Am I Teochew or Cantonese ? Are all Hong Kong people Cantonese ?

Agoraphobic said:

You are a slant-eye noodle vendor, a chink. That settles it.

I have black hair, black eyes, also a chink. In Toronto, whenever I enter a car showroom, if they have an Oriental salesperson, he will be assigned to approach me, and he normally begins by speaking to me in Cantonese, which I only know "siew mai, har kao, when ordering dim sum. The only other word I know is the infamous three-letter (more efficient than four - tiu!! So I answer in English. Chinese are ethnocentric. And by saying this, even the dialect groups are ethnocentric - to their own dialect. When the chinaman askes me, " Do you speak Chinese?" " He actually is asking do I speak Cantonese? Na bei! I speak Hokkien (Fujian) and a little bit Teochew. Fuck, lucky for me my wife is able to converse in Cantonese, otherwise we won't get fuckall at the Hong-Kong run Chinese food outlets in Canada. They only cater to Canto speaking customers. The menu are all written in Chinese, no Engrish at all! Fuck, I'm better off going into an Indian restaurant there - at least the Ah Neh there can speak English! And they love Singapore after they ask me where I'm from! They all love shopping at Mustafa as well!

Cheers!

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HonkieSingie said:

I mean Chaozhou are technically Guandong-ren aswell since they are geographically in Guangdong however linguistically we are with the Min-group ( I used to to think the Teochew dialect was just some hometown village version of Cantonese )

I was most shocked when my father told me we are are not the same as Yue-Cantonese group because Cantonese is what I identitied in the past 19 years even though I told everyone I'm from Hong Kong.

Even in terms of mainland chinks I feel more connection with the Cantonese speakers much more so than the Mandarin and Min speakers from China. So to these Teochew idiots that keep claiming I'm Teochew.....I mean what the fuck am I suppose to say ? I've been watching/listening Cantonese movies, songs and can even write in Cantonese but absolutely nothing in Teochew.

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Agoraphobic said:

You roots can be traced back to your ancestral village (eg. Swatow). That may be where you're from, but you feel more like a HongKonger because culturally you have been molded to be one. Hong Kong (and thus Cantonese) represents many Chinese overseas. Most Chinatowns the world over, speak Cantonese. Even Indians living in Hong Kong speak fluent Cantonese. China (and hence Chinese) is/are changing because the dragon has awoken and is rising up to be among the prominent nations of the world. I am sure even your fellow HongKongers in the Fragrant Harbour feel the pressure from the mainland encroaching upon them. The Yellow Peril is still lurking around the corner. And will take over as the "official" and "authentic" Chinese soon. Some years ago, I was hopeful that Taiwan would reclaim the motherland and politically win over the mainland's masses, but that isn't going to happen. The Commies have won. Too bad, so sad. But many Chinese are happy its turning out this way. I had a supervisor in Toronto, he was an immigrant from Fujian. Admitted to me one day that he was ashamed he can't speak Fujian (Hokkien). Look at the youngsters in Singapore. How many of them are able to speak in their REAL mother tongues? It has passed. My aunts and uncles are the last generation who could converse in dialects. Me, I am hopeless, only engrish. I can swear and cuss in Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese though! That's good enough for me.

Cheers!

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HonkieSingie said:

...............................But to be honest I never want to identify myself as Chinese as long as China identity themselves as Chinese.

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