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An idea that Cantonese should be considered as a form of cultural capital, which is inspired by Throsby’s theory.
Last semester I took a course “Introduction to Cultural Capital”, from which I got to know David Throsby, an influential economist, and his theories about economy of culture. In his 1999 article ‘Cultural Capital’, he contended that economic value of cultural capital should be endorsed, and that since cultural capital and natural capital share some similarities, lack of consideration of the sustainable development of cultural capital will result in devastating economic loss.
The argument above seems undoubtedly plausible and it has even ascended to a common sense as well as a shared goal of authorities. Whereas I wonder what “culture” exactly means here. It is clear that Throsby mentioned “language” since “a shared language provides the means by which cultural messages are represented and transmitted”(Throsby 1999:6). This is inspiring enough for me as I am interested in cultural implications of language. Therefore, this article attempts to look into the current position of Cantonese in the language landscape of Guangzhou and how it can be and should be viewed as an indispensable form of cultural capital.
Language Landscape in Guangzhou
In a word, since the 1980s when the Reform and Opening Up Policy was phased in, Cantonese has changed gradually from the only dominant language to one of the two powerful languages with the other being Mandarin.
The determining factor of this change is the increasing population mobility. It is understandable that as one of precursors of the groundbreaking 1980s economic reformation, Guangzhou has been the first choice for people all over the country to earn a fortune or seek a quality life. According to relevant statistics, at the end of 1983, the total population of Guangzhou stood at 5,260,000 with 99.49% of local people; in 2000, the former figure climbed to 9,940,000 yet the second one declined to 70.47%; at the end of 2021, there were over 18,810,000 people and 47% of them were floating population. My country is not only densely populated but also dialectally diverse, which gives rise to great inconvenience in daily communication or domestic trade. Cantonese and many other dialects are mutually unintelligible, so it necessitates Mandarin as a lingua franca.
Recent studies confirm that Mandarin is more widely-used than Cantonese in public contexts, such as at work or in school (e.g. Shan and Li, 2017; Xu and Zhou, 2016). Another worrying fact about the future of Cantonese is that Mandarin has its place also in private contexts like family and that it becomes the first language of some younger Cantonese people (Shan and Li, 2017).
The Value of Cantonese as Cultural Capital
Throsby (1999) interpreted the complicated relationship between cultural capital and economic capital. On the one hand, for tangible cultural capital, its physical existence naturally generates economic value, and its cultural connotation can add to economic value to various degrees. On the other hand, intangible cultural capital, like a language, is not equipped with economic value originally, but flows of services derived from it tend to generate economic value.
The prosperous development of the cultural industry in Guangzhou gives the most direct display of the economic value of Cantonese. According to Guangzhou Cultural Industry Development Report 2021, the thirteen five-year plan period featured increasing investment into the cultural industry, the noteworthy establishment of Guangzhou as a culturally significant city, and a climbing proportion of cultural industry in the total GDP growth (6.34% in 2019). This indicates that culture has already become an irreplaceable pillar industry. Admittedly, Cantonese culture is built upon Cantonese language without which it will then be reduced to something like a shabby, soulless stonework.
Take two highly popular tourist attractions, Lychee Bay Scenic Area and Yong Qing Fang as examples. They have brought in remarkable profits, fascinating tourists at home and abroad with profound Cantonese-based Cantonese culture. Every afternoon, crowds of people flock to the Lychee Bay stage to watch traditional Cantonese opera. The streets in Yong Qing fang are all lined with stores selling Cantonese cards, postcards, and posters. There is invariably a long queue in front of the Cantonese Opera Museum every weekend. It is undeniable that dismissing economic value of Cantonese will cause unimaginable economic loss.
The Lychee Bay Stage. https://image.baidu.com
The Cantonese Opera Museum. https://image.baidu.com
Cantonese cultural products in Yong Qing Fang. https://image.baidu.com
Introducing the sociological term “cultural capital” to the economic sector, Throsby managed to make an innovative attempt and also provided opportunities of further consideration. To some extent, he did not attach enough importance to the sociological context of cultural capital since there is a fundamental difference between cultural capital and other traditional types of capital. Therefore, the following is my small-scale research on the cultural value of Cantonese as a form of cultural capital.
Due to practical reasons, I mainly targeted at cultural value for individuals. Inspired by previous research on language attitude by Chen (1999), I designed a questionnaire to examine cultural value of Cantonese for native Cantonese speakers by comparing their language attitudes towards Cantonese and Mandarin. 6 items are included. “Kind (亲切)” and “(sounds) pleasant (好听)” emphasize dimension of emotional recognition, “elegant (文雅)” and “higher social status (有身份)” dimension of social judgment, “useful (用处多)” and “easy to speak (容易讲)” dimension of usefulness (Xu and Zhou, 2016). An adapted Likert scale was used. 56 participants are all local Cantonese people with Cantonese as their first language, and are either my relatives or friends. The age information is showed in Table 1.
The following Table 2 shows the results.
As we can see, 6 average scores for both Cantonese and Mandarin were all more than 3 points, which means basically participants adopt positive attitudes to these two languages. Whereas the differences between them reached statistic significance (p<0.05). Especially in terms of items “(sounds) pleasant” and “kind”, participants generally demonstrated a tighter emotional link with Cantonese.
Conclusion
For Cantonese people who speak Cantonese as their mother tongue, the language goes far beyond a communication tool. It acts, most significantly, as a part of cultural identity with which they hold a sense of belonging to their community or mother culture. Hence, the principle of diversity in harmony needs to be prioritized. Concerted efforts are necessary and even urgent to ensure sustainable development of Cantonese as a form of cultural capital.
Reference
Throsby, D. 1999. Cultural capital. Journal of Cultural Economics 23. 3-12.
陈松岑. 1999. 新加坡华人的语言态度及其对语言能力和语言使用的影响. 语言教学与研究 01. 81-95.
单韵鸣 & 李胜. 2017. 全球化背景下广州人语言使用与粤语传播传承. 语言学研究 01. 180-193.
徐晖明 & 周喆. 2016. 广州青少年语言使用与语言态度调查与分析*. 语言文字应用* 03. 20-29.
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