Sampan Congee

Almost a hundred years ago, the last emperor in China was thrown by a revolution started by several intellectuals in Guangdong Province. Historians called it the Revolution of 1911. Thirty years later, the first non-feudal government was taken over by the armies of millions of peasants and workers. They were led by Mr. Mao Zedong who founded the current ruling party in China, the Communist Party of China (CPC). Understanding the tremendous power of revolution, CPC has been cautious about any sign of another rebel for the past sixty years. They don’t want to be thrown out by the same means as they won the authority. By controlling the flow of information and making severe punishment for malicious attacks, the government successfully managed to get through the most unstable period from the 50s to 70s. As the country became more open up since the 70s, however, the parental governing style was increasingly challenged by both the Chinese people who can access unfiltered information an

Located at the south coast of China, Guangzhou has enjoyed the reputation of the Southern Gate of China for two thousand years. Beginning from the 3 rd century, Guangzhou has been known as one of the main harbors for the famous Maritime Silk Rout. During the years in Qing Dynasty when the government extensively restricted trading with the outside world, Guangzhou was one of the very few cities granted the privilege of trading by sea. The famous Thirteen Hong shouldered most of Chinese merchandize exchange with the western countries. The little harbor welcomed the prosperity of trading, but sadly, failed to refuse the vicious export of opium from the UK. In virtue of its location, Guangzhou has been used as a gateway for the Chinese Communist Government to establish a closer connection between Hong Kong and the inland country. It only takes two-hour train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and people in both places speak Cantonese which is an unbreakable bond that relates the colonized

Oriana Chan was born in New York but speaks Cantonese because her parents were originally from Macau, a small island colonized by Portugal for more than 400 years and was handed over to China in 1999. Comparing to the other two guests we had before, she's more like an outsider and holds a more objective view on the Crisis of Cantonese. On the one hand, she admited the importance of internet in free flowing information in China. On the other hand, she was cautious about the provocative nature of the medium at the same time.

July 5, Mr. Ji Keguang, a member of Guangzhou People’s Politics Consultative Conference delivered a sensational proposal to the mayor of Guangzhou. In his proposal, Mr. Ji suggested that Guangzhou Television should stop Cantonese broadcasting in its News Channel and Comprehensive Channel. It was claimed that it would be easier for both the national and international participants as well as visitors to communicate during the Asian Game, which is going to be held in Guangzhou this November. In addition, Mr. Ji also cared a lot about the popularity of Guangzhou Television across the country. He urged the Guangzhou TV change its broadcasting language to Mandarin so that it could further move into the satellite era. Actually, this proposal didn’t come from the middle of nowhere. Starting from May 2010, Mr. Ji and his colleagues collaborated with other government bodies to survey the public on what language Guangzhou TV should use in their broadcasting. Among the 30,000 valid survey papers

In this episode, Linxi Chan, who's originally from Jiangsu Province but spent four years in Guangzhou in Sun Ye-Sen University. He feels sad to hear about the possible reduction in Cantonese broadcasting. A dialect is an unalienable part of a folk culture. Linxi believes that only by understanding Cantonese, can one get to see the true color of Guangzhou, which is unique and irreplacable. He also worries that his own dialect might be confronted with the same crisis because it has a much smaller population of speakers in the country, comparing to Cantonese.

In this Episode, Xiaoyi Fan, as a native Cantonese speaker talked about her reaction to the proposal. She loves the dialect and pointed out the value of keeping Cantonese broadcasting. By citing Hong Kong as an example, Xiaoyi believes that standardizing a language is apparently unnecessary. If Hong Kong can establish its international profile with Cantonese, so can Guanghzou. She wishes to protect the language so as to protect the local culture.

What is Sampan Congee? It is easy to tell that it is a kind of congees. But what is sampan? What does it have to do with congee? What are the ingredients for this typical Cantonese congee? How does it taste? Last but not least, what does it represent? Why am I naming my first English blog after it? According to Wikipedia, “a sampan is a relatively flat bottomed Chinese wooden boat from 3.5 to 4.5 m (11.5 to 14.8 ft) long.” It is called shān bǎn in Chinese and written as 舢舨 . “The word comes from the original Cantonese term for boats, literally meaning “three planks”.” However, the characters have been changed as modern Chinese language evolved. Sampans are generally used for fishing or transportation, in coastal areas or rivers. Some of them include a small shelter on board and can be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. Now you might be able to reason what Sampan Congee means. Yes, it is a kind of congee cook on a sampan. It is also known as its Cantonese pronunci