Abacus Chinese Translation Services

Shanghainese Translation Services
Shanghainese Translator in Shanghai and Los Angeles

Shanghainese Translation

Please contact us for more information.

General Information about Shanghainese Language

Shanghainese, or the Shanghai dialect is a dialect spoken in the city of Shanghai and the surrounding regions. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Shanghainese is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese dialects such as Standard Mandarin.

With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese once served as the regional lingua franca of the entire Yangtze River Delta region.

After 1949, the Chinese government introduced Standard Mandarin as the national language of all China. The influence of Shanghainese began to wane. Especially since China's economic reforms began in 1978, Shanghai became home to a great number of migrants from all over the country. Because of the national prominence of Standard Mandarin, learning Shanghainese was no longer necessary for migrants, because those educated after the 1950s were generally fluent in Mandarin to some degree. However, Shanghainese remained a very important part of the city's culture, and retained its prestige status within the local population. In the 1990s, it was still common for some local radio and television broadcasts to be carried out in Shanghainese.

Owing to fears of regionalism, however, Shanghainese programming were gradually stamped out. Education in Shanghainese was forbidden, with teachers enforcing a ban on speaking Shanghainese in primary and secondary schools. In addition, Shanghai's new status as a cosmopolitan global city further consolidated the status of Mandarin as the standard language in which to conduct business and services.

Shanghai's main TV and radio stations now broadcast almost exclusively in Mandarin.

.