Kids bring history to life in Shanghai dialect
Children attend a Shanghai dialect contest at Sinan Mansions on Saturday.
Local children and teenagers are encouraged to describe historical buildings in Shanghai dialect in a contest at the Sinan Mansions over the weekend.
As kindergartens and schools give lessons in Mandarin, few local children now speak authentic Shanghai dialect. Some of them speak better English than their local dialect.
To protect the vanishing dialect, Ruijin No.2 Road Subdistrict and Sinan Mansions organized the competition to invite students from elementary to high schools to describe historical structures in the downtown areas in Shanghai dialect.
Linguists, architectural experts and historians will select the best of the participants and their narrations will be embedded onto QR codes on the buildings in question, as well as being featured on the official Wechat account of the subdistrict.
Dozens of children who took part in preliminary contests at the mansions over the weekend were asked to recite inside a broadcast vehicle of a local television station.
“My grandson used to be able to speak the dialect well, but he lost it after he went to kindergarten where teachers speak Mandarin,” said the grandfather of three-year-old Liu Mingye, who is among the youngest of contestants.
Children talk in Shanghai dialect in a broadcast vehicle of Shanghai Television Station.
A boy speaks his piece in the broadcast vehicle.
Seven-year-old Wang Hanmu said she was interested in the history of the downtown area. “I want to tell the story of the buildings as a gift on the birthday of our homeland,” Wang said. October 1 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China.
Her mother said Wang could speak fluent Mandarin and English but only very basic Shanghai dialect. “I hope the local dialect will not vanish,” she said.
There are a large number of historical buildings within the jurisdiction of the subdistrict in Huangpu. Many involve the history of the Communist Party of China.
They include the former residence of Dr Sun Yat-sen, former site of the CPC delegation in Shanghai, the historical Jinjiang and Garden hotels, Shanghai Science Hall as well as the 87-year-old Cathay Theatre and the over century-old Lyceum Theatre.
Sinan Mansions alone, the only wholly preserved historical garden villa complex downtown, have over 50 historic garden villas in various styles. Many were former residences of celebrities such as poet Liu Yazi (1887-1958) and Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang (1894-1961). Some of the villas have been converted into cafes, restaurants and shops.
The subdistrict has guides in both Mandarin and English to allow tourists to read text, listen to audio, watch videos or even take virtual reality tours.
Nearly 1,300 historical buildings in six city districts have QR codes giving information in Chinese and English.
Two children prepare to take part in dialect competition on Saturday.
