Whenever I hear someone speaking Chinese in the city, I usually hear the dialect used most around the world; Mandarin Chinese. But this wasn’t always the case. There was a time when Cantonese flourished among the streets of New York City. However, my story lies in a dialect of Chinese called Taishanese. It is the older breed of Cantonese that was once used by many of the first immigrants in New York City’s Chinatown and predates both Cantonese and the currently popular Mandarin.
About two weeks ago I was standing on the crowded 6 train. Arriving at the Wall St station, I finally had room to move my legs freely. It was then when an elderly woman approached me. As she came closer I couldn’t help but notice the piece of paper she was holding in her hand. From the looks of it, it seemed as if it would be like one of those times when I would need to give directions. If it went the way it normally did, the woman would ask me in Mandarin if I was Chinese and I would reply by saying I know a bit of Mandarin. Due to my limited use of the Mandarin dialect, we would eventually go on with our lives albeit in a manner that took forever due to the difficulty in trying to understand the differences in our dialects. However, this time was entirely different. The lady approached me and started speaking in a Cantonese dialect with a hint of Taishanese. I picked up on this discrepancy and spoke to her in Taishanese. She said nothing, she simply smiled. We were both amazed that we were from the same village back in China and she told me that, she was glad that I spoke Taishanese as her Cantonese was mediocre and was unable to speak any Mandarin. I ended up helping her by leading her to the building she needed to go to. Although in this great city, theres so many different cultures that make my own feel insignificant, it was nice to have a cultural encounter with my own culture for once.
This is such a great encounter. Being Chinese myself, I completely understand what you mean about the different dialects and how that can be a problem helping people. I also understand how you can identify the area of China a person is from based on their dialect and accent. It’s actually pretty amazing that you found someone who speaks that dialect; I’ve never even heard of it to be honest. But your story shows what a small world it can be, and I am really awed by it.
Even though I’m not Chinese, I can definitely relate to your encounter. My family is from Ukraine, but we speak Russian because we’re from a pretty urban city. When I try to explain this to people, they usually get confused so I just default to telling everyone that I’m Russian to avoid having to explain it to them. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I met another Ukrainian that spoke only Russian. While I was born here in the U.S., my friend was born in the Ukraine and he was extremely proud of the country. He would talk about it whenever given the chance. It really was nice to encounter someone just like me and he encouraged me to take pride in my Ukrainian roots. Now, I always make sure that people know I’m not Russian even though I speak it.
Well, I had never expected another Taishanese to be a fellow classmate either! I thought no one would really know about a small city like Taishan in an urban city such as New York City. But, that was never the case – most likely because I had lived in Chinatown for a few years. It turns out, there are quite a number of Taishanese speakers in Chinatown alone. I met a few and often heard it being spoken. It really brings back memories of the days back in China.
Even though Cantonese and Taishanese are distinct dialects, they are VERY similar to one another. That’s why I find this very amusing: even though some can speak Cantonese and even understand Taishanese, they cannot speak Taishanese.
That must have been a cool experience! Maybe the lady sensed that you both had Tiashanese in common….somehow. I feel like the Chinese dialects could parallel with the Italian dialects, like Sicilian, Calabrese, Napoletano, etc. Sicilian is relatively hard to speak, compared to Italian. My family is from Sicily and we speak both Sicilian and Italian, but the dialect is becoming less and less popular. Your post reminded me of the times when I hear Sicilians speaking, like in the Supermarket, or a bus stop, etc, and I smile too because it reminds me that people like us are still out there! Haha.
I’m interested in the geographical part of it. Are these dialects so different because the regions are separated by topographical barriers, like mountains and rivers? I know that’s the case for Italy. Mountain ranges isolate regions like Calabria, and that is how the dialect was formed. It would be really great if you could upload a map of the village in China where you are from. :)
I can totally relate to the way you felt meeting another Taishanese person and the comfort of being able to communicate with her in a dialect you are comfortable with. Although I say that my family is from Shanghai, and I am able to comprehend Shanghainese, my family actually originates from HuZhou a small city off of Shanghai that most people have never heard of, and they speak Huzhounese a less known dialect similar to Taishanese. I had never heard of my dialect being spoken by people outside of my family because very few people immigrate from HuZhou to the United States, but when I was around 15 years old I heard another person speaking HuZhounese outside of my family. I was so shocked but pleasantly surprised to hear this dialect being spoken and immediately I felt bonded through our common dialect because I believed it to be extinct outside of my family. I ran up to the person introducing myself and it turned out that her grandparents were neighbors with my grandparents back in Huzhou.
I love how we are almost able to bond with these “strangers” because we share this common familiar dialect that any other person would not be able to comprehend.