Generational differences in the use of and attitudes towards the Wu fāngyán in China

Abstract

China, a traditional out-migration country, has undergone rapid internal migration over the past thirty years, which has created a generation with expanded linguistic repertoires. While at the societal level China has always been multilingual, at the individual level there is a tendency for Chinese citizens to be mono-dialectal with limited mobility. Urbanization and top-down societal, economic and language policies have served to create a multi-dialectal society. The understanding of language policy in this study includes management, ideology and practices, which are reflected in interviews with participants.  Thirty-three structured interviews were conducted with speakers aged between 16-77 years in the Wu dialect region, about their use and attitudes towards their dialect (fāngyán). Translingual practices are evident among the younger generation, with Putonghua and English, and middle generation, with Putonghua and a fāngyán, and perhaps reflected these groups’ mobility.  In contrast, the older generation, with less mobility, tend to be restricted by their linguistic competence to the local fāngyán only. It was evident in the data that the middle generation tend to be more remorseful of the fāngyáns’ decline and the potential emergent national monolingualism.  The older generation are more sanguine about the decline of the fāngyáns, and the young generation do not indicate strong conviction towards language maintenance.  Nevertheless, all groups believe that a fāngyán’s relationship to cultural heritage should be reason enough for its survival.