Why does Hangzhou dialect have a northern flavor?

At the third meeting of the Eighth CPPCC in Hangzhou at the beginning of this year, a member of the CPPCC submitted a proposal on "protecting Hangzhou dialect and preventing the lack of connotation in historical and cultural cities", which triggered a heated discussion and many media in the country reprinted relevant news reports. Zhejiang Daily also specially interviewed some university professors. On March 4th, the newspaper published a comprehensive report with a headline at the top of page 6. In view of the views and suggestions of some scholars and citizens in the report, the author of this paper puts forward different views. Before expounding my point of view, let me explain: First, I am from Hangzhou. Although I have been wandering for more than half a century, I always love my hometown. Even the name of my business card has the word (Hangzhou, Zhejiang). Second, I like Hangzhou dialect very much. For decades, my 94-year-old mother and my relatives and friends in Hangzhou have been speaking Hangzhou dialect, because I can't do it best in Mandarin or other dialects. Nevertheless, I am opposed to "protecting Hangzhou dialect", because there is no need to "protect" Hangzhou dialect, which will bring many negative effects. Dialect is a dynamic concept, which is constantly developing. "Protecting Hangzhou dialect", what is the period of protecting Hangzhou dialect? Because there are many differences between Hangzhou dialect and the Southern Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, you don't need to read Song and Yuan operas and storytelling novels, just look through the West Lake Story compiled by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. My uncle, who settled in the United States in the late 1990s, told me (of course, we spoke Hangzhou dialect) that in the 1920s and 1930s, people in the upper city of Hangzhou spoke a little differently from those in the lower city. At that time, Hangzhou was 4 kilometers long from north to south and only 2 kilometers long from east to west. With the convenience of transportation, the increase of communication and the expansion of cities, the convergence of languages will inevitably increase. The nuances of the same small dialect are naturally narrowing or even disappearing. There is no difference between the people in Hangzhou and the people in the upper and lower cities now (the upper and lower cities in Hangzhou have expanded many times compared with the 1940s and 1950s). Even places like Liudun, Sandun and Jianqiao, which were once regarded as "four townships" far away by Hangzhou people, have now become urban areas except for a few old people who have lived there for a long time. In this sense, Hangzhou dialect is not in danger of disappearing, but has been expanding, and this expanding trend continues. Xiaoshan, which faces Hangzhou across the Qiantang River, is only a few kilometers away, but its dialect is quite different from Hangzhou, which is closer to Shaoxing dialect more than 50 kilometers away. With the establishment of New China, Xiaoshan became a county-level city, and a district a few years ago. Especially in recent years, several bridges on Qiantang River have been built one after another, and Xiaoshan people are more and more like Hangzhou people, and many of them speak exactly like the original Hangzhou city people. In fact, this phenomenon of expanding the "sphere of influence" of strong dialects is in line with the law of language development and can be seen everywhere. When I came to Beijing in the early 1960s, people in Changping, Tongxian and Shunyi spoke differently from Beijingers, especially the old Beijingers. Now at least these former county towns have become urban areas of satellite cities, and most people are talking like city people. The current Beijing dialect is different from the Beijing dialect when Lao She wrote Camel Xiangzi. For example, people in Beijing now generally only say "already" instead of "already", and only say "find a job" instead of "find the reason". Of course, with the development and changes of dialects, some historical and cultural information will indeed be "lost". For example, young and middle-aged people in Hangzhou can't say "I go under its banner" and "he lives under its banner", and even don't know what it is. "Subordinate" refers to the place where the Eight Banners were stationed after the Qing soldiers occupied Hangzhou in the early Qing Dynasty. After the Revolution of 1911, the city wall was demolished and became a downtown area. Generally speaking, it is on Yan 'an Road (called Yanling Road before 1949) and its west to Hubin Road, which is long from north to south and narrow from east to west, with an area of about 1400 mu. However, it is absolutely unnecessary for us to take legal measures to "protect dialects" in order to preserve this little historical and cultural information, because many things can be left to linguists, folklorists, local chroniclers and local historians, and they will do better. In fact, they have been doing this since the founding of New China. Zhejiang People's Publishing House only published "Wulin Fang Xiang Zhi" (Wulin is one of Hangzhou's time-honored brands) with eight volumes, not less than four million words, not to mention many books about old Hangzhou. Protecting languages is by no means equal to protecting dialects. Chinese should be protected, but dialects don't need to be protected. Because all the surviving dialects have been accumulated and honed for at least hundreds and thousands of years, and they all rely on a county or city with a total population of at least several hundred thousand and millions. People have lived here for a long time, and it is natural and cordial for local people to communicate in dialects, so dialects must have its strong vitality. Wuxi is located in the southern part of Jiangsu, belonging to Wu dialect area, with Suzhou in the east and Changzhou in the west, with a distance of about 40 kilometers. However, Wuxi dialect is very different from Suzhou dialect and Changzhou dialect. With the expansion of these three cities, some towns or even a county in the middle will become a part of a city, and the dialect differences that were originally close to a city will gradually disappear, but it is hard to imagine that Suzhou dialect will eat Wuxi dialect or Wuxi dialect will eat Changzhou dialect. In the same situation, Shaoxing is 60 kilometers west of Hangzhou and Ningbo is about 80 kilometers west of Shaoxing. The three dialects are absolutely different, and there will never be a situation in which one dialect replaces other dialects. As some critics have pointed out, since it is a famous historical and cultural city and a provincial capital city, it is necessary to "protect Hangzhou dialect", so don't Shaoxing, Ningbo and Wenzhou dialects be protected? Some counties or county-level cities in the south have many historical celebrities and profound historical and cultural accumulation. Should their dialects also be "protected"? In other counties and cities, due to historical migration