More and more parents in Shanghai have found that their children are forgetting how to use Shanghai dialect to express themselves, according to a report in the city's Jiefang Daily on July 11, and some have begun forcing them to speak it at home.

Language experts have urged that the dialect be preserved alongside Putonghua (also known as Mandarin), the nation's common tongue that has been systematically promoted over the past hundred years as a unifying language.

Professor Sun Xun of Shanghai Normal University said a dialect is not only a linguistic tool, but is also like a person's "birthmark" and part of their local identity and feeling of belonging.

Professor Zhou Zhenhe, from Shanghai's Fudan University, said dialects carry and preserve local culture.

Experts recommended that TV and radio stations set up channels and programs using Shanghai dialect, and that schools offer selective courses taught in it.

The promotion of Putonghua, and the large number of non-Shanghainese settling down in the city, has meant that the local dialect has lost its previous high social status, according to the report.

The experts said Shanghai dialect could be protected and inherited while maintaining high standards of Putonghua and a multicultural environment in the city.

(China.org.cn by Unisumoon July 20, 2005)