Simplified Chinese 广东省国家通用语言文字规定 Simplified Chinese 废粤推普 | Traditional Chinese 廣東省國家通用語言文字規定 Traditional Chinese 廢粵推普 | |
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The Guangdong National Language Regulations (廣東省國家通用語言文字規定) is a set of laws enacted by the Guangdong provincial government in the People's Republic of China in 2012 to promote the use of Standard Mandarin Chinese in broadcast and print media at the expense of the local standard Cantonese and other related dialects. It has also been labelled a "pro-Mandarin, anti-Cantonese" legislation (废粤推普 or 推普废粤). The law was signed and came into effect on March 1, 2012.
Contents
Ban
The regulations require the entire Guangdong province to broadcast in Putonghua Mandarin. Dialect programs and channels can be broadcast if approved by the national or provincial government. In addition, signs of service stores are to be written in simplified Chinese except when in historical sites, per-registered logos and other exceptions or as approved by state.
Guangdong provincial governor Zhu Xiaodan (朱小丹) signed and set the date of the law to take effect on March 1, 2012. The requirement forces all government workers, teachers, conference holders, broadcasters, and TV staff to use Mandarin only. All state-run items involving brands, seals, documents, websites, signs, and trade names are not to use Traditional Chinese characters or Variant Chinese characters. People who do not follow the law will be punished accordingly, as the new law is mandatory.
Responses
The signing has triggered massive negative responses in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. There were talks of raising movements. The law is said to have effects equal to the elimination of Cantonese culture. On December 24, the Guangdong government held a press conference stating that the regulation does not in fact ban Cantonese; one official stating that such a ban will never occur. Currently, the Guangdong province has two channels approved to broadcast entirely in Cantonese, while various other channels and radio stations have dialect programs.