and other reasons, the historical and cultural information preserved in dialects is also very rich. Is there protection? Is it good or bad for cultural development, economic construction and national cohesion if all localities "protect" local dialects in such a big way in the form of laws? In fact, in the 20th century, especially since the founding of New China, linguists have been doing dialect investigation and dialect research, and have published dozens of books on local dialects long ago, and they are still being published. As for "proposing to promote dialect communication in informal occasions", the question first lies in what is "informal occasions"? Do people present at "informal occasions" necessarily speak the same dialect? Once the author's family got together, my mother spoke Hangzhou dialect, my sister's mother-in-law spoke Ningbo dialect, an elder spoke Wuxi dialect, and my wife and son spoke Mandarin. I once spoke Shanghai dialect with my sister, brother-in-law, brother and brother. I am the only person here who knows all dialects, so I became the general manager temporarily. It's okay. It was fun. In fact, no matter what occasion, people will always find a language way to communicate, which is cohesion in language communication. So there is no need to advocate speaking any dialect on any occasion. Mr. Wang, who put forward the idea of "protecting Hangzhou dialect", is worried that "when all cities speak the same language, then the unique attraction of this city will be weakened." In fact, the attraction of a city has many factors, and dialect is only an unimportant part of it. Even if everyone speaks Mandarin, except a few people, they all have their own dialect color. Besides, the promotion of Putonghua does not exclude dialects, let alone eliminate them. Needless to say, the whole country, even Zhejiang Province, which belongs to the Wu dialect area, has been promoting Putonghua for half a century. According to my many years' travel around Zhejiang, the popularity of Putonghua has made great progress, but the territory of dialects at or above the county level has not shrunk. Generally speaking, locals still speak dialects, which can be said to be in their proper place. What we really want to advocate is that the government has advocated Putonghua for more than half a century and promoted "Putonghua" for nearly a hundred years. Since the founding of New China, due to the vigorous popularization of education and the influence of radio and television, the popularization of Putonghua has made great progress. But according to my observation, Shanghai and Hangzhou, which have been doing a good job in promoting "Mandarin" and Putonghua, seem to be a little proud of speaking dialects since the end of the 20th century. Before liberation, the author participated in the "Putonghua" competition for primary school students organized by Hangzhou Education Bureau. After liberation, Hangzhou players were among the best in the national Putonghua competition organized by the State Language Committee. When foreigners shop in Shanghai, salespeople will respond in Mandarin. But over the past decade or so, I have seen foreigners complain from time to time that salespeople and ticket sellers in Shanghai can only speak Shanghai dialect. I especially appreciate the practice of Yiwu, Zhejiang. This county-level city, known as "the paradise of small commodities" and "the first market in China", has a local population of less than 500,000, while there are more than 600,000 migrant workers and businessmen, and more than 3,000 permanent migrants. Yiwu leaders and Yiwu people not only vigorously promote Mandarin, but also learn foreign languages. Many vendors know a little Korean or Arabic besides English! But Yiwu dialect is still spoken at home or among Yiwu people. Some scholars argue that "the protection of Hangzhou dialect should protect and inherit local operas such as Hangzhou Bangxi, Hangzhou Dashu and Xiaoruohun within a certain crowd or through a certain carrier, which is an effective form to protect Hangzhou dialect." Whether Hangzhou Bangxi, Xiaoruozhun and Uncle Hangzhou are "protected and passed down" depends on whether they have high cultural value and can adapt to the development of the cultural market. Not all traditional cultural forms need to be "protected and passed on", and "big book" means telling stories, commonly known as storytelling. Hangzhou Great Books can be traced back to Talking in the Wazi Goulan of Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, as far as I can remember, at least as early as the late 1940s, Hangzhou's great books were no longer a climate. After the founding of New China, it is not as good as many storytelling in the north, and it is far less than that in Suzhou. Hangbang Opera is no longer an opponent of Yue Opera, and its position in Zhejiang is far lower than that of Wu Opera, Yong Opera and Shao Opera. How many of the millions of people in Hangzhou have seen Hangzhou Opera? Why not? It is really worth investigating and studying. As for the "small fever", we can roughly judge its "antique" value just by listening to the name. When I was a child, the author lived under his banner. There is a famous "Little Heat Faint" in Hangzhou (it is said that there are only a few people in the whole city) who often perform on summer nights. I go to listen to it from time to time. "Little Hot Faint" stood on a bench, next to an open wooden box more than a foot square, filled with pear cream candy. He can even talk, sing, perform, tell a story and several jokes, and sell pear toffee, so he is commonly known as "going to see' selling pear toffee'". When business is good, there are thirty or fifty listeners, but most of them are people like me who occasionally spend the equivalent of ten cents today to buy a pear cream candy to help others. Whether Hangbang Opera, Uncle Hangzhou and Xiao Refaint can be "passed down" does not lie in the "protection" of others, but in whether the performers of these operas can constantly improve their own quality and create healthy and popular programs under the market economy. In the early days of liberation, the "Errenzhuan" in Northeast China became an auspicious drama, but it never became a big climate. Instead, Liu Laogen and its sequel suddenly swept the country, making the world sit up and take notice, and "one drama saves one drama" once again became a reality. In fact, in the past 10 years, Zhao Benshan and others performed a large number of sketches that were deeply loved by people all over the country, and their basic team was "two-person duet" actors. In 1950s, a novel "Fifteen Passes" created a miracle of "saving one drama by one drama", but Kunqu Opera did not continue to devote itself to continuous reform and almost became extinct again. Although it has been listed in the intangible cultural heritage of the United Nations, it has not got rid of the embarrassing situation of "living fossil", and people have called on the government to "pay attention" from time to time. Compared with "duet", it's really embarrassing. But this is beside the point.