Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Just a thought
A couple of weeks ago during dinner, somehow my family's conversation directed to Taiwanese Mandarin accents versus Beijing Mandarin accents. These two differ greatly, as Taiwanese Mandarin is marked by a very flat tone, while Beijing Mandarin has a distinct "-er" suffix on several characters. My parents declared that most Chinese people aspire to have the Beijing accent, as it seems elegant or something like that. I suddenly had this revelation that Taiwan is very similar to the US in this sense. Americans love British accents - heck, we love British culture even more - the tea, the music, the royal family. Taiwanese people tend to claim very defiantly that they are independent of the People's Republic of China, but they still are greatly affected by Chinese culture. Americans declared independence centuries ago, but we still rely on Great Britain greatly. It seems like those who fight for independence never get full independence, which may seem like a bad thing, but is actually quite nice - we get to develop our unique culture from the original.
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A very interesting observation. The whole aspect of cultural lineage in a country that at many times loves the idea of being "American." Raises the question of the give and take of cultural transfers and why certain elements are selected while others are rejected.
ReplyDeleteHey Claire, I totally agree with your comment about Americans absolutely adoring British accents and culture. Just yesterday a few of my classmates were wishing they had British accents in order to make their poem sound really classy. That accent is the best and I wish I had one too.
ReplyDeleteOn the part about most Chinese people aspiring to have the Beijing accent, in my limited experience it's actually the opposite. I've heard lots of people making fun of it instead of trying to emulate it. Why do you think we have such different experiences when it comes to our perception of the Beijing accent? And do you think the reasons behind this difference in experiences are also reflected in people's perception of the British accent?
Another question I have is do you think that sharing a common language makes it harder to separate and gain independence? Americans and the British both speak English, while parts of China and Taiwan both speak dialects of Mandarin. Personally, I think it does because similar languages makes it easier to share similar cultural practices and values, and this sharing of culture and language makes the people feel more connected with each other and more likely to be dependent on each other. What's your opinion on this? Feel free to disagree :)
Kathy (if you see this at all)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that people make fun of Beijing accents, but we do tend to make fun of British accents too, in that we find it very entertaining to do anything in a British accent. Maybe Chinese people tend to make fun more often because the culture is so many centuries old?
I think sharing the same language definitely is part of why it is so hard to break off completely. Also, America was one of GB's bigger colonies (and very closely related), and while Taiwan wasn't a colony really, it was able to extend its influence on China greatly through pop culture and many other factors. (Which the US technically did for GB?) What I'm saying is that the mother country hates letting her "children" go, and the "children" never fully let go of the mother's hand. Weird image, but yeah, they're still "family" in the end.
Hey guys! So I've been waiting to see what this post was about *cough* Claire ;) But on a more serious note, this is quite interesting (even if I don't know anything about Beijing accents). My main point in commenting is to ask the question, Do you think the way we make fun of Southern accents in any way reflects the opposite idea that you guys have discussed above? Clearly, people in the South speak differently than we do, but I've noticed that when someone tries to sound "stupider" they use a Southern accent. (This is not to say that I agree with this idea, but it's just something I've noticed.) There is a stereotype that people from the South are not as educated as other people. But do you think this has anything to do with the fact that they tried to secede but failed?
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