Dialects with a twist

Laughter in dialect

Around 3,200 kilometers away in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, the local dialect is facing a preservation crisis.

Wang Yue, 24, is tackling the issue in an unconventional way — through comedic videos.

In front of the camera, she wears a traditional Suzhou-style qipao and plays the role of a sarcastic teacher, delivering her lines entirely in the Suzhou dialect. She also adds absurd plot twists to her skits to keep her audience engaged.

"Formal teaching would be too boring," she said.

Her creative approach comes in response to a harsh reality: according to Jiangsu TV, only 2.2 percent of teenagers in Suzhou can speak the dialect fluently — among the lowest rates nationwide.

Wang's philosophy is simple: "use interest to combat extinction". She realized that many children in Suzhou no longer have opportunities to hear or speak the dialect in daily life. But through her videos, they discover how fun it can be, which encourages them to speak it more at home, discuss her videos with friends, or mimic her tone at school.

Wang said she's thrilled whenever parents send her videos of their kids imitating her in Suzhou dialect.

However, not all feedback is positive. Wang has faced what she calls "internal contempt".

"People from the old city criticize the suburban Suzhou dialect as 'pidgin', while rural residents mock the urban dialect as 'assimilated by outsiders'," she explained.

However, after reviewing many linguistic papers, Wang found that dialects are fluid, with tones and vocabulary changing over time and across regions.

"I don't think we should worry too much about accents; what matters more is passing the Suzhou dialect down," she said. "Dialects inherently have no specific standard. There is no such thing as 'authenticity'."

She also noted that instead of criticizing someone's dialect as "nonstandard", it's better to celebrate its uniqueness and focus on how to keep it alive in daily life.

Wang is not alone. In Suzhou, a group of young people is actively promoting the local dialect in creative ways.

"I've seen them use Suzhou dialect to dub movies, voice anime characters, and even rap," Wang said. "The more fun they have with it, the more interest it sparks in others."