Preserving Cantonese Television & Film in Guangdong: Language as Cultural Heritage in South China's Bidialectal Landscape
Cantonese Growth as Pan-Regional Chinese Identity
The Cantonese motion picture industry’s role as a conduit for a unique
Preserving Cantonese Television & Film in Guangdong: Language as Cultural Heritage in South China's Bidialectal Landscape
Cantonese Growth as Pan-Regional Chinese Identity
The Cantonese motion picture industry’s role as a conduit for a unique Southern Chinese cultural heritage stems in part from the historical ties between Guangdong’s and Hong Kong’s entertainment industries. These two regions have developed a sense of Chinese nationalism tied to the use of Cantonese, a linguistic identity that has transcended political affiliation throughout the decades. Yale Professor of Anthropology Helen Siu found in her studies that although the Hong Kong’s colonial history created an acceptance of British political practices, social life was still very centered around “Chinese traditions.”21 The concept of “Chinese traditions” is placed in quotation marks, because the aspects of Chinese heritage embraced by Hong Kong’s residents in the colonial and post-colonial era have mainly centered around their language heritage. Since Chinese dialect heritage is different from region to region, there is no single pan-regional “Chinese tradition.”
The Cantonese experience is one that is not shared by the majority of the Chinese population, yet has become one of the main determinants of South Chinese culture due to the Cantonese film industry’s nationalistic history during World War II. Specifically, in the 1930s, Cantonese had already begun its journey into the national consciousness through the success of “talkies,” early picture films synchronized to sound.22 In fact, the success of Cantonese language films as a cultural product began creating tension within the Nationalistic Guomindang government at the time.
The Guomindang increasingly viewed the north-south Mandarin-Cantonese language divide in China as violating the connection that Chinese citizens had as “one country” and “one people.”23 Early Cantonese language films created tension within the Nationalistic Guomindang government, which sought to maintain political stability by establishing a single Chinese identity. Thus, the concern that linguistic divide would undermine the central government’s authority has been present in Chinese governance for a long time, though the Guomindang’s actions during WWII actually allowed for the prolonged existence of Cantonese existence as the premier dialect other of Mandarin in South China.
In an attempt to overcome what it felt was an internal barrier to Chinese cooperation in the anti-Japanese effort, the Guomindang Central Government decided in May 1936 to ban all sales of media materials in any dialect.24 In response, the top three Cantonese film producers and distributors decided to relocate the Cantonese motion picture industry to Hong Kong, under British rule since 1935 and immune to the Guomindang’s pressures for linguistic homogeneity, deciding henceforth to rename their operations the South China Film Association.25
The inclusion of the name “South China” in the Cantonese television and film industry’s new operating headquarters represented a clear identification of Hong Kong media culture as a subset of Chinese media culture. Rather than taking the opportunity to forge a new identity for Cantonese cinema separate from that of the cinema industry in mainland China, Cantonese film producers instead chose to emphasize the Chinese heritage of Cantonese speakers. In fact, in order to convince the Guomindang that banning the use of dialects other than Mandarin in the media was actually counterintuitive to uniting the Chinese war front, the Cantonese film industry began incorporating nationalistic elements into their filmography.
From 1934-1941, 66 of 562 films produced in Hong Kong were geared towards themes of “national defence [sic]” and “National salvation first, dialects second.”26 In October 1937, the Guomindang’s Central Film Censorship Committee set up a branch in Guangdong, which screened Cantonese motion pictures and used them in propaganda to unite Cantonese speakers in the Chinese war effort.27 Understanding the power that films and television have in promoting and legitimizing ideas, Cantonese filmmakers focused on using their art to bring Cantonese speakers together in the Chinese battlefront. Not only was Cantonese no longer hindering the Anti-Japanese war effort, the use of regional dialects in motion media served to connect southern Chinese people with their northern counterparts through a united sense of nationalism. At the same time, Cantonese was legitimized through early WWII propaganda efforts as an important aspect of not only South Chinese culture, but also a greater Chinese heritage.
The symbiotic relationship between the Cantonese film industry in Guangdong and Hong Kong only grew during the PRC’s rule, which not only preserved Cantonese linguistic culture, but also helped build the South’s broadcasting media sector to its modern heights. After the establishment of the PRC in 1949, filmmakers began making a move to reestablish Cantonese-language television and film across the channel in Guangdong Province. However, Hong Kong filmmakers’ first attempt to formally establish a provincial filming hub in Guangzhou in 1952 was suspended due to the PRC Central Film Bureau’s intervention, which insisted on establishing a central planning structure.28
The Central Film Bureau’s insistence on a state-sponsored planning commission to be put in place suggests again that the Mandarin-Cantonese divide at the national level has historically be