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