Preserving Minnan Language and Culture in Malaysia

Dear Editor,

Sinorama's April overseas edition coverage of Kinmen awakened within me a deep appreciation for Minnan (Southern Fujian) culture. Many of Malaysia's overseas Chinese are completely oblivious to Kinmen's existence, but those who have visited know it as a place of mesmerizing beauty, a heaven on earth for birdwatchers and nature lovers. It is also rich in Minnan folk culture; for those of Minnan descent like me, going there is a journey of cultural self-discovery, a return to a familiar place.

With growing Taiwanese self-awareness, Taiwanese, a language once branded as plebeian, is finally being accorded the dignity it deserves. More and more people are learning Taiwanese; there are a great many Taiwanese-language TV and radio shows. I, for one, find all of this eminently satisfying. However, in Malaysia Minnanhua, the Minnan dialect, is showing signs of serious decline that suggest that most of its speakers are middle aged and older, which to linguists is a harbinger of a dialect's imminent disappearance.

Statistics show that Minnan people represent the largest ethnic division of Malaysia's Chinese population, with one-third tracing their roots back to Southern Fujian. This fact makes Minnanhua prevalent in many of the Malayan Peninsula's Chinese communities. Ironically, of all the Chinese dialects, the one that receives the most media exposure in Malaysia is Cantonese, even though there are only half as many Cantonese speakers as Minnanhua speakers. This is due to the influence of Hong Kong entertainment, which has been assimilated by a Malaysian media skilled in imitation. This has allowed Cantonese to crowd out other Chinese dialects in the media. An increasing number of Chinese youth are picking up Cantonese, which in turn has fueled the dominance of Cantonese in Malaysia. Moreover, many Minnan parents place too much emphasis on Mandarin and English, believing Minnanhua to be a provincial, inelegant tongue. Instead they converse with their children in Mandarin or English, with the result that many children in Penang cannot speak Minnanhua. This has led to a serious thinning of the Minnanhua-speaking population and I am fearful that my mother tongue is in grave danger of disappearing entirely.

It has long been the unfortunate case that, because of the media's failure to present any Minannhua programs and the lack of Chinese dialect classes at school, so much has been forgotten that people are forced to turn to English or Mandarin when expressing even the simplest phrases in Minnanhua. Even while conceding that people's facility with the language is slipping, Penang residents who hear Minnanhua spoken every day dismiss the possibility of its extinction-but with the younger generation's increasing disregard, can we be so sure that Minnanhua will still be around in Malaysia in 50 years? And will traditional Minnan opera, puppet theater, and nanyin songs survive without worthy practitioners to carry on the tradition? The slow rate of sociolinguistic change makes it difficult to perceive, which is why people gloss over the question of dialect survival.

UNESCO has designated February 21 as International Mother Language Day. It is a day of far-reaching significance that aims to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. Since Mandarin Chinese is the lingua franca of the Chinese world and English is the international language, it goes without saying that we should study them-but why not also reserve a sliver of time to study one's own dialect? After all, to study a language is to discover another facet of oneself. As far as I'm concerned, all of these dialects-Minnanhua, Hakka, Chaozhou dialect, Fuzhou dialect, Hainanese and so on-are all aspects of the cultural heritage bequeathed to us by our Southern Chinese ancestors, and need to be preserved and protected by each successive generation.