Chinese protests take many forms. But it’s a pretty safe bet that only one has been triggered by the removal of a Cantonese plaque from the plinth of a Ming-dynasty general.
The offending item – a crude quote in Cantonese from the general urging his followers into battle – was taken down in July as part of efforts to spruce up the southern city of Guangzhou before it hosts the Asian Games in November. That affront to Cantonese, an earthy language spoken by up to 70m people, was accompanied by a proposal to take Cantonese programming off the air during prime time. Main channels would switch to Putonghua, literally “standard speech”, more commonly referred to in English as Mandarin.
Outrage spread among Cantonese internet users. Then, at the end of July, nearly 1,000 young people gathered at a metro station in Guangzhou to express fears about the marginalisation of their mother tongue. Some taunted riot police with the plaque’s vernacular call to war. About 20 were arrested for their troubles.