ABSTRACT
The diversity of regional cultures as reflected in genres of regional popular dramas and operas, folk songs, literature, and movies in dialects should be celebrated in the process of promoting Modern Standard Chinese. To some extent, the diversity of dialects is being replaced by convergence towards Modern Standard Chinese. The promotion of the national language based on Jianghuai Mandarin has always been met with some degree of resistance in some prestigious southern dialectal areas, such as Shanghai and Guangdong. The pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of modern Chinese dialects can reveal different strata. The Min dialect is spoken in Fujian, Taiwan, Hainan, Zhejiang and parts of Guangdong. The Kejia dialect, or the Hakka dialect, is spoken in southern Jiangxi, eastern Guangdong, western Fujian and some places in Taiwan. The Wu dialect is currently spoken in the part of Jiangsu south of the Yangtze River and to the east of Jianghuai Mandarin as well as in the Zhejiang province.
