Tea Leaf Nation

Chinese television in recent years has spawned a bewildering array of variety shows, reality shows, dating shows, and dramas on topics ranging from children being sucked into their computers to time-travelling accountants turning into imperial princesses. Now the Chinese agency that regulates broadcasting, known as SARFT, is taking the punchbowl away. SARFT has decreed that, [...]

Cantonese netizens reacted angrily to new regulations requiring that, starting on March 1, 2012, all television, radio and even Internet broadcasts in Guangdong province, one of China’s most prosperous, must use Mandarin Chinese instead of Cantonese.  The two languages have much vocabulary in common but are nevertheless nearly mutually unintelligible due to extensive differences in pronunciation. [...]