(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEyDslpgJpY)
The above Youtube video is the "fisherman commercial" produced by Hong Kong Bank in 1994 before the handover of Hong Kong. This video is interesting because the narrator of this commercial spoke in Hohklou (鶴佬) accent instead of Cantonese. Hohklou is one of the indigenous inhabitants of Hong Kong which come from Fujian (福建). They mainly engaged in fishing industry.
The reason for the producers to choose Hohklou accent as the dialect of this commercial was that they wanted to show what is "nostalgic culture" (懷舊文化). As Hong Kong was a fishing port before 1841, using the traditional dialect would recall people's memory. Especially when Hong Kong would be returned to China in 1997. Many people was worried about the future of Hong Kong. This commercial made people recall their past and have a feeling that Hong Kong had been changed a lot due to the British occupation. Thus, the nostalgic culture could help Hong Kong Bank to promote its service, which is the slogan "Your Future is our future". This means that the Hong Kong Bank would normally accompany Hong Kong people when there would be a change. Also, because fisherman normally use their own language which is "Hohklou" in their daily life, it seems that using Hohklou accent could give a vivid description of the life of old Hong Kong.
However, the commercial with Hohklou accent did not disclose to the public in 1994. The reason was the producers thought that the majority of Hong Kong people would not understand what the commercial was talking about. Therefore, they simply used a Cantonese version (the below one) to replace the Hohklou version.
This commercial illustrates that the use of language is subject to careful planning and editing. Using different dialects would have different influence on the public. In this commercial, although the producers achieved their goal finally, that is, to recall people memory in order to promote their service, I think it would be better to use the Hohklou version as Hohklou accent can reflect the traditional Hong Kong life more authentically.
Which version do you prefer?
(Reference: Ma, Eric Kit-wai. “Re-Advertising Hong Kong: Nostalgia Industry and
Popular History.” Positions 9 (2001): 131-160.)
I think the Hohklou version can bring out the message better than the Cantonese one. But the producer's worry is understandable. The young generation of Hohklou no longer speaks Hohklou anymore due to the society becoming monolingual, or say, at least excluding minority dialects besides Cantonese. Hohklou actually has low reception from audience which decreases the incentives for production featured Hohklou. The market is barely profitable. In this case, we can see how the fall of a minority language is revealed in its business value.
ReplyDeleteActually, there was a period of time that Hohklou films flourished in 20th century. Perphaps the social and business influences on the rise and fall of Hohklou as a minority dialect can be further discussed with it.
By Marcella