Shanghainese Review -- Shanghainese Culture

Author: Qian Naiying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: The Shanghai dialect complex of "Shanghai people from other places" is hard for locals to imagine. Practicing Shanghai dialect in the countryside is a pleasure, even a bit of pride—"The accent remains unchanged, but the hair has turned gray." Everything has been assimilated by the local customs and culture, yet the mother tongue accompanies me throughout my life, reminding me where my "roots" are and where my "source" lies. How wonderful is that! Can the Shanghai dialect complex of "Shanghai people from other places" be understood by their hometown elders? As a Shanghai native who has been away from Shanghai for nearly three decades, the Shanghai dialect complex often lingers in my thoughts. After leaving East China Normal University and settling down in Jinhua, I teach Mandarin—Putonghua—in school, using it to lecture and converse. This isn’t due to excessive enthusiasm for promoting Mandarin but rather practical necessity—my husband and I don’t share a mother tongue, and neither of my daughters speaks either of ours. Thus, Mandarin naturally became the language of communication between my husband and me, between father and daughters, and between mother and daughters. However, in three situations, I can’t help but speak Shanghai dialect. The first is when my daughters point out that the moment I get excited, Shanghai dialect comes out, often mixed with Mandarin in a "very enthusiastic" way. The second is when I meet fellow Shanghai natives or those who frequently travel to Shanghai for work, or when I receive calls from my older brother or former classmates, and I speak Shanghai dialect with great pleasure. These two situations are likely shared by most Shanghai natives who have settled in other places and married locals. The third situation, however, I wonder if I can find many "like-minded companions" in the vast sea of people. That is whenever I’m in particularly good or bad spirits, I’ll pull out Professor Qian Naiying’s Shanghai Dialect Proverbs from my bookshelf and recite it, speaking with great satisfaction. Phrases like "Little ball, small basket, Malan flower twenty-one"; "Long-legged heron tapping nails, tapping and tapping but not getting in"; "Originally wanted to count ten thousand times, but now there’s no time"—as I speak, I seem to plunge into the circle of childhood friends who jumped rope together in the alley, the excitement and satisfaction of which are truly beyond words. Strangely, when I mentioned this "odd habit" to old friends upon returning to Shanghai, they didn’t mock me but instead asked where they could buy Professor Qian’s book. When I told them it was accidentally found in a small bookstore in Haijing in 1992 and is now hard to come by, they were all quite disappointed. They haven’t left Shanghai yet, but they said that songs like "Little ball, small basket" are the ballads of our generation, and the "little rascals" of today don’t sing them much anymore, so there’s a need to "review" them. I wonder if, if Professor Qian were to hear this, he’d be interested in republishing this book, which aims to reflect the contemporary state of Shanghai dialect, to satisfy the complex of Shanghai dialect among people like me, the "Shanghai natives from other places," as well as the nostalgia of Shanghai middle-aged and elderly residents. The Shanghai dialect complex of "Shanghai people from other places" is hard for locals to imagine. Practicing Shanghai dialect in the countryside is a pleasure, even a bit of pride—"The accent remains unchanged, but the hair has turned gray." Everything has been assimilated by the local customs and culture, yet the mother tongue accompanies me throughout my life, reminding me where my "roots" are and where my "source" lies. How wonderful is that! Can the Shanghai dialect complex of "Shanghai people from other places" be understood by their hometown elders? This article was published in Xinmin Evening News on November 3, 1998, page 21.