Speaking up Preserving culture PROFILE through language CALVIN SIT CALVIN Dr Lisa Lim

And with Unesco now recognising language as Founder of LinguisticMinorities.hk a vehicle of intangible cultural heritage, how far should Hong Kong be conscious of losing this t’s quite a statement for a twenty-something Ethnic languages in Hong Kong are similarly part of its identity? “The more we know about the Hongkonger to ‘not have ever engaged with dying out. According to the most recent Hong diversity of languages and what they can do in Ianyone from an ethnic minority background’. Kong population census in 2011, 7.5 percent of terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and so on, the But that’s exactly what associate professor people spoke languages other than the dominant more we understand about ourselves, language of English and coordinator of the Language (which 89 percent of us speak at home) acquisition and development,” explains Lim. and Communication Programme at HKU, Dr and English (3.5 percent of us speak at home). The Tanka people, for example, were traditional Lisa Lim, says is true of many students she This includes the ethnic minority Chinese, such as boat dwellers who used to live in Tai O and encounters. We may be living in ‘Asia’s World the Hakka, Chiu Chow, and Hokkien – people who Aberdeen. “They live in really close proximity City’, but there are persistent fears that Hong came from various parts of China during periods to their environment and ecology. They have a Kong’s language and culture continues to such as the Civil War and Cultural Revolution. lot to do with the sea, so a lot of their language homogenise – alienating and denigrating the Between the 2001 and 2011 census, the number encompasses their traditional ecological very thing that gives us our national identity. of people speaking minority Chinese dialects knowledge,” says Lim. This is illustrated in the [See our article The Death of Cantonese? at declined from 352,562 people to 274,000. Seawater Song, sung at Tanka weddings and timeout.com.hk for more.] festivities, describing the different kinds of fish Lim, who gained her PhD in phonetics and species, their behaviours, practices and habitats. works in sociolinguistics, is the founder of But, as Lim points out, as the younger Tanka linguisticminorities.hk. “It’s a consolidated generations have no real need for the language linguistic minorities website,” explains Lim of I grew up in a climate of and are completely assimilated into speaking her project, which was first launched in 2013. Cantonese, it is likely that ‘all this specific “Hopefully it will become a platform for diversity, discourse and knowledge about particular ecologies will be lost’. putting Hong Kong’s cultural and linguistic discussion about heritage Not many would dispute the sad fact that diversity on the map, by sharing university many ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong research with the public [in an accessible Aside from Chinese dialects, Hong Kong is are victims of discrimination and expectations manner],” she adds. also home to languages spoken by those from from the state and community that aren’t only After leaving her home country of South Asia who came during the colonial British to do with language, but also skin colour. “They Singapore for stints in universities in England period, like the Nepalese, who arrived as Gurkhas might be through and through but and Amsterdam, Lim began living and teaching and the Indians and Pakistanis who came as [Hongkongers] often don’t want to sit next to in Hong Kong in 2009. “I grew up in a climate civil servants and traders. The largest wave of them on the MTR, or give them jobs, or let them of diversity, discourse and discussion about migrants in recent years has seen hundreds of look around an apartment just because they are heritage and Singapore’s position in the region,” thousands of and Filipinos arriving not Chinese,” explains Lim. “The site is about explains Lim. “Singapore’s language policies to work as domestic helpers, who speak a wide validating and legitimising all this diversity, are infamous for campaigns promoting its four variety of dialects and languages. “Without them, all these communities in Hong Kong and official languages – reducing and discouraging Hong Kong would collapse,” Lim says, simply. possibly giving them a platform and a voice.” the use of ethnic minority languages in the Indeed, Hong Kong thrives on cultural variety Emma Russell process,” she explains. “It made me very with the city’s very fabric depending on the ethnic attuned to [language] and passionate about it.” minority population throughout many industries. Find out more at linguisticminorities.hk.

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