Happy New Canto Year!

Greetings from Shangri-la, formerly a fictitious “idyllic settlement high in the mountains of Tibet” of James Hilton’s Lost Horizon fame, now a city in China.

In this photo, however, we’re a few hours further south, in Lijiang. That’s where we came across this sign written in normal (non-simplified) Chinese characters. It was a cause for celebration! But in fact I see more and more companies, whether restaurants or import-export, using normal characters on their signs, flying in the face of the central government that has strictly forbidden this. Why? They know simplified characters look cheap and shabby, low quality and fake.

The central government’s war against normal characters goes hand in hand with its war against Cantonese.

So why not turn the tide? Why let Cantonese, the most fun and happening language in the world, be obliterated by petty bureaucrats?

Make 2016 the year you learn Cantonese! If you already speak it, encourage your friends to take lessons! Of course, you shouldn’t do it for political reasons, although important, you should do it because it will change your life.

Next year (tomorrow!) I’ll tell you in what way.

Happy, happy Canto-year everybody!

香格里拉 – Heung Gak Lei La (Shangri la)
麗江 -Lai Gong (Beautiful River/Lijiang)
中國政府 – Jung Gok Jeng Fu (Chinese government)