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Protection of the varieties of Chinese (simplified Chinese:保护方言;traditional Chinese:保護方言) refers to efforts to protect the continued existence of thevarieties of Chinese in mainland China and other Sinophone regions, amid pressure to abandon their use, usually in favor ofStandard Chinese.[1][2][3][4]
Education and media programming in varieties of Chinese other than Mandarin have been discouraged by the governments of China, Singapore, and Taiwan.[5][6] For forty years following the arrival of theKuomintang (KMT) government in Taiwan, theTaiwanese Hokkien,Hakka andTaiwan aboriginal languages were suppressed by the government in favor of Mandarin Chinese, until the mid-1990s.[7]
TheConstitution of China calls on the government topromote Standard Chinese as the common tongue of the nation,[8] and as a result, the majority of Chinese citizens speak Standard Chinese.[9]Teaching thevarieties of Chinese to non-native speakers is discouraged by Chinese law.[10] TheGuangdong National Language Regulations were passed by theGuangdong provincial government in 2012 to promote the use of Standard Chinese in broadcast and print media at the expense of the local standardCantonese and other related dialects. It has been labelled "promoting Mandarin; abandoning Cantonese" (simplified Chinese:推普废粤;traditional Chinese:推普廢粵) legislation.[11]
TheMinistry of Education has claimed to be taking active measures to protect ten varieties of Chinese.[1]
In June 2007, China created a zone for the protection ofMin Nan culture, the first of its kind in mainland China. In March 2010, eighteen elementary schools and ten kindergartens inXiamen became Min Nan study centers, complete with Min Nan educational materials, including training in pronunciation, colloquialisms and history. On March 5, 2011, the Xiamen Experimental Elementary School implemented the "Min Nan Day" activity, encouraging students to study Min Nan culture.[12][13]
The native language of many inhabitants of theMatsu Islands of Taiwan is theMatsu dialect, which is one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the county.[citation needed] It has been compulsory in primary schools in the area since 2017.
In an amendment to Article 14 of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act (護照條例施行細則) passed on August 9, 2019, the TaiwaneseMinistry of Foreign Affairs announced that Taiwanese can use the romanized spellings of their names inHoklo,Hakka andaboriginal languages for their passports. Previously, only Mandarin Chinese names could be romanized.[14] Since 2017, Taiwanese language classes have been compulsory in all primary schools except those in predominantly Hakka or Aboriginal areas and the Matsu islands.
According to the Ministry of Education, China－as a country with more than 130 ethnic minority languages and 10 major Chinese dialects, has been taking active measures for the protection of languages resources.
Dialects including Taiwanese and Hakka are regaining status in Taiwan after 40 years of suppression by the government in favor of Mandarin Chinese.{...}"Taiwan should follow the multilingual Swiss model and declare Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka and Ami aboriginal languages as national languages," he said.
The state promotes the nationwide use of Putonghua (common speech based on Beijing pronunciation).
对外汉语教学应当教授普通话和规范汉字。 (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language shall be in Putonghua and Simplified Chinese.)
最近個別媒體又在炒作所謂的"推普廢粵"之類的報道。記者從今天（12月24日）下午召開的省政府新聞發布會獲悉，我省將于明年3月起實施《廣東省國家通用語言文字規定》，沒有任何限制使用方言的條款。(Recent media reports claim the Guangdong National Language Regulations is a "Law that oppresses the Cantonse Language". This claim was debunked in a press conference by the Province of Guangdong in 24 December, where the province's spokesperson claim that the new legislation would not ban or limit the use of local languages.)