Canada
Vancouver
"Vancouver has one of the world's largest Chinese populations per
capita (some 20 - 25% of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) is
Chinese). I can do anything I want to in Chinese here (either Mandarin or
Cantonese - my choice!); banking, going to a travel agency, eating out,
shopping, getting gas, buying insurance, you name it. So it's a great
opportunity to learn here." - Read more of this excellent
interview with a Canadian who is fluent in Cantonese.
Candada, Vancouver and Richmond
Derek Vancouver wrote in June 2004:
Vancouver's Chinatown isn't really that appealing anymore, mainly to young
people. Being next to Downtown Eastside (which has a lot of problems with
drugs and prostitution) certainly hasn't helped.
Many Chinese people, instead, can now be found in Richmond, which is
located just to the south of the city of Vancouver. I think that 30% of
the population in Richmond is Chinese (although it seems higher to me). We
often joke that you don't need to know English to live in Richmond.
(An interesting thing in Richmond is that several Chinese-owned malls have
adopted names that sound like places and buildings in Hong Kong, like
香港仔中心, 置地廣場,
中環廣場, 新城市廣場,
etc. 中環廣場 even imitated the lightning rod
design from the one in HK, even though the one here's only 2 stories
high.)
Throughout much of the late 80s and 90s, Cantonese seems to have been
pretty widely spoken among the Chinese population. But, as has been
pointed out, there are more and more Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants,
some from Taiwan but quite a lot from Mainland China. Mandarin is quickly
gathering importance around here.
In terms of media, there are 3 Chinese radio stations: AM1470 and FM96.1,
both owned by Fairchild Media group; and AM1320, owned by Mainstream
Broadcasting. 1470 and 1320 are predominantly Cantonese, with broadcasts
in some other ethnic languages in the late hours or the weekends; I think
FM96.1 used to be predominantly Cantonese as well, but now airs more
Mandarin programming. (I don't listen to the radio too much, so I'm not
too sure exactly how the programming is split between the 2 tongues.)
On television, there's Fairchild TV
新時代電視 on premium cable in both
Vancouver and Toronto (and I think in the province of Alberta). The
station's owned by the Fairchild Media group as well. It's just about
entirely in Cantonese (save a few misc. programs). Their schedule mostly
consists of newscasts and dramas from TVB in HK, with the select few shows
from ATV and HKCable. Personally I quite dislike 新時代's
local production, including their own newscast, aired every night at 7pm
(though when it hits the air in Vancouver, it's already 3 hours old). (No
offence intended to 新時代 employees who might happen to
be reading this.)
(新時代 also operates a Mandarin cable channel called
Talentvision 城市電視.)
There's also a local free-to-air multicultural channel, called Channel M
(they don't really have a Chinese name). The station has an hour-long
Cantonese newscast Mon-Sat at 8pm, as well as HK movies on Saturday
nights. Not much other Cantonese programming as of yet; the station only
launched last year. The station also has a 30-minute Mandarin newscast
following the Cantonese news.
There are 3 Chinese newspapers here: 明報,
星島日報, 世界日報. Both
明報 and 世界日報 are Western Canada
editions of the papers in HK and Taiwan. I believe the Western Canada
edition of 星島日報 is now separately owned from
the HK version (I don't know for sure)"
Toronto
C Chiu wrote in June 2004:
Toronto's two Chinatowns in downtown area (one in the west, one in the
east) aren't really that appealing to young people anymore. Today, many
Cantonese have left the overcrowded Chinatowns and moved north for better
housing condition. Though most of the shops are still operated by the
Cantonese, the Mainland Chinese and Vietnamese are gradually moving in and
taking up residence in the two Chinatowns.
Many Cantonese people, instead, can now be found in Scarborough and North
York, which are located respectively on the eastern and northern part of
Metro Toronto. A large number of Cantonese have moved even further north
to the towns of Markham and Richmond Hill in the York Region, and further
west to the town of Mississauga in the Peel region, both regions being
considered part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I guess that about
one-tenth of the total population (over 4 million) in GTA is Chinese. Two
years ago, the Chinese language (mainly Cantonese and Mandarin) overtook
Italian to become the third most spoken language of Canada, preceded only
by the two official languages of English and French. We often joke that
you don't need to know English to live in Scarborough, Markham and
Richmond Hill. Some of us even joke that we are speaking more English in
Hong Kong than in Toronto.
An interesting phenomenon in Scarborough and Markham is that many
Cantonese-owned malls and plazas have adopted names that sound like places
and buildings in Hong Kong, like 旺角中心,
時代廣場, 太古廣場,
怡東商場, 黃金商場,
新世界商場 etc. Many eateries also use Hong
Kong names like 香港仔, 避風塘,
皇室堡 and so on.
Throughout much of the late 80s and 90s, Cantonese seems to have been
pretty widely spoken among the Chinese population. But, as has been
pointed out, there are more and more Mandarin-speaking immigrants from
Mainland China. Mandarin is quickly gathering importance around here.
In terms of media, there are 4 or 5 Chinese radio stations; AM1430 and
FM88.9 are the most popular, both owned by Fairchild Media group. These
two are predominantly Cantonese, with broadcasts in some other ethnic
languages in the late hours or the weekends. I think FM88.9 used to be
predominantly Cantonese as well, but now airs more Mandarin programming.
(I don't listen to the radio too much, so I'm not too sure exactly how the
programming is split between the 2 tongues.)
There are 3 Chinese newspapers here: 明報,
星島日報, 世界日報. Both
明報 and 世界日報 are Eastern Canada
editions of the papers in HK and Taiwan respectively, the former catering
to Honkers while the latter to Taiwanese. I believe the Eastern Canada
edition of 星島日報 is now separately owned from
the HK version because it mainly caters to Mainlanders.
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