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HKSAR speaks up in promotion of Putonghua
( 2002-09-16 10:48 ) (8 )

Putonghua, the common language of China, is becoming more common in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), as the HKSAR government launched its first Putonghua Month on Sunday.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), the HKSAR's government broadcasting service, officially launched the month Sunday afternoo in the upmarket Olympian City shopping mall in Kowloon. A feast of entertainment was presented with local Canto pop music and TV stars drawing in large excited crowds of young fans and families, who can help spread the message of the Putonghua month "Brush up your Putonghua and blaze new trails in your career."

The mall packed about 2,000 people. "It's like a a sardine tin." said a policeman.

The significance of the language may be summed up by the RTHK's long-time Putonghua channel anchorwoman Wang Ying's remarksthere that the Putonghua-speaking population is now bigger than that of the whole of Europe and the United States added together.

The use of Putonghua is so widespread that even foreigners, like the British, are ready to introduce the language into their secondary education as a second language. Richard Everitt, the Council's school links manager of the British Councilin Beijing recently said he anticipated the language to be offeredin new General Certificate for Secondary Education (GCSE) to be introduced to the UK in 2003.

Head of the Putonghua Channel, C. Yang, said that the HKSAR government has launched the Putonghua month for the first time after it found last year's Putonghua Day was proven a success in promoting the language.

One brand-new gimmick of the Putonghua month, with the wide support of the business community in Hong Kong, is the giving of discounts to members of the general public, who shop in the Putonghua language in designated shops in what is known as the month's Putonghua Shopping and Bargain Scheme from Sept. 15 to Oct.13. A total of 62 companies with about 1,000 branches across Hong Kong, including some gold and jewelry shops, Japanese restaurants,Italian restaurants, a Chinese emporium, cosmetics shops, music shops and 2,000 taxis will be giving discounts upon the producing of vouchers that can be obtained from a few newspapers here.

The message that the Hong Kong community should urgently need to master the language was highlighted by a team of renowned localpop stars dressed in a wide variety of occupational uniforms on the shopping mall piazza, to get across the message that Putonghuais important to all walks of life.

Raymond Or Ching Fai, the general manager of the HSBC, said in order for the bank to lend support to the 2002 Putonghua Month, the bank is requiring its frontline staff at all its branches in the Hong Kong SAR to greet its customers and bid them farewell in Putonghua during the Putonghua month. So customers should not be too surprised to hear the frontline staff repeating "Nin hao!" or "Xiexie! Zaijian!" starting from Monday.

"Also, we will be placing and giving out for free the PutonghuaHandbook for the Service Industry at 31 designated branches in Hong Kong. And we hope our customers can also participate activelyin speaking Putonghua during the Putonghua month," Or said.

Putonghua is becoming so increasingly popular here that the British Council in Hong Kong, which is supposed to just promote UK culture, has maintained steady resources for running Putonghua courses, while substantially cutting resources for the services offered by its cultural and arts unit and educational exchanges unit by the year's end.