On Lunar New Year, bad news is taboo. For Elizabeth Wong, finding out about the shooting near her Monterey Park home was a culturally shattering moment.
Changing migration patterns and China’s Mandarin-centric language policies have led to diminished interest in Cantonese. As the Cantonese diaspora struggles to hang on to its heritage and culture, teachers work to save it.
For years, learning to speak Cantonese was not that hard in San Francisco. It is a place where Cantonese speakers from South China have migrated for over 150 years. But now, there is fear that the Cantonese language and culture might not survive current political and social changes.