to note that Chinese entertainment stores in my
area can be separated pretty cleanly into three categories - Mainland,
Taiwanese, and Hong Kongnese[1]. The mainlanders (and any Singaporeans
about, I would imagine) can read simplified subtitles when the dialect
confuses them, the Taiwanese read traditional subtitles, and the Hong
Kongnese read Cantonese and/or English (the English fluency rate in Hong
Kong being very high). The latest Jackie Chan film will be available in all
three stores, each with its preferred subtitling.
With music, however, it is quite different. The same album will be
available in all three stores. Many artists will, however, print Cantonese
and Mandarin versions of the same album, or will have Mandarin and Cantonese
releases which overlap heavily. Some artists even put Mandarin and
Cantonese versions of songs on the same album. The CDs are clearly
separated into four categories in every store I've been in - Mandarin male,
Mandarin female, Cantonese male, and Cantonese female. The preferences so
obvious in video entertainment do not appear to influence the selection, and
the latest Jacky Cheung record will be available in both Mandarin and
Cantonese.
I'm going to do some more investigation into Chinese mutual
intelligibility, but that'll take awhile...
/|/|ike
[1] - How to refer to the people of Hong Kong is a problem I have never seen
solced. I have heard they themselves use the term "Hongkies", but, being an
American, I cannot use this term, as it sounds too much like another, very
impolite, word.
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