I may be wrong, but I believe that most of the unfortunate girls/women who were brought to the U.S. as prostitutes came from southern China. I doubt that they spoke Mandarin. Does anyone know why the girls in this film speak Mandarin?
shareDepends on which part of China they were from. Wasn't mentioned that I heard.
shareHaven't seen this, so just browsing, but I think you are correct.
shareIt's probably a combination of ignorance of history and disrespect for the intelligence of the viewing audience on the part of the producers. Even before Hong Kong became a British crown colony in 1897, it was by far the largest trading port in China. So, they should have been speaking Cantonese amongst themselves instead of Mandarin, which was not spoken anywhere near the coast. To compound the error, the producers succumbed to the notion that "We cast actresses whose common Chinese dialect happens to be Mandarin. Since we don't know the difference, all Americans won't know the difference."
shareYou're assuming they're from Guangdong. (Canton) Chinese from all over sold children - including those in Singapore - and Shanghai was almost as big a trading port as Hong Kong, and had a greater international trade, especially American.
Puhtonghua (Mandarin) is the most common language in all of China. This show is set only 13 years away from the Chinese Republic, 3 years from the Boxer Rebellion, and it was the Qin Empire 2200 years prior to this that started the unification of language.
Unless specifically from Canton, many Chinese spoke their local dialect AND Mandarin.
..Joe
I'm guessing because the modern day actresses speak Mandarin and the chances that anyone would challenge the historical correctness is very slim.
shareThe women were real. Their names were Ghee Moon, Ging Wa, Mai Ling, Sun Fu, and Ye Fung. The guy is called Lung Hay. Are these Mandarin or Cantonese pronunciations?