Chiu Chow
Family
First Generation
Mr Hui, 70, is 100 % Chiu Chow with both monolingual parents. He immigrated to Hong Kong in his 40s. He used to live with his monolingual parents and received primary education in Chiu Chow. Then, he went to high school in Guangzhou. He can speak in Cantonese Mandarin and Chiu Chow. He is married and has one daughter.
“Speaking in Chiu Chow is not a choice, it is my instinct!” Hui reckoned. Since Hui’ s parents are both monolingual, Chiu Chow is the only language they use to communicate. He uses Chiu Chow in conversation with his parents, and when he turns to talk to his wife and daughter, he switches the language to Cantonese, with only little occasions in Chiu Chou. The switch is natural to Hui as he thinks using Cantonese allows better communication in his family- his wife and daughters do not speak fluent Chiu Chow.
Pragmatic Choice
In his daily conversation, Hui uses Cantonese nearly 80% of his time, with Chiu Chou and Mandarin for 15% and 5% respectively. Hesaid, “ I am now living in Hong Kong, and therefore Cantonese has become my dominant language used in daily life. It is inevitable to use less Chiu Chou. However, I will still use Chiu Chou when I hang out with my Chiu Chou friends! It feels more attached!” Regarding the declining use of Chiu Chou in Hong Kong, Hui does not show great concerns. He even believes Chiu Chow people in Hong Kong should learn better English and Mandarin instead because of the worldwide significance of these languages. This can be seen as the use of postvernacular language after experienced linguistic and cultural vitality in Hong Kong.
When asked about whether there is still a need to promote Chiu Chow language in family, he emphasizes that family always has the role to pass on the language to the next generation despite the low significance of the language in the community. He believes Chiu Chow people has to understand the basic use of the dialect, but need not be proficient in it today’s context.
“Chiu Chow people are recognized to be hard-working! We Chiu Chow people all like to drink kung fu tea, and Chiu Chow congee is a must for breakfast for my parents!” Hui takes tycoon Li Ka-shing as the example of a diligent Chiu Chow people, and says the teenagers in Hong Kong should learn this attitude. Hui also claims that Chiu Chow congee is the healthiest food for breakfast. He takes pride in being a Chiu Chow people by saying, “I am a 100% Chiu Chow people, not a Hongkonger.” He argues that one should follow their family of origin as their identity, it is an irreversible personal characteristic. He also reckons that Chiu Chow people who was born in Hong Kong has become distant to their Chiu Chow identity, and points out that family has the responsibility to promote the identity as Chiu Chow descendents to the new generation.
Role and responsibility of the Family
Identity
Table 1.1 Language Diary of Mr Hui
Table 1.2 Domains Analysis of Mr Hui
Second Generation
Ms Bo Hui, 40, is 50 % Chiu Chow with both parents billingual Cantonese and Chiu CHow. She immigrated to Hong Kong at the age of 10. She used to live with her parents in ShanTou at a very young age, and received primary education in Guangzhou. Then, she went to high school and university in Hong Kong. She can speak in Cantonese, English, Mandarin and Chiu Chow. She is an accountant and married with one child, aged 6.
“When I have conversations with my Chiu Chow friends in Hong Kong, even though we know that both of us are Chiu Chow people, we still use Cantonese to communicate as it is our common first language.” Bo says. She describes the use of Chiu Chow in her daily life is limited to the conversations with her family, especially elder family members. She aquired Chiu Chow from her parents and from other Chiu Chow people in Sai Ying Poon after immigrating to Hong Kong. Now, she does not speak in Chiu Chow often because she thinks she has adapted to Hong Kong’s environment- an international city that uses English and Mandarin in addition
to Cantonese as the medium of communication. She is fully capable of understanding a Chiu Chow conversation but not proficienct in speaking Chiu Chow since she has never lived with her monolingual Chiu Chow grandparents. When asked whether she is concerned about Chiu Chow language lossing ground across generations in Hong Kong Chiu Chow families, she replies, “When I go back to ShanTou, some of my relatives even know Cantonese! They learnt it from TV and Cantonese songs.”, suggesting her indifferent attitudes towards Chiu Chow language. She also thinks that the declining use of Chiu Chow language in Hong Kong is inevitable because of the societal development and regards it as a normal phenomenon. She, therefore, has not tried to pass Chiu Chow language to her son and would leave it open for her son to explore when he grows up.
