Co-sponsors: UCLA Asia Pacific Center, UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, UC San Diego International Institute, Pomona College Asian Studies Program, UC Irvine Center for Asian Studies, and UC Irvine Long US-China Institute. 

About the Event

In this symposium, a panel of experts discusses the past, present and future of Cantonese in Hong Kong. Will Hong Kong, dubbed as the greatest Cantonese city, become a place that speaks predominantly Mandarin Chinese? What then will happen to Cantonese, in Hong Kong and overseas diasporas?

Panelist

James Griffiths

(The Globe and Mail)

is the Asia correspondent for The Globe and Mail. Prior to joining The Globe, James spent more than five years with CNN International, where he was a Hong Kong-based senior producer, reporting on the ground from such places as China, South Korea, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. He led CNN’s digital coverage of the 2019 Hong Kong protests and was part of a team reporting on the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic. He is the author of two books, The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet, and the upcoming Speak Not: Empire, Identity, and the Politics of Language.

Gina Anne Tam

(Trinity University, San Antonio)

is associate professor of the History Deparment at the Trinity University, San Antonio. Originally from Lakewood, Colorado, she completed her Ph.D. in modern Chinese history at Stanford University in 2016, and received her B.A. in History and Asian Studies from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2008. At the core of her research interests lies the interplay between identity-building, state-society relations, and the construction of knowledge. Her research has examined these themes in the history of modern China—from gender relations, to language policy, and food.

Raymond Pai

(University of British Columbia)

is a Lecturer and the Director of the Cantonese Language Program at the University of British Columbia. He is also a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded PhD candidate in the UBC Department of Language and Literacy Education. He teaches all levels of Cantonese courses and collaborates with the local community and organizations on various Cantonese-related projects. He received his MA in Linguistics from Brigham Young University. He is currently the Cantonese examiner for the University of Arizona as well as a certified Cantonese examiner for the American Council on the Teaching of the Foreign Languages (ACTFL).