Topic: Cantonese Language
Topic type: Topic
In 1909 the local Chinese had difficulty understanding The Consul-General. Nothing has changed.
Mr Hwang, Chinese Consul-General, Wellington, addressing a gathering of his countrymen at the Oxford Terrace Baptist schoolroom (Canterbury), explained to the European section of the audience the reason why he could not make the Chinese present understand his mother tongue. There were many dialects in China, he said, and the majority of the Chinese residents of Christchurch understood only the Cantonese dialect. He himself spoke the official Chinese tongue, termed the Mandarin language, which was used by the merchants, officials and students. He could not understand the Cantonese dialect well. The written Chinese language was the same all over China. In consequence of the difficulty -of Mr Hwang making himself understood to his compatriots, it was necessary to engage the services of an interpreter to convey the substance of his address to the Chinese present.
Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, 22 September 1909, Page 4