“We watched our brothers’ backs,” Bo recalled the days when she lived in Sai Ying Poon with other immigrants from Chiu Chow. “Chiu Chow people are helpful and relentless, we formed a big family at that time; but now the situation has changed.” Bo sighed. Yet she remains positive towards sustaining the characteristics of Chiu Chow people in Hong Kong. She recognizes the influence of Chiu Chow cuisine in Hong Kong dining culture, and believes passing down skills in cooking traditional Chiu Chow food is a means to preserve their culture. When asked about her identity, Bo suggested that “I think I am more like a Hongkonger whose origin is Chiu Chow.” She said she has already been assimilated into Cantonese culture since childhood, and has spent most of her life in Hong Kong. She does not agree that it is a must for Chiu Chow people to be proficient in the use of Chiu Chow, and views that learning Chiu Chow can be an interest, but not a prerequisite.
C = Cantonese
E = English
M = Mandarin
T = Chiu Chow
Table 1.3 Domains Analysis of Ms Hui
Analysis
Language Choice
The dominant language in Hong Kong Chiu Chow family has shifted from Chiu Chow to Cantonese. The choices of language varies depending social context, the type of interlocutors, to social and economic change.
In our case, the Chiu Chow proficiency shift from monolingual parents to bilingual parents. Chiu Chow people who immigrated to Hong Kong speak Cantonese in their everyday life and only use limited Chiu Chow occasionally when speaking to their family members and relatives. As Bo mentioned, she does not need to use Chiu Chow language in her workplace or school.
The change in language choice could be due to the educational levels of the speaker. Bo had received teritary education while Hui just had secondary education. Bo had acquired more languages such as English and Mandarin and is able to use varities of language repertoire. Depending on the interlocutors and the context of the conversations, she can use the most appropriate language to express herself. While the choice of language for Hui is fewer, as his social context is not diverse, speaking in Chiu Chow or Cantonese most of the time already allows him to fully express himself.
Cantonese and English are the official languages in Hong Kong, with Mandarin gaining her importance in recent years, the use of Chiu Chow in Hong Kong is not essential. As suggested by our two informants, the language is just informally passed along the family, with no particular emphasis for younger generation in acquiring it. Even though the first generation recognised the importance of the role of family in the transmission of language to the next generation, they do not see a pressing need to do so. Moreover, no Chiu Chow language is offered in formal education or received any mass media support. Younger generations have limited channels to learn the use of it and thus younger generations’ ability in Chiu Chow language is weaker. They therefore tend to use Cantonese or other languages.
In addition, although both generations hold positive language attitudes towards the use of Chiu Chow in the family context, this does not pave the way for sustaining its use in the Hong Kong context- that uses Cantonese, English and Mandarin as the main language for communication.
As a result, with mixed dialectal family backgrounds and difference in language status in Hong Kong, extending the use of Chiu Chow to the next generation is difficult.
Language and Identity
Identity is constructed and re-constructed in interaction with other participants on a microlevel, as well as on the macro level where individual’s identity is socially constituted repertoires of identificational and affiliational resources (Giddens, 1984; Bauman, 2000).
Both generations are able to identify their family of origin as Chiu Chow people. However, there is a disparity on the self-identification of being a Chiu Chow people- Hui described himself as a 100% Chiu Chow people whilst Bo identified herself as a Hongkonger whose origin is Chiu Chow. The sense of belonging of the second generation is less strong than the first generation. This can be attributed to the difference in their lived experience. Bo is a working class and her everyday working experience is associated with Cantonese, English and Mandarin. She has active involvement in different social institutions in Hong Kong and thus, the level of social intimacy and corresponding linguistic activities associated have given shape to her perceptions and evaluations of her identity as a Hongkonger instead of a Chiu Chow people. Since her exposure of Chiu Chou language is limit to within the family, she simply regarded her place of origin is Chiu Chow. Hui, on the other hand, has more emotional attachement towards Chiu Chow because he used to speak in Chiu Chow only for a period of time when he was young. He began to develop his identity as a Chiu Chow people throughout the interactions with his family.
It is surprising to see how Chiu Chow cuisine has constitued to shaping one’s identity. Both of our informants have mentioned Chiu Chow cuisine in our interviews, and take prides in being a Chiu Chow by describing the taste and skills of cooking them. They have tied Chiu Chow cuisine to their identity as a Chiu Chow people. Also, they pointed out Chiu Chou people’s characteristics such as hard-working and helpful in our conversations, these postitive attitudes towards Chiu Chow people suggested a shared understanding of Chiu Chow people and positioned themselves as one of the described Chiu Chow people.
Apart from family and social interaction, the social status of Hong Kong is also in relation to constructing one’s identity. The promotion of self-identity as a Hongkonger has been associated with the rapid growing economy. The younger generation have perceived speaking in Cantonese or other languages as more prestigious in this international city, and this structure of the society have led to the constitution of their identity as a Hongkonger.
