As Cantonese language wanes, efforts are being stepped up to preserve it

First grade teacher Suzy Tom leads a class and demonstrates the order of character strokes at the Alice Fong Yu school in San Francisco. Photo: AP

Three decades ago, finding opportunities to learn Cantonese in San Francisco wasn’t hard. But today in the city that’s drawn Cantonese speakers from South China for over 150 years, there’s fear that political and social upheaval are diminishing a language that is a cultural touchstone.

The Chinese government’s push for wider use of Mandarin – already the national language, spoken by one billion people – along with the country’s changing migration patterns have contributed to an undeniable shift away from Cantonese. It’s a change that has reverberated from East to West.