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Cantonese Language

Cantonese CD-ROM
RRP: £24.95
Our Price: £19.99
with FREE P&P

Where does Cantonese come from?
Cantonese is one of the languages of China. Along with Mandarin and the other Chinese languages, it belongs to the Sinitic sub-family of the family of Sino-Tibetan languages.

Spoken Chinese comprises many dialects, of which Cantonese is one. Although the dialects employ a common written form, making written communication possible between dialects, when spoken they are mutually unintelligible and for this reason are often referred to as distinct languages.

Like the other languages of the Sino-Tibetan family, Cantonese is tonal, meaning that different tones, or intonations, distinguish words that otherwise are pronounced identically.

How many people speak Cantonese?
Chinese, in its various forms, is spoken by more people than any other language in the world - about 1.1 billion people in the People's Republic of China alone. Over 65 million people speak Cantonese.

In how many countries?
Cantonese is spoken in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong (Canton) as well as in Hong Kong, SE Asia, and the United States. Nearly all Chinese in the United States speak Cantonese.

Cantonese Culture

Cantonese Music and Dance
In terms of popular music, a change in attitude was noted by a government report in the 1980s, which stated that new songs were emerging because the Chinese were "tired of the old political songs and slogans they grew up with". During the 1980s and 1990s, China showed increased openness to classical and popular musicians from the outside world.

Chinese theatre is also known as opera because of the important role that music plays. This has given rise to other arts such as acrobatics, martial arts and stylised dance.

Cantonese Food and Drink
Chinese cuisine can be divided into four regional categories: Beijing/Mandarin and Shandong (with steamed bread and noodles as staples), Cantonese and Chaozhou (lightly cooked meats and vegetables), Shanghainese (the home of 'red cooking' and wuxi spare ribs) and Sichuan (spicy, with lots of chilli).

Tea is the most common nonalcoholic beverage, although Coca-Cola is gaining in popularity. Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink. Maotai is also a popular spirit made from sorghum.

Cantonese Attractions
Beijing - The capital of the People's Republic of China is an imposing city of orderly design, with long, straight boulevards intersected by lanes. The influence of Beijing is felt across the nation even though it's far from reflecting the nature of the country as a whole.

Shanghai - With its reputation as 'the Whore of the East', the rather foreign and gaudy Shanghai has long been considered an embarrassment for the People's Republic. The Huangpu River cuts through the city, while Puxi is the location of Shanghai's main attractions.

Hong Kong - A glitzy, dynamic city where commercialism is rampant, but despite its British colonial history, is purely Chinese in culture. Unease that existed over the reunification of Hong Kong with China in 1997 has largely evaporated.

Xi'an - Once a major crossroads on the trading routes from eastern China to central Asia, Xi'an vied with Rome and later Constantinople for the title of greatest city in the world. Today it is a firm attraction, mainly due to the Army of Terracotta Warriors on the city's eastern outskirts.

Macau - A wonderful antidote to mainland China and Hong Kong, the compact city of Macau has always been a memorable meeting place of cultures. The city's symbol is St Paul's, a crumbling cathedral that was designed by an Italian, built by Japanese, attended by Portuguese, and almost destroyed by a Chinese typhoon.

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