Shanghainese's last gasp

• Source: The Global Times
• [20:43 June 03 2009]
• Comments

Decline and death of opera

Ma Lili, 60, is deputy chief director of the Hu Opera Theater of Shanghai, whose actors perform in Shanghai dialect. Ma said the dialect was fast disappearing, hurting the opera and its nearly 200 years of history.

Born in Shanghai, Ma said she had noticed a disastrous decline among today's generation when she visited schools looking for fresh talent.

"Where we attempt to choose potential actors or actresses among Shanghai kids at primary schools, they can't even read a newspaper in their local dialect."
 
It had reached the point where chosen actors had to attend Shanghai dialect training. "Shanghai dialect seems a foreign language to these young people working in our theatre now," said Ma.

"They can speak Shanghai dialect, but they can't experience its character, not to mention convey the soul of the opera through a language they are not clear about."

Ma confessed her own 30-year-old daughter never went to the theater and chatted in Putonghua with colleagues, most of whom were non-Shanghainese.

"Once the dialect is lost," said Ma, "the culture will surely follow."

In Shanghai's public transport system, station names are announced in Putonghua and English only. Mobile media are forbidden from including local accent, flavor or characters in their content.

There are a few Shanghainese movies made a year, but no novels. Only one TV show broadcasts in Shanghai dialect, and according to Ma, the show not only uses incorrect pronunciation but also constantly gets basic vocabulary and syntax wrong.